Should local police departments be consolidated?
There are over 17,000 police departments in the United States, compared with only 170 in Canada and 54 in the UK, according to an ICMA article, "Consolidating Public Safety."
What do you think-- can we reduce costs through consolidation, without sacrificing service quality? Should consolidation be considered in other government departments? Are regional governments a potential solution to our local government budget issues?
Have you seen any successful attempts at consolidation in your community?
Tags: budget, collaboration, local government, public safety, state&local
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dave Nash on -
In my area, it's hard to imagine service levels would do anything but get worse. Our county has fewer officers than our city, and the county patrols must cover hundreds of square miles. The net effect, from our city's point of view, would be that city taxpayers would effectively be subsidizing others living outside the city (who often choose to live there simply because they don't want to pay things like the public safety tax that our city voters approved).
Then there's the political aspect. Drafting consolidation legislation that could pass voter muster (any tax here goes to voters) would be tricky.
And organizationally there are issues as well. The County Sheriff has to be elected every four years, while the City police department reports to our City Administrator, helping insulate them from political whimsy and maintain excellent organizational stability. And while all agencies in our area work well with one another, it doesn't take much imagination to sketch out how various players would campaign to protect their turf.
However, I am aware some entities have been able to contract this service out and are apparently satisfied. Knowing how hard it is to recruit, train and keep officers when there are so many other places competing for officers, perhaps having fewer, larger agencies may have some in advantages in places where it the web isn't too entangled to be unspooled.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Connolly, MPA on
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I have promoted this idea for so many years, without any success whatsoever. The reasons against consolidation are designed to protect fiefdoms, plain and simple. Those who voice their opinion for consolidation are considered to be union busting or anti-labor.
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Permalink Reply by Scott Collins on -
I believe it is better to start consolidating less political agencies like IT or Finance before tackling Police.
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Politically (realistically), you are correct. However, the real savings for the taxpayer (the ones who elected officials and public administrators alike should be concerned about, yes? no?) can be found in consolidating union-filled agencies like Police, Fire, Teachers, DPW. If the taxpayer wants to realize long-term, sustainable savings it must be willing to take on hard battles. Like I have always said, if it ain't hard you aren't doing something right. In any case, your suggestion will most likely be the one followed.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Dixon on -
This is not just a public safety question...many functions performed by local governments in the US are highly redundant.
I'm working on governance models, infrastructure architectures and open source solutions to enable consolidation and collaboration at the local government level.
Given the financial state of most local governments in the US today, the only way to maintain or enhance service delivery is to consolidate and collaborate. Continually laying of people is unsustainable...yet many in local government still seem to think the "good ol' days" will come back. This will be a long-term "journey", and a necessary one.
Note that consolidating the "bits" (IT), not the "atoms" (archaic physical and organizational structures), is the way to start. I think regional deployments will become commonplace, as they can leverage economies of scale while preserving jobs in the local regions (as opposed to a wholesale migration to "the cloud"). Regional deployments also tend to mitigate political and legal issues.
Contact me if you wish to discuss or learn more (medixon@us.ibm.com).
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Permalink Reply by Austin Bleess on -
What a timely discussion for me. Right now I (as City Administrator) am actively working on a plan to contract our police department out to a neighboring town. Looking at it from a purely financial perspective it makes complete sense. We can provide the same police coverage to the neighbor community for nearly $100,000 cheaper than they can do it on their own. My community would see an increase in revenue as well. It's a great situation and I truly hope that it moves forward.
There are also other ways that we are all looking at consolidating services or even just equipment. Such as sharing equipment for fixing potholes, cleaning out sewer lines, sweeping streets, etc. It may not be always having a joint agency or combining departments, but as simple as renting equipment from each other. There are a lot of ways that communities can work together to save money. As long as some of the obstacles others have noted can be overcome.
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Permalink Reply by Lisa Coates on
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Our city and county have been looking at consolidation or merger for years. We finally consolidated on 911 emergency services, but that is as far as we have gotten. Our county does however contract some of our finance department services and GIS.
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Permalink Reply by SteveWonder on -
I'm ALL for consolidations!
The problem: many jurisdictions and their top ranks/officers (associations/unions) want to keep their manpower supplies untouched and turfs intact; not lose political power nor millions in funding that could be better targeted, less wasted.
This is similar to what Defense Dept. has and is facing at present--a unethical call to serve "oneself" is more stronger and legislatively defended than the more important, ethical (yet ignored/forgotten by some) call to serve the PEOPLE!.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Dixon on
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It has to happen...given the "new normal" in which we find ourselves.
One thing working in favor of this is simple demographics...the "greying" of the workforce in public sector. Lots of folks will be retiring in this decade.
We may not be able to afford their pensions, but they will not be impediments...change is constant.
Ever wonder why the more intelligent debates on climate change discuss values?
My fond hope is that we can change without a major crisis...the selfish individuals in power will eventually be overcome.
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Permalink Reply by Brett Husbands on
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Consolidating public services is something that we have a reasonable amount of in the UK, with some neighbouring cities sharing a Chief Executive (equiv. City Manager), Senior Management team members, garbage trucks, call centres, finance systems, IT help-desks, etc. These are all built using local coalitions. (However our police is not an example of consolidation in the UK - the police forces report into the Home Office [central government]).
In my opinion, consolidation is one of those things that must be driven from within, as obviously efficiency often equals jobs. The origins of good shared-service work in the UK emerged from several places:
1. Money from higher-level government to pay for consolidation
2. Inability to attract local top talent, hence the need to share jobs between cities
3. A real desire for efficiency in multiple agencies that wanted to work together.
You probably need at least one of these drivers. Living in the US now, and having spent some time talking with police forces I think it would be a hard place to start, compared to some of the easier shared service targets - like, why have local utility provision in so many places?
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Permalink Reply by Anne R. Urbanski on -
It might be easier to consolidate police services in some areas due to the way government is structured in those areas. For example, here in Wisconsin, county sheriffs and their staffs do the policing in areas in many rural, unincorporated areas. Below the county level, we have townships, villages and cities. Some villages have a small police force, while others do not. Townships don't have their own police and rely on the sheriffs. Also, as others have mentioned, sheriff is an elected position, while the police chiefs are all appointed and report to either the mayor or city manager if there is one. Sheriffs are elected in the spring elections, which are officially non-partisan, but often their personal politics are known to local voters and some sheriffs serve many years in office, which might be due more to their political leanings than their competence in office. So overall I think that consolidating police services here in Wisconsin might be even more difficult to achieve than consolidating school districts (which is a different discussion).
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Permalink Reply by Arthur Gabriele on
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One shoe fits all may have some merit.
In my view, I believe that government needs to stop trying to create jobs and leave that to the private sector.
Billions are spent in the name of creating jobs. Government funded projects only put a higher demand on the tax payer.
If we are to cut back on our spending, we need to conserve what we have (maintenance). Bigger budgets in our time of financial instability is counterproductive.
If Real Estate foreclosures are on the rise and the tax rate has gone up, that is not the recipe to restore the economy.
From as long as I can remember, in every new campaign for election, the magic button is more education. So if the population is so advanced from throwing money at the education system; why is our economy declining?
Education is only meant to meet with demand. I don't particularly condone public education. I don't trust government to take the responsibility to educate the children. I believe that it should be left in the hands of the parents. Let them keep their money. I'm sure they will spend it more wisely. The larger the government, the more confusion. We have to deal with more administration poops to achieve mediocre results. Today's advance education is a faults promise.. We have 50 states in a tug of war over the pool of employment. The problem is not just a state or city problem, but more a country problem. But that's a story for another day.
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