There is an old saying about having too many cooks in the kitchen, and while cooking and policing are very different activities and services, Allegheny County could stand to learn from this basic idea.
Allegheny County has 112 community police departments – more than Hawaii, Delaware and Nevada combined. To the rational observer, this would seem to be both excessive and incredibly draining on municipal and county budgets. Indeed, taxpayers are supporting small – and unnecessary – police departments across the county and signing away hard-earned dollars to keep afloat a bloated system of paperwork and red tape.
The age of red tape, however, could be coming to an end in the future. Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato made police and emergency service consolidation a major goal in his 2010 Allegheny County Budget.
It is logical to think that this could be spun as corner cutting at a level of services that could be argued to be essential to the function of any municipality. This, however, is the incorrect way to examine the issue.
The fact that municipalities are supporting a surplus of police departments in Allegheny County puts an unneeded burden on those who pay taxes to the municipalities where they reside. The consolidation of police departments would not cut jobs of police officers, but rather centralize power among these fragmented departments. This would allow for a greater number of experienced officers to pool resources and skills, rather than having to rely on the limited funds that they currently have access to.
Of course, consolidation is naturally unpopular at the political level. Telling one’s constituents that their police department has been eliminated in favor of a larger, less localized department is something that is most likely standing in the way of many politicians supporting logical consolidation. This political obstacle must be overcome if we are to make every tax dollar count.
Consolidation could save municipalities millions of dollars just in building and maintenance costs because a merged force wouldn’t require police stations in every locality. It would also stop tax money going towards the processing of paper work related to policing beyond jurisdictional lines. Similarly, this would also mean that disagreements between departments that arise from jurisdictional issues would be greatly reduced, thus increasing productivity and the service provided to citizens. This increase in the quality of service is perhaps the greatest benefit that citizens can hope to receive as a result of police consolidation.
After all, the police department is expected to protect and serve the community in the most efficient and honest way that it can. This cannot be expected to happen when Allegheny County lies fragmented in 112 different jurisdictions that are a major drain on taxpayer money in an economic climate that is struggling to bounce back.
Nate Hanson is a student fellow at the Publius Foundation.