Law Enforcement

posted on December 11, 2011 14:43

Village

Outagamie

Northeastern

Consolidation of Services

Previous sharing of services between Villages of Kimberly and Little Chute
Village of Combined Locks operated its own "in-house" police department
Before 2011 operating year, Village Administrator approached Fox Valley Metro Police Department about combining with Village's in-house department
greement went into effect in April 1995 - initiated a 66.0301 (2) agreement to consolidate 14 and 9 officer staff into a combined district with 17,000 residents

Projected cost savings of approximately $561,563
Primary obstacle was gaining support of residents
Desire for economies of scale, enhances service
Communities already had close working relationship from the previous library merger
High degree of trust between Village leaders aided in the creation of this partnership
Some degree of opposition to the merger - more than 10% of voters signed a petition asking the merger be put up for referendum, although state law does not require approval by voters for consolidation of 'functional' operations

Original study showed that the merger might save up to $100,000 in operating expenses in the first year
These savings were found to be overestimated - Little Chute had to reassign some of their central administrative costs that they had directly assessed in their own police department
Each Village pays a percentage of the costs of the department based on a formula that is weighted by the populations and by the equalized valuations of each community- about a 40% for Kimberly and 60% for Little Chute split
Became 'Fox Valley Metro Police Department'
Some say real savings is from reducing the added costs for policing in both communities, which have been caused by increasing population growth over the last five years
Policing costs in the combined area per capita is about 6.2% below the average comparable sized city in 2000 based on per capita law enforcement costs
Enhanced quality of service - two full-time crime investigators, one community relations lieutenant working in schools, at festivals
Discussions with the Village of Combined Locks to join joint department as well