Private Policing Initiatives
Any review of current economic and fiscal constraints will reveal government budgets are being increasingly challenged. Some municipalities are in great distress. These budgetary challenges adversely affect the delivery of public safety services. Simply stated, policing agencies are finding it hard to provide critical services while simultaneously addressing violent crime, gang activity and homeland security. These factors coupled with economic and operational constraints are causing police and governmental administrators to innovate.
Those desiring innovation often examine the
relationship between budgetary constraints and service provisions.
If financial limitations cannot be resolved through typical management and
organizational methods, it may be necessary to assess the services provided by your organization:
- Can some services
be contracted out, or performed by civilians?
- Can you simply decide
not to perform certain services?
These questions go to many political, social,
financial, legal, and organizational interests. It may be too simplistic to ask for
more money or to stop providing certain services. This reality
leaves the public safety executive, or the college or municipal official,
with the unenviable task of constantly balancing budgets with current service
functions.
The threat of terrorism and violent crime
has further challenged public safety budgets. With security personnel at three or four times the level
of personnel and revenues compared to police agencies, the development
of public-private policing is inevitable. Added to this dynamic is
the reduction of community policing monies. Consequently,
public safety agencies are faced with difficult budgetary decisions—often
with fewer personnel—to handle the rising threat of violence.
One solution is to innovate, using private police to perform basic services, such as patrol, alarm response,
and crime scene and street corner security. Private police also can help to deliver order maintenance
services that are critical to safe and orderly environments. In these ways, private police act as supplements for overburdened police departments. To learn more about these innovative alternatives, please click on the below listed powerpoints:
We are uniquely prepared to facilitate service provisions
designed to support the administration and operation of policing agencies. As one of the foremost authorities of private policing in the country, Dr. Pastor has articulated private policing service arrangements, the related trends, and the legal and organizational framework in a comprehensive manner. Indeed, he has developed and articulated private policing in three groundbreaking
books. He has done what no one else has accomplished. He has articulated how this service arrangement will be included into a new "model" of policing, called Public Safety Policing. The logic and need for private policing within the organizational structure of policing is both enlighting and provocative. To learn more about the critical contributions of private policing, please review these informative and comprehensive books by Dr. James F. Pastor:
The logic of alternative or supplemental
service providers is illustrated by private policing, otherwise know as "para-policing." Private police officers can be compared to "para-legals" and "para-medics." They are the para-professionals of municipal policing. They perform routine, but critical, functions that the higher trained and paid police officers are not able to accomplish--due to operational and fiscal constraints. Currently many public safety agencies use
auxiliary police officers, who are part-time sworn police officers.
Some also use reserve police officers, who are hired on an "as
needed" basis, with limited police powers. These officers are
typically called to duty for special details or events. In
contrast to auxiliary and reserve officers, private policing is a
relatively new and growing phenomenon.
There are several key distinctions between these options. Briefly,
the distinctions relate to the level of police powers associated
with the officer, the training levels required for each officer,
the funding sources for the service provision, and the contractual
and liability exposures related to each supplemental arrangement.
Each alternative or supplemental service has its own strengths and
weaknesses. The use of private police, however, has particular appeal
because property or business owners can directly contract--and pay--for supplemental public
safety services. This provides welcome relief for municipal budgets.
Finally, private police functions can be flexible, depending upon
the financial, organizational, political, and situational circumstances
of the client.
To learn more about these innovative alternatives, please click on any of the below articles:
