Examining the merits of municipal police contracting
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-11-01-2011-B004 |
| Pages | 95-107 |
| Author | Richard W. Schwester |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management,Government,Economics,Public Finance/economics,Texation/public revenue |
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, VOLUME 11, ISSUE 1, 95-107 SPRING 2011
EXAMINING THE MERITS OF MUNICIPAL POLICE CONTRACTING
Richard W. Schwester*
ABSTRACT. The touted benefits of inter-governmental contracting are cost
savings and simplicity when compared to shared service agreements. Some
managers and public officials resist contracting given the assumption that
there may be a drop-off in service quality. However, inter-governmental
contracting introduces market forces which theoretically would improve
performance while keeping costs per unit of output low (Boyne, 1998). This
paperexamines municipal police contracting in the State of New Jersey, the
purpose of which is to determine if there are statistically significant
differences in non-violent crime rates among municipalities that maintain
their own police force versus those that contract with neighboring
municipalities for police services. Contracting costs are also explored. While
summary statistics indicate lower non-violent crime rates among
municipalities that maintain their own police force compared to those that
contract for police services, multiple regression results indicate that
contracting does not predict higher non-violent crime rates at the .05 level.
Therefore, contracting for police services should be explored as an
alternative municipal policing model.
INTRODUCTION
Alternative service delivery models have been examined in the
interest of cutting costs, while at the same time improving service
quality. Privatization, shared service agreements (or consolidation),
and inter-governmental contracting have emerged as service delivery
alternatives for municipalities. Although once hailed as the solution to
under-achieving public bureaucracies, the fact that privatization
-------------------------------------
* Richard W. Schwester, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor, Department of
Public Management, and Associate Director, Academy for Critical Incident
Analysis, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). His research interests
include police service models and shared municipal services.
Copyright © 2011 by PrAcademics Press
To continue reading
Request your trial