Originally Posted by
wnyfuture
Okay but the town of west seneca residents fund west seneca police while the entire state would fund the state troopers. We are already funding the sheriff's and state troopers. The lowest WS Police salary was about 61k a year and a lot of police officers made over $100k.
We save money on a lot of items such as Police Dispatch.
What are some examples of savings in other counties as a result of consolidation?
1. Town of Clay: Saved $362,323 in 2008 and $1,286,856 in 2009.17 With a projected savings of $17 million over the next decade this equates to 20% of Clay’s budget costs without a reduction in service – matching other police consolidation studies that predicted 10-20% in savings.18 If this formula were applied to total town and village police costs ($900M) the total savings would be $90,000,000 to $180,000,000.
2. Onondaga County Consolidated Dispatch: Within the first year of the County consolidating the dispatching duties of seven entities, the County saved $680,000.
3. Genesee County and the City of Batavia Consolidated Police Dispatch: According to the joint shared services grant application filed by Genesee County and the City of Batavia, annual saving will be $60,000 with Batavia projecting $200,000 in annual savings (from reduction in personnel and equipment costs) by merging into Genesee County
Where is the savings?
What are the advantages of consolidating police services other then saving money?
Consolidation can mean an increase in services for the municipality. The Town of Clay, at no additional charge, received support service functions from the Onondaga Sheriff’s and access to County Detectives, the Abused Person Unit, Evidence Technicians, Accident Investigation Technicians, and special units such as K-9, SWAT, and Aviation.21
Other advantages that have been noted by the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco in analyzing the city of Las Vegas, the City of San Antonio, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Nashville, Northern York County, and Los Angeles County are:
1. An elected County Sheriff would have more freedom from political pressure and be more accountable to the public.
2. Consolidation can improve efficiency by eliminating duplicative services.
3. Additional gains can come from economies of scale.
4. Duplicative administrative costs could be more efficiently used in a shared environment, which could possibly absorb overtime costs.
5. Fixing possible inequities between city and county taxpayers.
6. Can provide more accountability and responsiveness in local government.
7. Better-trained personnel.
8. Lower personnel turnover rate.
9. More efficient hiring.
10. Lower insurance costs.
11. Increased opportunities for innovation.
12. Reducing equipment costs buy increasing the ability to buy in bulk.