Dealing with Budget Cuts Podcast for May 2011 Beat Intro Voiceover 00.08 This is the Beat – a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Interview Katherine McQuay 00.16 With me today is Leonard Matarese. He is the Director of Research and Project Development for ICMA Center on Public Safety Management. Thank you for joining us today. We have heard so much about the economic condition facing our local governments and local law enforcement agencies. And some people say this is a temporary situation – some say no, this is the way of the future. What do you think about that? Leonard 00.42 Well I think based upon what we’ve seen inside of ICMA – the International City/County Management Association – in working with our members throughout the country that this is a long-term problem. And I think, my sense is this is a new normal that we’re not going back to where we were four or five years ago. Katherine 01.01 Obviously that presents a lot of challenges. Are there also opportunities? Leonard 01.06 I think so. In fact, a lot of our members and city managers around the country see this as a real opportunity to really finally take a serious look at restructuring and identify what best practices are and forcing people to try alternative strategies, rather than just doing less…rather than that -- coming up with some alternative ways and looking at new models. Katherine 01.32 How are local governments meeting this challenge with reduced budgets? Leonard 01.36 Well the obvious thing is that there are significant cuts and that turns out to be oftentimes layoffs. There’s a significant reduction in force occurring in a lot of cities around the country. In some cases, the cities that are hardest hit are actually eliminating a lot of programs that they had previously utilized to improve the livability of the community. So things like libraries, parks and museums are being closed or hours are being reduced. So we’re starting to see some really significant outcomes from these reductions in force and it’s not just one or two people being eliminated from the payroll, but significant numbers and that’s having an impact on what the service levels are to the public. Katherine 02.18 How can local governments work more closely with law enforcement to address some of these issues? Leonard 02.25 Well, it’s absolutely critical because law enforcement and public safety generally comprise the largest portion of a municipal budget. In some cities that we’re working with, up to 75% of the operating budget of the municipality is spent on police, fire and EMS. It’s a lot like the Willie Sutton quote: Why do you rob banks? Because that’s where the money is. Well the money in local government is in police, fire and EMS, so there has to be a real partnership between the law enforcement leadership, the fire department leadership and municipal government leadership to identify alternative strategies to provide comparable levels of service with less. Katherine 03.04 What are some of the alternative strategies that you’re hearing about? Leonard 03.08 Well, we’ve seen a lot of interest in reevaluating the kinds of things that police and fire departments do. A lot of departments, both police and fire, have expanded their mission beyond the core mission. And so there’s, in a lot of cases, a pull back to what the core mission is and shutting some of the other things that they’ve been doing that are expensive and may not be part of what that central mission is. There’s a lot of discussion about consolidation. There’s a lot of discussion about shared services, contracting for services and really just kind of understanding that there may be other models out there to take a look at – not just in the United States, but in other countries. Katherine 03.47 What about the concept of community government? Is that something we should be talking more about? Leonard 03.53 You mean about some kind of regional government approach? Yeah. We have an enormous number of local governments in the United States – we have over 17,000 police departments. When you compare that to other industrialized countries, the number’s wild – the United Kingdom, the entire United Kingdom, has 54 police departments. Canada has about 170 police departments. And so my sense is that there is significant opportunity to not only reduce costs, but improve operations by some type of consolidation. But that may also mean consolidation of governments – not just municipal police departments or municipal fire departments. It may mean talking about regional governments. We’ve seen that happen in some places like Indianapolis and Charlotte Mecklenburg. But there is also an ongoing, continuous resistance to maintain local control. And the question is going to be: Can we afford to maintain local control and still provide adequate levels of service? Katherine 04.47 It’s a very emotional issue isn’t it? Leonard 04.51 Yeah, it’s very…it’s something that I frankly don’t understand. Because people who live in big cities have the same sense about their local police department that people who live in small cities do. And yet, big city police departments, in many cases, are able to provide outstanding service and meet the needs of specific communities within the bigger organization. So I think our major city police departments are good examples – they’re really a regional police department to begin with – and that can be a model for some of the smaller communities. Katherine 05.20 Can you give us an example, too, of a community that has had to make substantial budget changes, but yet has continued to thrive? Mike 05.28 The most impressive one that I work with that I’ve seen personally is Grand Rapids, Michigan. They’ve gone through some serious budget cuts. They’ve had to reduce staffing significantly across the board – not just in public safety services – and yet they’ve been able to maintain high levels of service because of the quality of leadership, both at the elected levels – at the city manager’s level and at the mayor’s level and the department head’s level – they’ve all worked together to try to identify alternative ways to deliver services. But what impresses me the most about Grand Rapids is they are not stopping there. They’re in the process of a long-term analysis of city operations to understand what municipal government should look like for the 21st century. And they’ve brought together leaders from the community, people from the private sector, elected officials, members of the various departments – and they’ve been successful and are successful in identifying some really interesting alternative strategies. So I would point to Grand Rapids, Michigan as a real model of what local government should be thinking about now. Katherine 06.32 So any closing suggestions? I’m a chief, I’m looking at my budget, I’m seeing the red ink – where do I start? Leonard 06.36 Well, again, I think you have to get back to the model and say, is this the way we deliver these services? Is the way that we have been delivering these services for the past 100 years – because that’s essentially…we are still running police departments the way we did 100 years ago – is this the model for the future? And I would suggest that it’s not – both in terms of we’re still not using technology to the highest level that we possibly can. I don’t think we still have the highest level of citizen involvement that we need to be able to make a real partnership with the community. I don’t think the police departments are doing some of the things that they should be doing to more effectively provide service levels. And then there are things that they are doing that they should probably get out of that business. And it gets back to that starting from a blank sheet of paper and saying ‘if we were creating this department today from scratch, how would we do it?’ Katherine 07.22 Thank you for joining us. Leonard 07.23 My pleasure. Beat Exit Voiceover: The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice COPS Office. The COPS Office helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing community policing publications, developing partnerships and solving problems. ####END OF TRANSCRIPT#### Cops Office Transcript Completed 04-12-11 4