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CONSOLI.TXT
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1991-03-28
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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
concer