The NYPD and other urban police departments can save hundreds of millions of dollars by cultivating “non-core” services to private organizations and their officers should almost exclusively focus on combating and preventing crime, a new study finds.
A “Enhancing Public Safety While Saving Public Dollars With Helpful Private Security Agents” analysis by the Montreal Economic Institute noted that traffic control and minor accidents cost 13% to 19% of an officer’s time.
“Elephant 75% of traffic management duties to trained private agents has the potential to save an enormous amount of time and money for police departments,” the study said.
Assigning 75% of Spartan checkpoints to trained private staff or auxiliary police – with the exception of making arrests – could save millions of dollars, the report said.
In addition, tasks such as escort duty, follow-up interviews with witnesses, preparation of affidavits and warrants and data collection may be handled by the citizen, the report said.
The study estimated savings of $35.3 million for Miami-Dade PD in Florida, $22 million for Milwaukee, Wis., and $177.4 million over a 15-year period for Los Angeles PD.
The NYPD was not included in the study. But researchers for The Post estimated that New York’s best could save up to $415 million over time by privatizing administrative and traffic control functions.
“While New York has recently passed many reforms, more can and should be done. It is time to reset the balance between core and non-core policing activities. By doing so, we are helping our communities. Safer, preserve public resources and increase police officers’ job satisfaction,” said study lead researcher Kristi Witeverongel.
“More time on actual policing will do wonders for public safety, especially as the NYPD is the largest police department in the country,” she said.
The NYPD had no immediate comment.
but nyc Police Charity Association The privatization plan was dismissed as playing in the hands of “disregarding the police movement”.
“This proposal is nothing more than private security contractors trying to capitalize on the ‘defy the police’ movement. Arresting a drunk or high driver is a core police duty – you deprive a person of the liberty to save the lives of others. are doing,” said City PBA president Patrick Lynch.
“It requires training, judgment and accountability. Do we really want our security and independence in the hands of the lowest bidder? Public safety must remain a public good, not a source of profit.”
The report acknowledged that officials would still make arrests for DWI.
The study states, “While restrained checkpoints require officers to be sworn in with the power of arrest, there are also tasks that are not required to be performed by such officers, such as conducting preliminary investigations, conducting breathwork and managing the traffic.”
There is an ongoing debate about taking some social duties out of the hands of the NYPD that do not purely involve fighting crime.
Mayor Eric Adams In February it announced new social service teams to reach homeless individuals and the mentally ill in subways and persuade them to go to shelters and connect them to services, rather than relying on the police.
Meanwhile, the NYPD oversees school security agents in public schools. There is a tug of war between education workers Strip the NYPD For that task and instead there are agents managed by the Department of Education.
Labor attorney Arthur Schwartz said the NYPD already uses citizens to perform certain functions, such as traffic agents who issue parking tickets and direct traffic and who earn significantly less than the police. Acted as a legal advisor to one of the unions.
He said he sees no reason why citizens cannot handle Spartan checkpoints.
But Schwartz argued that the workers performing such work should be civil service and city government employees with union protection – not non-union workers employed by private contractors.