Colorado Springs probably should brace itself for another round of ridicule, once word gets out about our Cabs on Patrol program. Left-wingers, looking to score political points, will point to this as another example of the calamities that await all who live in low-tax towns. But let the critics snicker. While they’re prisoners of an old paradigm, in which there’s only one way to run a city, with government acting as the hub, around which everything else turns, Colorado Springs is finding innovative, interesting, out-of-the-box ways to respond to fiscal adversity.

That’s the silver lining in budget crises – they force you to try things you might not under normal circumstances. In adversity there’s also opportunity – a chance to do things differently. We’re providing a model of how that’s done in Colorado Springs, from the Cabs on Patrol Program to community center partnership efforts. That’s something we should take pride in, not apologize for.

Our Police Department and its partner, Yellow Cab, deserve praise for this innovative approach to keeping more eyes on the streets. And who better to provide those eyes than street-savvy cabbies? Does anyone ridicule Neighborhood Watch programs? This is Neighborhood Watch on wheels. There’s only so much territory professional police can cover, even when the city’s coffers are fat. And when they’re lean, there’s even more reason to deputize private citizens to take a more active role in fighting crime. Citizen-centered crime fighting is part of long American tradition. This is a continuation of that tradition.

We won’t have Colorado Springs cabbies making street arrests, negotiating with hostage-takers, responding to domestic disputes or chasing down bad guys, ala Starsky and Hutch. We’re simply asking them to provide an extra set of eyes and ears for the police department, when going about their normal business.

It makes a lot of sense.

Why didn’t we think of it sooner?

We didn’t think of it sooner because we didn’t have to.