Effective law enforcement management is vastly different in today’s difficult economic times. Gone are the days when the traditional response to meeting crime control problems and community service needs was to hire more officers and purchase more equipment. Now there is a critical need for managers to promote efficiency and effectiveness. Because this almost impossible responsibility of providing more service with less funding falls on the chief of police or sheriff, the easy way out is to tighten administrative screws and allow the burden to fall on the employees. However, this shortsightedness may well lead to resentment, labor-management conflicts, or serious morale and job satisfaction problems.
Administrators must be sensitive to the feelings and sentiments of the work force in order to implement the types of changes necessary to streamline law enforcement services. To achieve cooperation, managers should ask employees for cost-cutting ideas and maintain high visibility to facilitate formal and informal discussions. Furthermore, management should seek advice from other law enforcement agencies concerning their successes and failures in cost cutting.
National Executive Institute Survey
The FBI National Executive Institute (NEI) queried more than a hundred law enforcement executives in the United States and Canada on how to increase productivity while curtailing costs. Due to decreasing tax revenues, rising costs, and a down-turned economy, the executives were eager to share their experiences. Upon reviewing the survey results, the NEI found that the areas that provided the greatest opportunity for cost reduction involve overtime, vehicles, volunteers, civilian participation, automation, reducing false alarms, increased use of federal forfeiture funds, service fees, and subcontracting for services.
The following list illustrates specific measures suggested for cost reduction. Automation
• Decentralize entry of police incident reports to reduce lag time and the number ofmail runs to headquarters.
• Install phone mail on department telephone systems to automatically direct outside callers to the proper extension.
• Implement automation of tasks where feasible.
Administration
• Eliminate unnecessary business and training expenses.
• Delay promotions for forty-five days.
• Streamline administrative positions.
• Consolidate various job responsibilities.
• Increase use of civilian volunteers, auxiliary police officers, and cadets.
• Reduce overtime.
• Use flexed work schedules for some units, where possible.
Maintenance
• Use jail maintenance personnel and/ or inmate labor to maintain grounds and buildings, to build K-9 pens for dogs, or to build a tactical recovery vehicle from an old patrol car and old bulletproof vests.
• Delay or cut back renovation projects not necessary to the department’s mission.
• Repair radios in house.
• Subcontract for services.
Training
• Use video technology for roll call training.
Automobiles
• Implement an accident reduction program consisting of pursuit policy training and high performance driving techniques and sanction against negligent drivers.
• Remove roof-mounted emergency lights from a significant number of marked vehicles.
• Switch from premium to regular-grade gasoline.
• Install sophisticated radio equipment in operational vehicles only.
• Reduce the number of take-home cars.
• Defer replacing vehicles for one more fiscal year.
• Change marked vehicles from traditional two colors to less expensive and more visible single white color.
• Downsize investigative and administrative (unmarked and nonpursuit) vehicles to smaller, less expensive models.
Other
• Institute service fees for special events and extraordinary nonemergency services.
• Minimize police response to false alarms.
• Implement bicycle patrol in congested areas.
• Prohibit use of alcohol in park and beach areas to reduce calls for service.
• Use federal forfeiture funds to purchase computers, office equipment, and protection- and enforcement-related equipment.
Case Studies
Colorado State Patrol Photo Lab Cash Funding
Situation: The Colorado State Patrol has historically charged citizens and attorneys for copies of photographs of accidents and other incidents in which the private sector has a vested interest. All fees collected from the sale of photographs were deposited in the patrol’s budget to be distributed as needed. Although fees collected exceeded the annual operating budget allocation, new expenditures were limited to essential needs only.
Solution: Proposals were submitted to the Office of State Planning and Budgeting to allow the photo lab to become fully cash funded. The process was complex, requiring justification and a guarantee that the arrangement would work. Few state agencies have cash-funded operations, but such arrangements are advantageous to both the agency and the state. The proposals were granted. So far, revenue generated has resulted in covering operating expenses, the upgrade of photographic equipment, and expansion into areas such as video. Moreover, the budget previously shared by the photo lab and the Education and Safety Unit now has one less user, leaving more money for improving safety and education programs.
