The following is my personal analysis of the Outagamie County Sheriff Merger Proposal. These are observations regarding the proposal after careful research of other police department merger processes.
Analysis of
Merger Proposal
Organizational Structure
OCS does not assign a specific chief deputy to Grand Chute, but rather utilizes three captains who oversee the entire county. Eliminating a deputy chief position takes away a centralized and localized authority-figure for a department. A chief provides a face to the community for their issues and concern. There is no long-term or short term plan from OCS, other than it will remain the same for now. This is turning absolute control of a department to the sheriff, who in essence does not have answer to anyone other than the county board. GC only has four representatives out of 36 on this board. This is placing a huge amount of trust in the sheriff to operate GC more effectively than a chief and little recourse if the sheriff does not perform to the public or town board’s satisfaction. The sheriff is also an elected position, and has the potential to be replaced every four years, creating a different management style that may not coordinate with Grand Chute’s strategic vision of their police department.
Criminal Investigations
There are the same issues associated with the APD proposal. Also, it is unclear if one or two of the current detective duties are being eliminated and placed as a line officer.
Specialized Services
GC taxpayers already pay for county specialized services such as K-9, boat patrol, dive team, snow patrol. State statutes dictate that the county sheriff is bound by law to provide existing services to each township. Therefore, there is limited advantage to merge with the county for this reason. GC officers would have an opportunity to join the specialized teams.
Elimination of Police and Fire Commission
A police and fire commission is made up of a group of professionals who have experience in those respected fields. They understand the complexities involved with issues such as hiring, suspending, demoting or terminating an officer if the need arises, and make recommendations directly to the town board, assisting in the hiring process from the beginning. OCS proposal eliminates such a commission, and places these burdens on the
Facilities
OCS proposes to move their administrative offices to the town hall and occupy space in addition to the existing police department area. The department is willing to lease out this space, but will require remodeling of 4306 sq. ft. of empty area designated for future growth needs of all departments at the town hall. Serious examination would be required to see if this option would be available, or if the remodel would cause premature outgrowth of the town hall, which is not in GC taxpayer’s best interest.
Crime Statistics
OCS crime statistics for assisting GC with calls are misleading.
The numbers include over 670 GPS (ankle bracelet) checks which are a responsibility of OCS jail. GC did not call for 504 traffic stops. These include traffic stops initiated by OCS in Grand Chute and should not be considered assisting calls in GC.
Coverage
The inherent difference between a police department and a sheriff’s department is that a sheriff’s deputy’s boundary is county-wide, and if the metropolitan area does not cover the majority of the existing county, policing can be very rural-oriented. This is a different experience than urban-related policing. OCS proposes to keep the same patrol personnel within GC until 2010, whereby they can put in for other assignments. Because of the open movement, GC may lose officers who have been trained and groomed for urbanized and community-minded police work.
Once again, accepting that coverage remains the same would require placing a large amount of trust in the sheriff’s proposal. The sheriff has the authority at any time to pull officers from their district and re-assign. This can be seen in the attached photo from the front page of the October 4, 2006 Post-Crescent, where the Town of Buchanan officer is seen directing traffic outside of Freedom school after a suspected shooting incident.
Budget
OCS budget includes GCs designated overtime (explained in APD what GC plans to do with this). OCS uses this money to help fund their proposal. OCS dictates that any overtime would be above and beyond and paid for by GC.
Unclear if one records clerk position is eliminated.
No clear cut costs in startup. See
