With public safety agencies sustaining constant budget cuts, municipalities across the U.S. are testing out ideas for limiting costs without limiting protection.
One method on the rise throughout Michigan, as well as the county, is consolidation of police and fire departments — an idea that raises questions with agencies and residents — questions criminal justice associate professor Jeremy Wilson will try to answer in a forthcoming research study.
Wilson recently received a $344,000 grant from the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, to do the study after more than 125 combined departments have popped up in recent years, including 41 in Michigan.
Wilson said the reason behind the study is to look into the logistics of a combined police and fire department for municipalities that are interested but cannot risk their funds to test it out.
“The main inspiration is the fact that we’ve seen police agencies and communities … thrust into situations where they have to find ways of making cutbacks,” he said. “(The communities) don’t have the type of resources to see if things like this will work for them.”
More than 600 researchers applied for the COPS grant, and Wilson was one of 16 to receive it. The study will take place during the next several years as a census will be distributed to all combined departments throughout the country, evaluating how much money the consolidation saved and what effect it has had on the quality of service.
Although the response times for these combined departments might appear to be equal to traditional departments in some respects, the efficiency does not compare, East Lansing Fire Marshall Bob Pratt said.
Pratt said a consolidated department would not work for cities such as East Lansing, where public safety officials have so many residents to attend to.
“It works in a very small, limited capacity,” he said. “I don’t think it’s feasible in East Lansing at all. We rely on aid from Lansing, Meridian Township and Lansing Township already during most football weekends.”
Pratt also pointed out is that officers in a consolidated department would not have the variety of specialized training the East Lansing police officers and firefighters have. Instead, their skills would have to be more general in order to perform the tasks of both departments.
East Lansing police Capt. Bill Mitchell said he was not sure if this would be beneficial from a police standpoint in East Lansing.
Mitchell said there has been a push by state legislators and Gov. Rick Snyder for combined departments to be used as a means of reducing public safety budgets throughout Michigan, but there are a number of factors that each city needs to evaluate before adopting this strategy.
“It’s something that is going to be broken down … to see what the benefits are,” he said.
Doctoral student Laura Oliver said she would not feel safe living in a city with a combined police and fire department. Oliver said she has not had much interaction with the East Lansing police or fire departments, but she would not want to see the city resort to a consolidated department, even if it did save money.
“It sounds like it would be less safe just because if they’re working two separate jobs into one, it’s going to be more busy for them and still the same amount of problems,” she said.
Other students, such as media arts and technology senior Eric Hoard, take a more financially focused practical stance on the issue. Hoard said he would be in favor of the city saving money — provided the quality of service did not drop off.
“If it cuts cost and doesn’t affect response time, I’m all for it,” he said. “But if the consolidation creates great problems for the East Lansing population, I’m against it.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
