Section 1——
Explain why social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., may cause or add to compulsive and or violent behavior in young adults. In your opinion, please look at the following two questions:
1. Should “sexting;” or the texting (or trading) of indecent smart phone camera photos result in criminal charges if the victim is younger than 17 years of age?
2. In urban cities, street gangs have allegedly used social media to taunt and or intimidate other gangs. This taunting has ended up in violence and homicide.
I expect a 2 + page double spaced response.
section 2——–
The topic of public safety consolidation is gaining momentum due to the economy and pension costs. The Illinois Municipal League (IML), the International Association of Chief’s of Police (IACP) and public safety labor unions have all looked at these topics. Each has their own ideas. But, those ideas are not always agreed upon by the stakeholders, especially the employees.
Your assignment is to read the enclosed article entitled: Policing in the New Economic Environment and then in a 2+ page double spaced paper, I want to know your opinion of police/fire/EMS consolidations in your home town; or if you are employed in a public safety agency, your own employer
will provide PDF for section 2.
section 3——
Please explain your opinions on the following social media concerns:
1. Should public law enforcement use social media sources like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc., to interface and or spy on the public? After all, these are public sites!
2. Would law enforcement using these social media sources enhance community policing or detract from it?
3. Should your local police post arrest photos of all the adults that were arrested during the week for the public to view on Facebook? After all, these are considered to be public records.
Response may be 1 paragraph answering all 3 questions.
section 4——-
IN SECTION 4 Response may be 1-2 paragraphs.
Your assignment is based off the attached article Policing in a New Economic Environment.
The authors of these articles brought up three interesting concepts regarding the financial and political aspects of:
• Consolidation
• Civilianization
• Privatization of law enforcement services
1. In paragraph form, please give the class your views on these three innovative and/or controversial concepts.
2. Will these concepts save the taxpayers money and enhance law enforcement and public safety? Or will they cause problems for current and or future public safety employees?
Policing in a New Economic Environment
By Daniel S. McDevitt and Laurence P. Mulcrone, REM Management Services, Inc.
Our economy is in trouble now, and the chances that it will dramatically improve in the near future seem somewhat remote. Hopefully, the leadership in our country will chart a course toward a brighter economic future. For now,those in leadership positions, particularly in municipalities, have to “weather the storm” and figure out ways to provide the services that the public needs and expects while practicing fiscal responsibility during these tough times.
A mantra of the U.S. Marine Corps, which has been shared with raw recruits and officer candidates alike, is
something that might be used to address these issues while achieving our goals: “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome.”
If we are truly going to “overcome” our current difficulties, we must be creative, which often includes
“improvising:” thinking while on the move, and “adapting:” accurately assessing the predicament we’re in and
adapting both our proactive and reactive responses to it.
ECONOMIC REALITIES
The authors of this article spent a combined total of nearly 75 years in law enforcement positions. When we beganour careers, the one profession in which layoffs were absolutely unheard of was law enforcement. Part of the reasonthat people gravitate toward a career in law enforcement is the stability of the profession. This appears to bechanging, as was illustrated in an article in the October 24, 2011 USA Today: “By December 31, 2011, nearly12,000 police officers will have lost their jobs, and 30,000 positions in county and municipal departments will gounfilled… The effects of the economic downturn on law enforcement agencies may be felt for the next five to ten years, or worse, permanently.”
When it comes to effectively managing law enforcement agencies, our current reality includes the following items:
• The ability of government agencies to manage budgets and resources has been severely impacted by the
economic downturn. For the next five to ten years, economic changes are going to continue to impact how
police agencies operate. How do agencies facing dramatic budget reductions, provide needed services?
• While the reality of budget cuts may reduce the number of police officers, the responsibility to ensure
public safety remains. “Doing more with less” is not a viable option; agencies must develop ways to do
things “smarter” using available resources.
• Nationally, the current economy is forcing us to make tough choices that couldn’t previously be made, such
as closing fire stations and police districts, or consolidating/closing schools. Perhaps now more than ever,
cities and counties should consider the ramifications of the functional consolidation of services. As a recent
example, in March of 2011, the Michigan State Police reduced its number of posts from 62 to 29, as part of
a plan to save nearly $21 million.
