As Toledo endures a plague of gun violence, a proposal to move up the start of the next police academy class from December to July could help put more police officers on city streets sooner.

Mr. Collins, a former president of the police officers' union, warns: "We're going to lose our city if we don't have a safe city. Nobody will want to invest in a city that isn't safe."

The city made the deal with S&L on the condition that the company produce at least $200,000 worth of top soil annually. But Collins and Council members Lindsay Webb and Rob Ludeman smell trouble. "I will not give up my pursuit until I can honestly say that the practice is safe," Collins said.

"This is not dirt," Collins said. "This is human excrement that has been put through processes but still contains the presence of E. coli."

If the proposed new police class of 30 officers starts in November, the recruits will not be fully trained until August of the following year, Councilman D. Michael Collins said. That won't be soon enough to supply the number of officers needed, he said. The councilman stated he intends to propose a budget amendment next week that would add an additional class of 30 police officers this July.

"I firmly believe that we must have a police class starting in July, with a follow-up class beginning in December," Mr. Collins said. "I will be fully prepared to demonstrate to the administration that the funding of this class is within the realm of this budget and I will be amending it on Tuesday with the hope that council will support me."

In August, contractors approached Collins with stories of bid rigging and intimidation from the city department. He said he listened and started digging through public records. As word began to spread about his research, calls flooded in with more tips.

He and his legislative aide, Lisa Renee Ward (a former Toledo Free Press Web editor), compared bids and found that two separate proposals were nearly identical. He found that an accountant group working on a city deal had walked away from a community development corporation, citing the city was not cooperating with required records transfers. He conducted cross-examination interviews with contractors about bid rigging and found that all of the stories mirrored each other.

At a budget hearing Monday, Councilman D. Michael Collins said bold plans won't work if the department doesn't have enough personnel, and urged department officials to reconsider where money will go from the proposed 2012 budget - which includes technological advancements. He pushed instead, for authorities to free up funds to fill vacant positions."With the violence in this city, you can't operate with these numbers," the councilman told Chief Diggs....The department, Mr. Collins said, is already operating with the lowest per capita police force in the state.

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