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One solution to cost control is to contract law enforcement services from the county. Another is to merge the city and county police into a metro department. Another is to join police and fire into a public safety department. Photo by Mark C. Ide Work Shifts In the past, "traditional" law enforcement scheduling has been five days on, two days off. Many agencies have moved toward Compressed Work Schedules, (CWS) such as four 10-hour days, or three 12-hour days. This can be a morale-booster, especially for personnel who are assigned to work different shifts as it offers more days off and reduced commuting times and mileage. The concept of take-home cars is controversial and policies vastly differ between departments. Some departments limit take-home vehicles to motorcycles, higher-ranking staff offcers, K-9, and on-call detectives. Other departments may individually issue the vehicle and allow the offcer to take their vehicle home. Some advantages to take-home vehicles include instant mobilization in the event of a disaster, and vehicles do last longer as they receive better care and less abuse than the typical feet vehicle. Reserve Offcers Many departments allow the option of retired offcers to function as active reserve officers, to supplement patrol, investigations, staff special events, and other functions within the department. This can reduce overtime and benefts expenses. Keeping retired offcers active retains valuable manpower, and more importantly, retains the accumulated skills and knowledge, which might have walked out the door along with their re- The in-house service versus out-source service is a serious budget-busting issue. Consider having your police vehicles repaired outside, but by a neighboring police agency. tired badge and I.D. card. Some agencies rely heavily on reserve offcers, which can have positive and negative benefts, depending on the type of reserve program in place. Reserve offcers can range from the unarmed auxiliary, useful for traffc control, writing parking citations, special events, working as a desk offcer or as a jailor. On the other end of the spectrum is the fully certifed reserve with 24/7 police powers. The law enforcement manager needs to be careful about how reserves are deployed as saturating patrol divisions with reserves to the point where regular offcers are displaced will bring about howls from the regular offcers and/or their bargaining associations. Income-Generating Ideas Many departments are generating some additional income from various services such as conducting and submitting fngerprints for individuals requiring security clearances, the releasing of impounded vehicles, providing copies of reports, subpoena service, issuance of various licenses, and citation sign-offs for equipment violations. When was this policy last updated, and are the costs in line with current price schedules? Instead of contracting to outside vendors, such as car washes, some feet managers utilize trusty labor from the jails to wash their vehicles and provide other custodial duties. Care must be taken that weapons, computer terminals, and other sensitive information cannot be accessed by the trustees. Sergeant Richard Lee, feet manager of the San Francisco Police Department, has a demanding job keeping his 1200-vehicle feet on the road in a rugged operating environment. Unfortunately, in law enforcement accidents do occur and in his city, about 240 police vehicle collisions occur annually. One of the things Sergeant Lee does is push the City Attorney for restitution against the at-fault drivers and their insurance companies for damage to his police vehicles and/or city property. This has added up to a considerable amount of money, in the range of about $100,000 annually. Over the past 10 years, Sgt. Lee has recovered almost $1.2 million. Sgt. Lee is insistent this funding is diverted back into his budget to offset repair costs, rather than the General Fund, where the money would never be seen again. Alternative Vehicles Tightened budgets have tempted many law enforcement fleet administrators to keep police vehicles in service until they are no longer serviceable—in other words, run them until the wheels fall off. While this theory appears to be costeffective to the uninformed, it is not economical in the long run when major components begin to fail and repair costs skyrocket. Excessive repair costs can very well be a determining factor www.lawandordermag.com 57