• On March 10, 2010, Dan Crippen, Executive Director of the National Governors Association, referred to
the next decade as a “lost decade,” meaning states will not fully recover from the recession until very late
in this decade. Revenue probably won’t recover until 2014, and will then take another two years to pay for
deferred costs to public pensions, health benefits and other delayed expenditures.
• States have already had to close budget gaps of more than $186 billion, and new shortfalls are appearing
everywhere. The pain has moved downhill fast to cities and counties. In 2009 for the first time, federal
grant money surpassed all other revenue sources: income, sales and property taxes, for state and local
governments.
• The cost of police-related equipment and technology is high; law enforcement trends indicate increased use
of very expensive equipment and technology in the future. As an example, one of the authors of this article,
while a Chief of Police, oversaw an upgrade of the communications center, which cost roughly a third of a
million dollars. That was in 2003, and the technology used then is already obsolete only eight years later.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
Historically, the concept of consolidation goes back to the 1950s, when there was discussion to consolidate the
(then) 17,000 police agencies in the United States into 1000 regional police forces. At that time it was rejected as
radical. The main reasons why this discussion never gained any traction were reflective of the mood in the U.S.
during the 1950s:
• Most citizens felt safe.
• Small departments were maintaining a high level of police services to the public.
• The idea of losing “local control” of the police function was always one of the first reasons given for not
moving forward.
The concept of police consolidations was again raised by President Johnson’s Crime Commission in the 1967 report “The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society,” but again was generally rejected. There was much civil disorder at this time, and police agencies were considered the first line of defense. To have made massive changes to the structure of police agencies during these troubling times seemed foolhardy.
So why is this issue being considered again?
Bernard Melekian, Director, Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, U.S. Department of Justice, in a speech in December 2010, stated: “I absolutely think that five years, ten years out the delivery of law enforcement services in this country will look profoundly different. The delivery of services is going to change in dramatic ways, and there is going to be a fundamental shift. I think the use of, for example, a difference in patrol service delivery model, a redefining of the role of what patrol officers are supposed to do, an increased role for community volunteers are just a few of the examples that I think are going to sweep across the profession over the next few years.”
AVAILABLE OPTIONS
Before we examine options, we need to consider what our basic role includes. These are things that we cannot and should not change.
• We must be able to respond to citizen calls for service.
• We must keep the community safe.
We must continue to do these things even though our revenues do not allow us to continue “business as usual.”
What then, are the “best practices”? Is there a better way to accomplish our goals of fiscal solvency and responsive policing? This is where the “Improvising and Adapting” come into play.
There are some options available for addressing these issues and getting the job of policing done in a thorough and professional manner. These options include concepts like:
• Consolidation
• Civilianization
• Privatization
CONSOLIDATION
Consolidation of police services usually includes one of two options: complete consolidation of police departmentsor functional consolidation of specific services. Both of these options are possible, but are not without their own issues, which must be addressed early in the process.
If you think about it, in the state of Illinois we’re already engaged in several very successful functional
consolidations:
• SMART: South Suburban Major Accident Reconstruction Team
• Major Crimes Task Forces in several counties throughout Illinois
• SSERT: South Suburban Emergency Response Team (SWAT)
• Metropolitan Enforcement Groups and State Drug Task Forces
• Centralized dispatch: DuCOMM, Southwest Central Dispatch, East-Comm
• Purchasing agreements between communities for sharing expensive equipment
• Elmwood Park, Oak Park, and River Forest have consolidated specialty units such as detectives, evidence
technicians, canine and others into a single unit to serve all three communities
There have also been some very successful complete consolidations of law enforcement agencies:
• Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, NC
• Indianapolis and Marion County, IN formed “Indianapolis Metropolitan Police” in 2007
• Las Vegas and Clark County (consolidated in the 1960s)
• Somerset County, New Jersey is consolidating 19 municipal agencies into a county department
In 2007 the state of New Jersey created the Local Unit Alignment, Reorganization and Consolidation commission(LUARCC) to assist municipal officials with any collaboration projects. State grants are available to encourage useof LUARCC funding and to begin research into consolidation of services.
Barriers to Consolidation
There are administrative, legal and political barriers to consolidating police services, and these should not be
overlooked:
Administrative Barriers
• Collective bargaining agreements, particularly language on “subcontracting” and merging of collective
bargaining units and agreements
• Policy and Procedure variations among consolidating agencies – this is a particular issue if CALEA
(Commission on the Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies) and non-CALEA agencies are
consolidating
• Physical facilities – does any one agency have a facility suitable for housing all members of the
consolidated department?
• Chain of Command issues – who is in charge? Will people be “demoted” or lose their positions?
• Table of Organization issues – what does the new consolidated T/O look like? Will there be a reduction in
the number of supervisory personnel?
• Seniority issues – how are seniority lists from agencies merged?
• Promotional Process – will there be supervisory positions gained or lost? How will people compete for
promotion? Are the promotional processes the same for agencies involved in the consolidation?
Political Barriers
• Is this a “top-down” (being driven by mayors/city managers) or a “bottom-up” (being driven by chiefs of
police) effort?
• Elected officials exert some political control over law enforcement agencies within their jurisdiction, how
will that change?
• Is there unified support for consolidation?
• Does the plan have the same level of support among elected officials in impacted communities? What is the
feeling of the general public?
• Who will be in charge of the new consolidated agency?
• How will management decisions be made by several governmental entities, all of which have a stake in the
agency?
SOLUTIONS FOR CONSOLIDATION
We believe that it is critical for municipalities to engage in extensive planning prior to any consolidation efforts. Wehave seen situations in which agencies were “thrown together” without adequate planning and the results have beendisastrous. Failure to plan results in a number of issues and causes even the best consolidation ideas to fail. Withoutadequate planning, the following negative results will occur:
• Frustration and lack of productivity by employees
• Confusion over standards, policies and procedures
• Mistrust among co-workers from consolidated agencies
• Poor morale among employees
• Lack of efficient services to the public
In order to increase the probability that the consolidation will work, we would strongly recommend that a neutral
party be hired to help plan and implement the consolidation, well before it actually takes place. This person should be expected to conduct a thorough Operational Analysis of all involved agencies, which should focus on:
• Personnel
• Supervision
• Equipment and Technology
• Policy and Procedure
• Training
The purpose for this operational analysis is to determine what could be considered “best practices” of the various
agencies currently being used that should be considered for use in consolidated efforts, and what practices, policies or operations should be eliminated from consideration. It would be very beneficial if this neutral party had a great deal of experience in conducting such analyses of law enforcement agencies.
The next step would be for the neutral party to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study based on this analysis to study the dynamics of consolidation prior to any attempt at reorganization or consolidation. This feasibility study will provide a direction for the decision-makers in government, and will usually provide options for them to consider. Those options might include complete consolidation, functional consolidation, or leaving things the way they are currently. Comprehensive implementation plans for these options should be included.
It is also highly recommended that once a decision is made, the same neutral party be responsible for implementing the consolidation plan. The consistency of dealing with the same people when implementing the consolidation will greatly enhance the chances for success. During the Operational Analysis and Feasibility Study portions of thisprocess, the neutral party will have established relationships among the agencies involved and trust among the members of those agencies. An implementation based on those relationships and that trust will have a much greater chance of being successful.
CIVILIANIZATION
While the opportunities for staffing some sworn positions with non-sworn personnel are limited, there are some that should be considered. The fact is true that in most law enforcement agencies there are sworn officers performing duties that do not really require sworn status. Many of these duties can be successfully performed by non-sworn personnel in a manner that is as good as or even better than if a sworn officer were performing them.
For many years, sworn Chicago police officers performed duties that are now being performed by non-sworn
employees. Emergency communications and traffic control are the two most obvious. At the old Chicago Police
Headquarters at 11th and State, the radio room used to be manned by sworn officers. Currently, the Office of
Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) is staffed by non-sworn employees. Traffic control,
particularly in the Loop and for special events is now handled by the Traffic Management Authority.
There are a number of other duties that non-sworn personnel can address, regardless of agency size. These include:
• Parking Enforcement
• Training Management
• CALEA Accreditation Management
• Facilities/Fleet Management
• Evidence Management
• Initial Report-Taking
The Illinois State Police uses non-sworn personnel to take telephonic crash reports, and the process works very well. Many agencies have found that the use of retired, disabled or non-sworn personnel can fill these needs very
effectively. One of the authors, while serving as a chief of police, hired retired officers to perform several functions: CALEA Accreditation Manager, Fleet and Facilities Manager, and Coordinator and Instructor for DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and GREAT (Gang Resistance Education and Training).
