The Fiala administration has proposed to consolidate the police forces of Binghamton, Johnson City, Endicott, Vestal and Port Dickinson into a single ‘urban’ police unit. The metro police force will require a new position of Superintendent who will report to the County Executive.

I would encourage everyone to read the ‘ Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University’ Report of April 11, 2007 for a non-biased, independent review of this proposal.

• Page 11 of 62: “There has been no formal study of the effect of the incentives pension plans on retirement decisions, or the probability of achieving attrition estimates (reduce staffing to save cost). Also, there has been no study of the impact of police services for municipalities affected by the consolidation.”

• Page 15 of 62: Chief Butler, then of Binghamton and Sheriff Harder negotiated, without the help of County Executive Fiala, a merger of their respective Special Investigative Units. “The positive outcome of the SIU consolidation plan was not capitalized on in developing the metropolitan plan. During our interviews with the County Executive, Ms. Fiala had little knowledge about SIU consolidation, how it occurred, or how it was operating. In short, SIU consolidation seems to have occurred without the involvement of the County Executive (Fiala). Moreover, despite the County Executive Office having a general feeling that SIU consolidation was successful, the County Executive Office ignored SIU consolidation as it began pursuing a larger police service consolidation.”

• SMSI case study, page 11: “In parallel developments, the County Executive Office seems to be sending mixed messages as to its commitment to a broad police consolidation. In the 2007 County budget, Executive Fiala vetoed a $6.4 million expansion of the Broome County jail that would have included an arrangement for central booking. Many believe the creation of Central Booking is vital to the future of any police consolidation effort. Fiala publicly said the expansion was “absolutely ludicrous”…”

Using the County’s numbers from the June 2008, revised BROOME COUNTY PLAN FOR URBAN CORE POLICE CONSOLIDATION plan:

• Page 5: if no consolidation and budgets grow in the future as they have in the past for the 5 years of 2009-2013, the 5 police forces will have a budget of some $151 million.

• Page 6: with forces consolidated, the budget for the 5 years of 2009-2013 will grow to some $142 million.

• Page 7: the savings to city/town & villages over the 5 year period is $8.7 million.

• Page 8: using the 2000 census, the population estimated to live in the 5 jurisdictions is 98,000 persons.

• Therefore the average savings per person per year is $17.75. (That is $8.7 million divided by 5 years divided by 98,000).

• If the savings that the County says are to be had by reducing the number of police officers fails to be realized, the savings will be smaller.

• If the cost to consolidate these 5 different police forces is greater than anticipated, the savings per person will be smaller. Does it really make sense to plan for NO cost for consolidation? What about labor agreements? About uniforms and weapons? About policy and procedure? About benefits? About vehicles and who gets them? About radio communications, computer systems, headquarters, etc.? To make a plan that assumes no cost isn’t reasonable.

Staffing:

• Page 9: total police staff before consolidation = 263

• Page 10: total police staff after consolidation = 241.

• Do fewer police make YOU feel safer?

• One consequence that isn’t addressed by the plan is the potential impact of an additional 240 County employees on post-retirement benefits (especially healthcare). As you know, the County has either a $262 million liability for County retirees (Robert Murphy, County Risk Manager) or a $340 million liability (Press & Sun-Bulletin). Either way, the police plan does not address the potential for an increased taxpayer liability due to an increase of 240 employees.

Crime mapping:

The process of mapping the pattern of crime activity by neighborhood is not new. By mapping where crimes are being committed a police force can assign its personnel to high crime areas. With a finite number of police staff, it also means that some areas receive less police attention. What is the implication for the proposed metro police force? Would a new superintendent, seeing an unmet need in the City of Binghamton, for example, decide to divert some police officers formerly of the Vestal Police Department to the City?

Winners and losers:

If the cost to provide police services for a given municipality exceeds the budget, who is going to pay? Under the current format if, for example, the village of Endicott’s police budget is exceeded because the Endicott police worked overtime to serve the needs of the Endicott population, then the taxpayers of Endicott would be responsible for the overage.

Under a metro arrangement, if the new County Metro force is over budget the County is responsible for the overage. Meaning all the taxpayers throughout the County would be equally responsible to fund any overage through County taxes. Now, I admit that by sharing the pain, the impact of a budget overage on the average County taxpayers would most likely be a very small. Nevertheless, persons and areas of the County receiving no additional benefit would be equally responsible for budget overages. For example, residents of Maine Endwell might pay more in County taxes but receive no added protection.
Similarly, if crime mapping and resource allocation change where the Metro Unit’s police staff is utilized, then persons in rural areas of Vestal, Johnson City, or in low crime areas such as Port Dickinson could see fewer police patrols.

Summary:

The current proposal, written by someone who has no police experience and proposed by County Executive Fiala without consultation with area police chiefs, is flawed.

The police chiefs and municipal leaders that I have spoken to are not enthusiastic.

The villages of Johnson City and Endicott and the City of Binghamton have serious municipal budget problems that may force these jurisdictions to be more creative. What better solution than to move their police department budget from their village/city budget to the County’s budget. If the Metro force is a reality and the Metro force plan fails to control costs, the County taxpayers have to deal with the budget overages. Residents of the county not living in the 5 affected jurisdictions could potentially face larger tax bills and fewer police patrols.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police, in a May 2003 report, outlined various initiatives and roadblocks to consolidation of police departments. In my opinion, how policing is performed has to be driven by 2 forces. The first is by individual jurisdiction. If a city or village determines that it can no longer afford the level of police staffing that its residents have been accustomed to, then change has to happen. (See the article re: Town of Clay votes to eliminate its police force.) The second is ‘bottom-up’ by police chief leaders, working together, to fashion a new relationship between their respective departments just as Chief Butler and Sheriff Harder did with SIU.

You can read the entire, unedited text of the “Police Services Consolidation in Broome County” Maxwell School, Syracuse University, April 11, 2007 by clicking on this link:

Police Services Consolidation in Broome County

You can access the 2008 Broome County plan at http://www.gobroomecounty.com/planning/_pdf/UrbanCorePolicePlan.pdf

You can also read about the voter approved referendum to eliminate their Town’s 16 person force. The Onondaga Sheriff’s office offered jobs to all 16 officers. http://www.9wsyr.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=6f590da5-25cf-42a3-9000-f42c7a1be51d

Thank you for visiting my website and for reading my view of this topic. I hope that you see the difference in my beliefs and approach from Ms. Fiala’s administration. Won’t you help me get the word out to others? Will you put a lawn sign in your yard or would you like some information cards about my campaign mailed to you? And most importantly, please send a donation so that I can continue our fight. Please see the HOW TO HELP page for more information on how to support my campaign.Thank you.