NCJ Number
123852
Journal
Journal of Police Science and Administration Volume: 17 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1990) Pages: 55-65
Date Published
1990
Length
11 pages
Annotation
A national survey was conducted in 1988 to evaluate opposition to public safety department consolidation, as perceived by public safety directors.
Abstract
Of 102 public safety departments, 87 responded to the survey, for a response rate of 85 percent. Using mailed questionnaires, director perceptions of obstacles to consolidation were assessed in two ways. First, a list of 46 obstacles was constructed, and directors were asked to evaluate the impact of these obstacles. Second, an open-ended question asked directors to indicate who posed the greatest resistance to the public safety concept. Survey findings demonstrated that resistance to consolidation does not result from consolidation's inability to achieve fiscal goals but rather from the broad social arena of human relations. Consolidation is implemented to help a community maintain services under conditions of fiscal stress, and it appears that directors infrequently confront obstacles related to service delivery. On the other hand, issues related to line-level fire and police personnel, union representation, State laws, and the relationship between the director and community leaders are frequent sources of opposition to consolidation. In order to deal with opposition, efforts to consolidate public safety departments should aim at full service integration. A review of the literature on public safety department concepts is included, and items on the survey questionnaire are appended. 19 references, 5 tables.