The Illinois State Police use retired personnel to conduct background investigations and Medicaid Fraud
investigations, and the Department of Homeland Security uses retired federal agents to conduct Security
Background Investigations (SBI), which are extremely thorough and highly sensitive. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (a consolidated agency) has 12 civilian report-takers.
Use of non-sworn personnel also allows for innovative scheduling strategies like part-time or job-sharing
assignments. The cost savings in using these types of personnel and scheduling can be substantial.
PRIVATIZATION
Privatization involves the use of private security firms to augment sworn law enforcement officers by performing functions currently or formerly performed by sworn personnel. Many agencies have enhanced their operations by partnering with private security firms with a great deal of success:
• In Lakewood, Colorado: besides guarding prisoners, protecting crime scenes, “Civilian Investigative
Technicians” (often private security firm personnel) conduct follow-up interviews, question victims and
suspects, and prepare affidavits.
• Santa Cruz, California hires private security for downtown patrols and for major events such as Halloween,
New Years Eve, etc.
• San Francisco hired 16 civilians to investigate property crimes/burglaries.
• Durham, North Carolina hires investigators for neighborhood canvasses after a violent crime.
• Orange County, Florida has 18 “field service officers” (private security personnel).
• Las Vegas PD has 5 civilian officers to walk the downtown areas.
• Shreveport, LA hires private security for patrol in “bar/tavern” areas.
• Renton, Washington hires private security for bike and foot patrols throughout the city.
From an economic perspective, according to Brian Forst, National Institute of Justice, “The average cost of civilian employees is about 1/3 to ó of the cost of a sworn officer, even when they are performing the same functions.”In addition, when a private security firm is hired to perform a service, they take on the liability for mistakes or misconduct on the part of their employees.
There are a number of situations in which private security personnel can perform functions that do not actually
require sworn personnel. In many of these functions, it has been the experience of the authors; most police officers don’t really want to perform them anyway:
• Directing traffic at accidents or rerouting traffic
• Issuing parking tickets
• Guarding/transporting arrestees or prisoners
• Providing security for crime scenes
• Animal Control
• Booking/prisoner processing
• Front desk operations
• Transporting court documents and/or evidence
• Training programs, including firearms instruction
Our reality is that law enforcement is a profession in transition, as is the private security industry. With the
advancement of the security industry and the increased professionalism of security personnel, there are legitimate options available. An article in the October 2011 issue of Security Technology accurately states: “Police Departments are increasingly taking advantage of community partnerships to leverage their existing resources and make their communities safer.”
BARRIERS TO PRIVATIZATION
Although the use of private security providers for some services currently performed by police officers is a sound concept, it is not without problems and issues, which can include:
• Existing Collective Bargaining Agreements, particularly the issue of “subcontracting”
• Past negative experiences of police personnel in working with private security providers
• Lack of confidence of police personnel, businesses and citizens in the professionalism, training and
capabilities of private security personnel
Collective Bargaining Issues
Considering that many private security providers are themselves affiliated with unions, we would recommend that communications be initiated with top-level management of all involved labor unions to discuss these issues prior to any attempts at privatization.
Lack of Confidence or other Issues
“Lack of Confidence” or “Negative Experience” barriers can also be addressed effectively, if you are able to:
• Work closely with private security management personnel to select the best possible private security
personnel for these assignments.
• Be able to demonstrate that the background and screening for private security personnel performing these
functions is thorough.
• Be able to demonstrate that private security personnel have been thoroughly trained in the “law
enforcement version” of the functions that they are performing.
• Develop a clearly stated “Chain of Command” for private security personnel in which their actions are
supervised and managed in a similar manner to their sworn police officer counterparts.
• Insist that accountability mechanisms are in place for private security personnel.
CONCLUSION
Three viable options for “Policing in a New Economic Environment” have been provided. While we don’t believe that these would work in every community, almost all communities would benefit from at least examining these options.
Each of these options would result in reduction in expenditures, while increasing efficiency of operations. The key to implementation of any of these options, however, is careful planning, objectivity and attention to detail.
____________________
Daniel S. McDevitt and Laurence P. Mulcrone are the owners of REM Management Services, Inc., a multifaceted consulting and training corporation. www.REM-INC.com.
SOURCE: Illinois Municipal League ReviewMagazine, February 2012 edition
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