By Darran Simon
The Philadelphia Inquirer
CAMDEN, N.J. — Five years ago, Patrick Brennan, then deputy county executive of Broome County, N.Y., shopped around a proposal he had devised in his spare time to consolidate five community police forces.
His PowerPoint presentation, pitched to community groups and Rotary clubs, was sparse on details, he acknowledged. So, in a few months, the county will try again, with a more detailed proposal from a hired consultant.
Consolidation “is happening slowly,” said Brennan, now county executive. “I’m 61 years old. I hope I see it before I die.”
Broome County - along with Camden, Morris, and Somerset Counties in New Jersey - is following a national wave toward regionalizing police services and manpower under a central administrator with the hope of protecting public safety while saving money.
In Camden County, some local and council officials, as well as Gov. Christie, have endorsed a countywide force as a way to reduce costs and get more officers on the streets. But many police officers and suburban mayors remain skeptical.
How such a force would be structured is still under review, but officials envision carving the county into divisions, with Camden City as the first division. The county also is exploring having countywide services such as a detective bureau and K-9 and SWAT units.
Camden City Council voted last week to explore the creation of a countywide model. County freeholders are expected to endorse the plan Thursday.
The county’s Police Advisory Committee has researched consolidation efforts in Morris, Somerset, and Bergen Counties. In Bergen County, 17 towns have applied for a share of $1 million in funding from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office for police-consolidation studies.
Across the nation, towns often start talking about regionalization and consolidation when the economy sours and municipal budgets get tight. But experts say the decision needs to made methodically.
“The biggest problem is the myth of instant or quick savings,” said John Firman, director of research for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “Careful, well-thought-out planning has to occur, because assumptions of savings are just . . . simple assumptions.”
A long-term look at costs several years into a consolidation is a better gauge of savings. It’s also important for agencies to track whether residents and officers are satisfied, Firman said.
Though some departments have embraced consolidation, many will not advance beyond the discussion phase.
“Right now, everybody is looking at it from a 30,000-foot view,” said Bernard K. Melekian, director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Police Services.
The major obstacle? Relinquishing local control, Melekian said.
New Jersey - home to 470 local forces, 11th-most in the nation - does have four county police agencies, including the Bergen and Union County departments. But some of those agencies patrol county parks and perform mostly ancillary functions, such as parade-duty assistance and patrols during larger events. Most towns in those counties have their own police.
Nationwide, county police agencies generally oversee unincorporated communities and some small towns, not a cluster of contiguous, heavily populated towns as in New Jersey.
In Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania suburbs, where almost half of the more than 172 municipal forces have fewer than 10 full-time officers, some communities - including towns with police chiefs at or near retirement age - are interested in consolidating forces.
“The tax dollars are going to shrink, and we need to make sure we can use the tax dollars to the best of our ability,” said Doylestown Police Chief Stephen J. White, who will retire by March.
Larger departments could get better rates on equipment and vehicle purchases, supporters say. And merged departments can eliminate administrative costs.
Consolidation is not a new idea. It occurred in some form as early as 1954, when the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department provided police service to adjoining Lakewood on a contractual basis.
Other notable examples include the 1,757-member Charlotte-Mecklenburg force in North Carolina, formed from the city and sheriff’s departments in 1993, and more recently, mergers on the part of Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky., with their county sheriff’s departments.
Camden County also has studied models in Delaware, Maryland, Kansas, and New York, county spokeswoman Joyce Gabriel said.
In Washington state, the King County Sheriff’s Office, which has provided police service for nine cities since 1990, found a creative way around resistance to relinquishing local control.
The cities chose their own “chief” from the sheriff’s ranks, picked their own uniforms, and opted for a city logo on squad cars.
“The majority of their residents in a contract city don’t know they don’t have their own police force,” said Sgt. John Urquhart, a spokesman for the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Experts said it’s the details that can make or break a consolidation.
Firman cited an operational merger in the Midwest that failed to negotiate who would staff the reception desk. Visitors were confused by greetings from both a police and sheriff’s officer.
In 2003 in Louisville, Robert C. White, 59, paid close attention from the start to the specifics of a merger with Jefferson County.
He introduced new policies on police pursuit, use of force, and discipline. He looked at the department’s staffing, technology, and training. He mixed urban and suburban beat assignments.
White, a former chief in Greensboro, N.C., who was hired to implement the merger, assigned assistant chiefs to investigate national statistical models and get feedback from residents and officers.
One committee suggested uniforms and car designs for the roughly 1,280-member department.
“More officers showed up to vote on the type of uniform and equipment and design for the cars than they did for their contract,” White said.
White, also a former assistant chief in Washington, oversees a roughly $150 million budget for a force that polices 387 square miles to protect 700,000 residents.
“We have not saved money as a result of the merger,” he said. “We have not spent more as a result of the merger.”
In Broome County, N.Y., as in Camden County, options could include combining one or more forces with the region’s largest city: Binghamton, population 45,000, which had eight homicides in 2010. Another plan would be to combine forces in Binghamton and smaller towns with the county sheriff’s office to reduce costs.
Most of the municipal departments have 24 or fewer officers. Binghamton has more than 80.
Consolidating two or more forces could be a start toward a county force, Brennan said.
“Anytime you start talking about consolidations, there are winners and losers,” Brennan said. “But you have to look at the good of the whole versus a few.”
In Camden City, the police union worries that its officers could become losers in the deal.
Camden, consistently ranked as one of the nation’s poorest and most dangerous cities, laid off about 25 percent of its force earlier this year. The city would have to disband its Police Department to join a county force, and only 49 percent of Camden officers could be rehired, along with officers from other towns.
“The plan to dismantle our city’s police force in favor of a county police department is a mistake, a very dangerous and costly mistake,” John Williamson, president of Camden’s rank-and-file union, said Friday. “Our elected officials are trying to push a square peg into a round hole by maintaining it will work for Camden.”
Other Camden County towns could join the force, but suburban towns so far seem lukewarm about the prospect.
Mitchell C. Sklar, executive director of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, said that to be successful, the process of exploring regionalization must be comprehensive and thorough.
“Public safety has to come first. That’s the mandate for law enforcement. That the responsibility of government,” he said. “To me, that’s the ultimate bottom line.”
Law Enforcement In New Jersey
470
Municipal police departments, not including university and multijurisdiction police forces and those that patrol bridges and airports.
21
County sheriff’s departments.
4
County police agencies: Bergen County Police, Union County Police, Morris County Park Police, and Camden County Park Police.
The Bergen and Union County departments generally provide ancillary services to local departments. The Morris and Camden County Park Police oversee only county parks.
SOURCE: N.J. Association of Chiefs of Police
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