The cost of free speech can be expensive. Janesville Police Chief Dave Moore was kind enough to share some of the costs of the recent presidential candidate visits with The Gazette. Moore says officer overtime for the Donald Trump visit cost almost $50 thousand, and that doesn’t include the tens-of-thousands of dollars for the more than 250 officers from other departments. Those agencies pay their own costs in anticipation of Janesville returning the favor one day. In contrast the Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Bernie Sanders visits all cost less than $6000 each. Chief Moore says costs could have been greatly reduced for the Trump visit if police simply barricaded streets blocks away. He says that’s wouldn’t have upheld the constitution values of free speech expected in the community.
