The Truth About "Public Safety", Part 11: Durham, NC - It's OK to Admit that you were wrong!

From the Durham Morning Herald, March 31, 1985

PSO END RECOMMENDED

Probers Endorse Separate Durham Police, Fire Depts.

by Mark Andrews, Herald staff writer

A consulting firm recommended Saturday that the city of Durham return eventually to separate police and fire departments and modify the public safety program in the meantime.

Representatives of Cresap, McCormick and Paget of Washington, D.C., said the city could save about $1.8 million a year and provide marginally better service with separate departments.

A summary of the company's findings was made public at a meeting in City Hall of an oversight committee created by the City Council.

The meeting was attended by about a dozen public safety officials, officers, firemen and at least one citizen who is a critic of the program.

The committee will meet next Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. The company's proposals will be presented to the City Council in May.

Bill Evans, a company vice president, said the firm had recommended that the changes be made through attrition and that no officers be fired. He suggested that some officers might be assigned to fire duty soon to begin the transition.

Evans said after the meeting that it might take 5 or 10 years to complete the process.

A more detailed report of the study is forthcoming.

"You will not find that report to be light reading," Evans said.

Public safety officers earn more than firefighters. Since firefighters work 24-hour shifts and sleep overnight at stations, they are on duty an average of 56 hours a week. Officers work an average of 42 hours a week.

"Because salaries and fringe benefits for firefighters are 25 percent less than for public safety officers, the per-hour on-duty cost of fire fighters is 41 percent less than the cost of public safety officers," the report says.

The study concluded that the city could save about a million dollars a year in the interim by changing the numbers of policemen, firefighters, and public safety officers.

Currently the city's public safety department has 277 public safety officers, 67 police officers, 74 firefighters and 59 civilians for a total of 477 employees.

In the interim phase, the study called for 132 public safety officers, 154 police officers, 115 firefighters and 58 civilians for a total of 459 employees.

With separate police and fire departments, the study proposes having 226 police officers, 170 firefighters and 59 civilians for a total of 455 employees.

The company said police and fire protection cost the city about 14.7 million a year now.

"You can't operate this department a million dollars cheaper next year," Evans said. "In fact, it would take a number of years for that to be the case."

As an intermediate goal, the company suggested that full-time firefighters be assigned to Stations 1 through 4.

Station 1 downtown is fire headquarters and has only firefighters at present.

Station 2 on Ninth Street in West Durham and Station 3 on Driver Avenue in East Durham have both firefighters and public safety officers.

Station 4 on Fayetteville Street has a public safety company.

Evans said that Cresap, McCormick and Paget recommended that the other six stations continue in the interim to retain public safety companies.

Ray Brown, a company consultant, proposed moving Station 9 westward, from East Club Boulevard to the Roxboro Road area. He proposed moving Station 5 about one or two miles southwest from its current location on Chapel Hill Road.

Brown said the company suggested that firefighters remain on 24-hour shifts and that public safety officers stay on 12-hour shifts. But the company proposes eight-hour shifts for officers who do only police work.

Public safety officers voted about five years ago to work 12-hour shifts so they could have more days and weekends off. An officer said Saturday afternoon those shifts were still popular.

Brown said the department could assign officers when they're needed most if it didn't require the same numbers on duty continuously for firefighting.

He said 25 public safety officers currently patrol the city day and night. That number does not include sergeants or other supervisors, since they do not routinely answer calls.

Brown said by adopting the company's proposals, the department could increase the number of patrolmen from 25 to 27 during the busy 4 p.m. to midnight shift. He said that would leave 23 officers for the day shift and 13 patrolmen working midnight until 8 a.m.

Brown said the consultants did not try to determine whether salaries in Durham were competitive with those of other cities.

The public safety program, in which officers do both police work and firefighting, was approved by the City Council in 1970. The first public safety company began operating in 1971.

City officials were trying to control personnel costs when they adopted the program.

The program has had critics, including firefighters, who said the program did not save money and that public safety officers could not be effective at both police work and firefighting.

But Brown said the public safety officers were well-trained.

"An obvious appeal was that the system avoids having very many people on the payroll sitting around fire stations waiting for the next fire alarm - alarms that by their nature occur infrequently," the report summary says.

"Instead, those persons could ride in patrol cars, answer calls for police service and protect the neighborhoods," the report says.

But Evans said, "We believe that the city should now reverse its direction."

He said the consultants had recommended that public safety officers who are forced to become policemen or firefighters not have their pay cut.

"We believe the city has an obligation to the public safety officers of this department," Evans said. "They have performed well and diligently."

He said, "We believe training costs wold be reduced, and you could probably expect to have less turnover among firefighters than police officers."

Last May the City Council decided to establish the oversight committee. Members include council members, public safety officers, a fireman and private citizens.

The committee recommended Cresap, McCormick and Paget last July.

Talmadge Lassiter, the city's public safety director, said after the meeting that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the study now.

"I am still a strong supporter of public safety," he said. "I have not wavered from that."

Public Safety Cpl. J.T. Mangum said Saturday evening that he was not surprised at the company's findings because most members of the oversight committee were opposed to public safety.

"I only know of one who is a proponent of public safety," Mangum said.