2,000 Greater & Lesser Mysteries

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February 1991 PUBLIC SERVICES CONSOLIDATION: THE ANSWER TO YOUR COMMUNITY'S NEEDS By Robert L. Sobba Chief Caldwell, Idaho, Police Department The consolidation of police and fire services is not a new concept. In fact, the first account of combining public service functions dates back to 27 B.C. Then, the Roman Emperor Augustus formed the Vigiles, a group of men armed with batons and short swords who were responsible for keeping the order and fighting fires. (1) In the United States, the first public safety department can be traced back to 1911 in Grosse Point, Michigan. (2) Yet, even though consolidation of public service functions has a solid historical base, the concept has not been readily accepted by police officers and firefighters alike. This article considers the levels of consolidation that can be implemented within a community. It then examines the issues, options, and concerns involved in the consolidation of police and fire services. But, in the final analysis, whether consolidation can meet the needs of the community and the expectation of its citizens rests with the individual municipality. Only its administrators can decide if consolidation can work for them. LEVELS OF CONSOLIDATION There are five levels of consolidation--full, partial, selected area, functional, and nominal. (3) Each has been adopted by individual municipalities throughout the United States as a means to provide police and fire services to the residents of the community. (4) When public services are fully consolidated, police and firefighting duties are combined under a single agency. Sworn personnel, who are commonly referred to as public safety officers, perform both law enforcement and firefighting functions. With partial consolidation, the two public service functions remain separate, except for a designated cadre of public safety officers who are trained to perform both law enforcement and firefighting duties. When engaged in police work, these personnel serve under the command of the police administrator; when acting as firefighters, they are supervised by the fire chief. Selected consolidation occurs when only a certain portion of a community is serviced by public safety officers. This level of consolidation usually takes place in areas newly annexed to the municipality. Except in this limited geographic area, the police and fire departments remain separate. Functional consolidation is practiced when separate departments are maintained, but some duties usually performed by one department are assigned to another. For example, fire personnel may help in administering police work or police officers may assist fire-fighters at the scene by reading gauges or by hooking up hoses. (5) With nominal consolidation, the police and fire departments operate under the administration of a single director, though the two departments remain completely separate. The public safety director maintains full authority over all police and fire services. There are no nationwide figures that reflect the current number of each level of consolidation in operation. The various municipalities across the country that have adopted some form of consolidation selected the level best suited for them. In essence, consolidation varies from community to community. CONSOLIDATION FACTORS Issues To Be Addressed The first issue of consolidation concerns efficiency and productivity. Many city managers believe consolidation to be a more productive and efficient way to manage employees. For example, in Morgantown, North Carolina, city leaders conducted a study to determine if the creation of a public safety department would benefit their city. As a result of this study, they discovered that less than 2% of firefighters' time is spent fighting fires and that 60% of their time was considered unproductive. In addition, 49% of the calls to the fire department were either false alarms, nonfire rescues, or to alert fire-fighters to stand by. Only 15 of the 285 calls involving actual fires represented losses of more than $500, and 4 of these calls were for car fires. (6) Another issue involved in the consolidation concept is saving money, although this is a much-debated point. Opponents often claim that any anticipated or realized savings are actually used to pay for increased training and equipment costs. With consolidation, a public service candidate officer must not only complete training at the police academy but also the training necessary to be certified as a firefighter. (7) For proponents of consolidation, the issue becomes one of cost avoidance, or more specifically, that consolidation avoids future costs. An example would be projected city growth figures that show a city may need five more police officers and five more firefighters over the next 5 years. By cross-training personnel in both police and fire duties, the city may need only seven more employees, thus avoiding the continuing expense of three more employees on the city's payroll. (8) This same theory can be applied to equipment and maintenance. An article entitled "Managing with Less: What Managers Can Expect" perhaps best sums up the reasons for looking at consolidation. This article states that city managers faced with continuing, if not increasing, fiscal constraints can expect the future to include the following: 1) Unchanged/increased demands for services by the public 2) Calls for hiring freezes from decisionmakers 3) Requests or demands for more specific performance indicators on what is done 4) Calls for innovative and creative ways for providing traditional savings. (9) Yet, whatever the reasons, administrators need to address many options and concerns before making a final consolidation decision. Then, before such a program is implemented, they must weigh them against the advantages and disadvantages that would be realized. Nevertheless, for cities faced with increased demands for service, but with dwindling funds to meet those demands, consolidation may be the appropriate course of action. (10) Options To Consider There is more to consolidation than merely merging two public service functions. In fact, there are a wide range of options. For example, what will be the level of consolidation? Will it entail administrative consolidation only, or will it combine administrative and support functions, while keeping command and line support personnel separate? Then, there is the option of partial consolidation, in which command personnel are integrated and line personnel are cross-trained, but specialists are not. Or, all full-time personnel are cross-trained and responsible for a full range of police-fire duties. The extent of consolidation depends entirely on the needs of the particular community involved. Concerns With the various consolidation options come independent concerns. First, and foremost, is the extent of training that must be provided. Then, there are the perceptions of the public and department personnel. Acceptance of consolidation by police and fire personnel, which affects morale and performance, can affect the viability of the concept before implementation. Proponents of consolidation contend that consolidation can have a significant positive impact on the community. Consolidation can lead to better response time if fire personnel could act on crimes observed instead of reporting the crime to the police and then waiting for them to arrive at the scene. (11) In other words, with consolidation, "police presence" increases. The same holds true with police officers trained to fight fires and to perform rescue activities. If the police are the first to respond to a fire scene and take appropriate action to contain the blaze, the devastation to property and the extent of injury to victims could be lessened. (12) In addition to quicker response times, consolidation prevents duplication of support services, such as communication, maintenance, and recordkeeping. It is also a means to eliminate competition between both public services, promoting a team effort and cooperation. The funding issue also comes into play when consolidation is considered, because both services vie for city funding. Under the public safety concept, the director is responsible for both the police and firefighters, and much of the traditional debate over which service gets the most monies can be averted. On the other hand, opponents of consolidation cite the increased training costs of one person as a major reason for maintaining two distinct service departments. Consolidation requires an extended time period to recoup the costs of training an individual to be both a police officer and a firefighter. Many contend that consolidation destroys the camaraderie developed within each service. Public service officers display mixed loyalties, and their allegiance is to neither service, instead of to one or the other. Other areas that must be addressed are start-up equipment costs, the effect consolidation would have on police and fire volunteers, and the acceptance of or resistance to consolidation by professional associations and unions. The pay issue plays a major role in the consolidation efforts. Obviously, the salaries must be equitable. One department determined that at the current rate, it would have to pay an entry-level police public safety officer $2,723 more a year to make the salary equal to that of a first-year firefighter. (13) Esai Berenbaum, former Public Safety Director of Durham, North Carolina, summed up the resistance in these words: "Much of the local opposition to a program represents sincere concern on the part of many that services will deteriorate, and as a result, lives and property may be lost. The traditional organized opposition will use these fears to their advantage and exaggerate the potential danger. They will report the often-heard fallacies that those programs are from small towns only, for suburban communities only, or as a temporary provision for newly annexed areas. They will emphasize programs that have failed. They will contend that `one man can't do two jobs.' " (14) Efforts to Consolidate The many factors involved in consolidation must be given serious attention before any steps are taken to convert to public safety. The concept must be well thought out and discussed among city administrators and fire and police officials. They should thoroughly analyze the community's police and fire needs and determine if consolidation is really necessary to meet these needs. After determining the overall mission of the public safety concept, administrators should complete a detailed task analysis to take into consideration what needs to be done, the amount of time needed to complete the transition, and who will be involved in the consolidation process. Then, the immediate expense of the consolidation effort has to be considered. Many times, while the idea of consolidation appears to be the solution, administrators fail to recognize what is really involved in the move toward consolidation. Few look at the cost of uniforms, weapons, salaries, building remodeling, instructor development, and recruiting, which may make the effort cost prohibitive. CONCLUSION There is no doubt that public safety programs have opponents. The concept creates feelings of apprehension on the part of affected employees and the citizens of the community. In fact, consolidation efforts have failed in several communities. At the same time, support for public service consolidation exists, and this concept has answered the needs of many communities. The public safety concept does work when carefully planned and efficiently administered. It is traditional, yet new, depending on the particular community involved. And, it may be the wave of the future as more cities face growing demands for service but less funds to meet those demands. Only time will tell. FOOTNOTES (1) Richard S. Rubin, "Consolidation of Police and Fire Services," Journal of Police Science and Administration, vol. 12, 1984, p. 221. (2) Esai Berebaum, Municipal Public Safety (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1977), p. 3. (3) Ronald G. Lynch and Vivian Lord, "Public Safety Programs: Consolidating Police and Fire Services," Popular Government, Summer 1979, p. 2. (4) A few cities that have consolidated public service functions are Twin Falls, Idaho (personal interview with Tom Courtney, city administrator); Orem, Utah (personal interview with Ted Peacock, Director of Public Safety); and Texarkana, Arkansas (Bobby Mixon, "Texarkana's Public Safety Program," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, September 1979, pp. 24-27). (5) Supra note 3. (6) Douglas O. Bean, "A Small City Adopts the Public Safety Concept: Morgantown, North Carolina A Case Study," Popular Government, Summer 1979, p. 16. (7) Recruits in the Public Safety Department in Sunnyvale, California, must attend an 18-week police academy, then a 12-week fire academy, followed by a field training program (personal interview with Capt. Regan Williams, Sunnyvale, California, Public Safety Department). (8) When the consolidation effort was completed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, there were 36 fewer positions within the Public Safety Department than there were when the fire and police functions were separate (Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, The Development and Administration of Consolidated Fire-Police Departments, Okemos, Michigan, 1985, p. 3). (9) Daniel E. O'Toole, "Managing With Less: What Managers Can Expect," Public Management, June 1984, p. 20. (10) Based on projections for maintaining and improving the fire and police departments in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the project committee anticipated the city would save $2 million a year by starting a consolidated department (Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, The Development and Administration of Consolidated Fire-Police Departments, Okemos, Michigan, 1985, p. 4). (11) Prior to the Public Safety Officer (PSO) Program in Texarkana, Arkansas, the city employed 50 policemen and 40 firemen and had an average of 3 patrol vehicles on duty. Both police and fire response time was about 6 minutes. The city now employs 73 PSOs and has, on the average, 10 patrol cars available for patrol duties. Response time is down to 2.8 minutes for police calls and 1.5 minutes for fire calls. The city also reports a decline in both crime and fire losses over the years (Bobby C. Mixon, "Texarkana's Public Safety Program," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, September 1979, p. 26). (12) In Oak Park, Michigan, patrolling public safety officers have extinguished 171 fires without the aid of regular fire apparatus during a recent 4-year period (Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, The Development and Administration of Consolidated Fire-Police Departments, Okemos, Michigan, 1985, p. 93). (13) In Kalamazoo, Michigan, public safety officers were given pay increases that amounted to over 10 percent for police and 23 percent for firefighters (Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, The Development and Administration of Consolidated Fire-Police Departments, Okemos, Michigan, p. 4). (14) Supra note 2, p. 29.