To Protect and Serve

Today's tip of the hat goes to the Middletown (New York) Police Benevolent Association, which has decided to abandon its telemarketing campaign and switch to a mail solicitation to generate funds for its scholarship program. These are the cops in my community, and I'm proud of them. They recognized that their previous practice of hiring a professional telemarketing firm, while it generated a decent amount of contributions from a good and appreciative community, was costly, unnecessary, and stupid, and was contributing to ill will between the generous citizens they serve and the local cops. Officer Mike Canonico explained the switch away from the professional telemarketing firm thusly: "We want the public to know our appeal is legit."

Money quote from the story: "The PBA decided to change its way of getting funds largely because people dislike phone solicitations, especially when they learn the persistent callers are not local and the company they represent is getting 80 percent of the money raised. Canonico said the telemarketers raised $90,000 last year, but the PBA got only $17,000."

So far, the cops have only raised $18,000, but subtracting expenses for the mail campaign, they've netted$16,000, or basically what they made last year in total, even though donors who received the phone calls last year coughed up five times what they've donated this time. I have no doubt that as the campaign continues and the end of year approaches, more people will see the value of the mailers and support the work of the cops. In the long run, the cops will clear a lot more than they did last year using the professional telemarketers.

The cops win. The kids they aim to help win. Donors win.

The only loser is the telemarketing firm. I can live with that. Nice work, officers.