Knoxville Police Department Work Scheduling
Situation: In 1982, Knoxville, Tennessee, hosted the World’s Fair, creating a demand for greater police service. To meet the demand, the Knoxville Police Department changed its shift rotations. Since that time, the department has continued to maximize use of patrol personnel while reducing overtime and call-in costs.
Solution: The Uniform Division works a six-day-on, four-day-off schedule with five detachments. The morning and night shifts are nine hours and ten minutes and the evening shift is ten hours and ten minutes. The advantages of such an arrangement are two overlapping periods—one in the afternoon between 1400 and 1540, and one in the evening between 2145 and 0010. The afternoon overlap helps with court duty and allows two detachments to be on the street at once. The night overlap takes care of peak time hot calls for service. The overlap also adds flexibility to bring a shift in early or later by several hours to handle special events (football games, parades, and the like) without having to pay overtime. A power shift works from 1600 to 0200 (four days on, three off) to supplement the patrol detachments during the busiest hours of the evening.
Utah Law Enforcement Intelligence Network
Situation: No centralized coordination of narcotics and criminal intelligence existed in Utah. Its Department of Public Safety, Division of Investigation, and Department of Corrections joined for such a purpose to form the Utah Law Enforcement Intelligence Network. Federal funding assisted the formation of the network but did not pay all costs. Essential to the network, data entry personnel to feed network computers with information were one of those extra costs.
Solution: To remedy the shortfall of funds, the Division of Investigation contacted the Utah National Guard and proposed a pilot program. The program called for the National Guard to provide select individuals to perform data entry. After background checks and clearance, the individuals were placed on active duty under the direct supervision of a criminal information technician and the section sergeant. Between 1990 and 1995, the computer database of approximately twenty-five hundred names and intelligence data grew to near ten thousand— due to National Guard assistance.
Nassau County Police Department Automatic Alarm Permit System
Situation: Within the jurisdiction of Nassau County, New York, are more than 120,000 individual alarm subscribers. In excess of a hundred thousand alarm transmissions are received annually from either central stations or through automated dialing mechanisms. Each incident results in the dispatch of two police officers to investigate. Records show fewer than 1% of the alarms to be actual emergencies, with the major cause of the problem attributable to human error and to a much lesser degree the forces of nature, power disruptions, and mechanical failures. Some forty thousand premises a year are judged to be ”alarm abusers,” each having transmitted at least three false alarms within a ninety-day period.
Solution: As proposed, all alarm users register with the police department and after paying the prescribed fee are issued a permit that is subject to suspension and/ or revocation contingent on the number of false alarms. Following a revocation, the alarm owner is required to reapply for a permit, which will be issued only upon the satisfaction of all outstanding penalties, submission of proof that the alarm system has been inspected and found to be in proper order, and the payment of an additionally prescribed alarm permit fee. Those not complying will no longer receive police response when their alarm is activated. A revenue enhancer, the new system should produce for Nassau County $1 million in its first year and nearly $400,000 in subsequent years.
Cooperative Agreement for Shared Law Enforcement Services
Situation: In Minnesota, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department and the Minneapolis Police Department each needed special expertise and better equipment to strengthen their operations. Hennepin County wanted to add a bomb squad, and Minneapolis—which had a decent water rescue unit—sought superior equipment.
Solution: Hennepin County and Minneapolis entered into a formal agreement to provide services to each other. The Minneapolis Police Bomb Squad, because of a higher frequency of response, offered exactly what the Sheriff’s Department needed. The Sheriff’s Department, because of a statutory responsibility for water rescue, had developed a state-of-the-art underwater recovery unit. Capital expenditure estimates were as high as $75,000 for basic bomb squad equipment plus maintenance costs of $5,000 per year. Equipment and maintenance costs for an improved underwater recovery unit approached $10,000. Factoring in training and overtime expenses inflated the figures more. Both total amounts were saved.
Conclusion
Law enforcement leaders who tackle the problem of managing with less will be truly successful only when they recognize that the issue, much like violent crime, illegal drugs, and community unrest, requires long-term commitment and planned action.
For specific examples on how various law enforcement agencies have cut costs, contact the chief of the Education and Communication Arts Unit at the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia. This article is an abridgment of a report on cost reduction, which is an ongoing interest of the FBI Academy.
