Today we want to show our appreciation to the Selma City Council, the public safety committee and Selma Mayor George Evans for deciding to make much-needed investments in the Selma Police Department.

Over the past few weeks, we have written about the discussions of the need for additional police cars to meet the needs of a growing police force and the addition of tasers to the non-lethal arsenal.

More than a year ago, we called on the mayor and council to use the proceeds from the additional half-cent sales tax to find ways to help and support our first-responding departments; the police department and fire department.

We were hoping at the time, the proceeds from that tax could go to support the hiring of additional officers and increasing the pay of our first responders to the level of other similar-sized cities.

Although that request fell upon deaf ears, the recent decisions by the mayor and council are a promising turn of events.

What was also good to hear was the effort on the part of city leaders to grow the numbers of our Selma Police Department. We need more officers patrolling the streets of Selma and its important they have the quality equipment to do their job well.

There is no way we could ever place a dollar figure on the safety and security of our city.

It is our opinion that any money invested in Selma’s police and fire department is money well spent. But, it’s also important to remember that cars do not drive themselves and laws do not enforce themselves.

We urge city leaders to continue to find ways to invest in the people who are part of these departments.