Alternatives To Traditional Public Safety Delivery Systems Civilians In Public Safety Services

Author : Institute for Local Self Government
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (791 download)

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Download or read book Civilians in Public Safety Services written by Institute for Local Self Government and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report considers a public safety alternative which addresses the concept of civilianization and privatization of the traditional duties normally assigned to sworn officers. The service delivery alternatives of civilianization and privatization were selected due to the perceived productivity benefits accruing from utilizing non-uniformed "civilian" personnel. In the police services, a sworn officer is vested with special powers of arrest, use of force, search and seizure, interrogation, etc. Since many of the aforementioned police functions lend themselves to potential abuse, only those duties not requiring the exercise of special legal powers are considered potentially transferable to non-sworn professionals. In the fire service, however, the powers of sworn firefighters are not as well differentiated as its law enforcement counterpart and, therefore, the use of civilians portends even greater application. The conclusions which can be drawn regarding the potentialities of civilianization and privatization in the police and fire services are varied depending on which mix of the aforementioned variables is examined. The potentiality of civilian utilization in the police and fire services differs due to the different nature of services provided to the community. It appears from analysis of the literature and examples of case studies that the two forms of civilian utilization, civilianization and privatization, also are sufficiently different to require different implementation factors to be considered which are specific to the service delivery mechanism adopted. In summation, the use of civilians for public safety service delivery provides an apparent viable alternative for municipalities to consider for improving productivity. The implementation of civilianization appears easier to achieve than the more complex procedure of privatization. Before either method is pursued, it would be well to be assured of available management talent to implement and monitor a system of this scope. The alter natives offered in this report are primarily management innovations and without the prerequisite management capability the chance of success is greatly diminished. It should also be remembered, however, that the use of civilians is not a panacea for the fiscal burdens facing local governments.