First, let me say that I thank and support the Oro Valley Police Force on the street who serve our community and keep us safe. Great job!!
That said, I can not understand why any well run organization would have such fear of an audit; nor why some members of the Town Council insist on voting on the budget (“while they have a majority”) without due consideration of this option.
I have been on both sides of audits during my former career. Audits are simply a fact of life in the corporate world. Audits ensure that procedures are followed properly and that stockholder monies are not wasted. It would seem that this would be even more crucial when taxpayer monies are funding government agencies.
But - I was never in the field of law enforcement. So to gain a better understanding of
potential issues, I conducted an online search of police department
audits.
What I found was that audits can produce results.
Hoboken Police Department Audit
According to City-Data: Hoboken’s population in 2009 was 41,015 while Oro Valley’s population was 42,331. In terms of race, 81% of Hoboken residents were white; 82.4% of residents in Oro Valley were white. Some of the findings from this audit include:
- Determine whether the City's administration benefits from the Director of Public Safety position.
- Reduce staff.
- Determine net cost effectiveness of employing a 40-hour work-week instead of the current 35-hour week.
- Civilianize several positions (Records Bureau, Training, Property and Evidence, Information Technology and Dispatch Supervision) currently performed by police officers in order that more police officers are on the street.
- Hire Special Law Enforcement Officers to perform allowable duties in order that more police officers are devoted to power shifts and high crime areas. Develop a fee ordinance for “Special Events” services.
- Review ordinances and written directives to ensure compliance with Division of Criminal Justice.
- Develop vehicle replacement plan and update (technologically) the fleet and facilities..
I say: Bring it on! Put our concerns to rest.
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8 comments:
I agree, bring on the audit. Everything in the TOV budget bears scrutiny.
Shirl...." Put our concerns to rest."
Do you have any specific concerns? I ask only because you didn't mention any.
I also have not heard anyone on the Town staff or the Police Department or the Town Council state that they "fear" an audit. That is simply a conclusion that you and others have drawn based on the smoke and mirrors you have created.
You did question whether we should take the word of the Chief of Police.
That sounds more like personal vendetta than a concern with police operations.
Now having said that, I am confident that any audit/review/management study of the police department could find areas where we could reduce costs. That's easy. You and I could do that. But I ask you, at what cost? How much additional crime is tolerable? How many motor vehicle accidents resulting from excessive speed would be OK with you? Do you want valuable community services, that frankly set us apart, to be discontinued?
You and others continue to beat the drum of reducing the cost of the police department but I submit to you that there are probably 35,000 other citizens out there that are very satisfied with the services and cost of the police department.
The survey that was recently conducted by the very biased editor of the Explorer, in hopes of a different result, clearly demonstrated that the majority of the public feels the audit is not necessary.
Until I hear more than a select few clamor for an expenditure of $50,000-$80,000, I think there are far better places to spend the taxpayer bucks.
As Ms. Lamonna said, "Audits ensure that procedures are followed properly and that stockholder monies are not wasted." In THIS case, an audit would assure that our taxpayer money is not wasted.
One of the findings in the Hoboken audit was that hiring civilians to perform certain duties would free up more officers to be on the street. If the OVPD is not already doing this, I think this is a great idea.
Also, the Explorer surveys do not include "a majority of the public" as Thinker would have us believe. They are a random sampling of the positions of the people who choose to participate in the survey.
I really don’t understand why everyone is harping on the OVPD and demanding an audit for just their department. Why aren’t you demanding a study of the water department, streets and roads, the court house, HR, etc.? The hatred for the take home program keeps getting brought up too…well… great news… many take home vehicle studies have already been conducted, so we don’t have to waste the money on conducting yet another one! Go to www.jkpconsultinggroup.org , click on the “sample work product” tab on the left hand side, then click on the “police vehicle take home study.doc.” The cool part about this doc is that it gives links to three additional studies that were done on the same subject. Please read the studies. They are insightful and will (hopefully) make you think twice about criticizing the Take Home Vehicle program. So, now that we don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to realize that we are saving thousands of dollars by having take home vehicles we can let the people that we already pay figure out what office supplies to buy, and what shifts to have their officers work (I think the leadership at the OVPD who have 20+ years of experience each know how to run a department. If we don’t trust them, why did we hire them?). Are you insinuating that they don’t know how to do their jobs? Are you saying that they shouldn’t work at the OVPD because they obviously don’t know how to lead? I know these questions won’t be answered by the bloggers because they are always avoided. I say if you spend the tens of thousands of dollars to audit the OVPD, spend even more on auditing the entire town! I’m sure our hard working engineers wouldn’t mind hearing that they could get by on spending ten cents less for a pen, or switching to one ply toilet paper. Money can always be saved, but at what cost to the employees. Take away the reasons why good people accept job offers and the people that you are left with are the ones that you really don’t want.
OV you know the water department is not the same as the police department.
You also know that few if any posters on this blog are anti-police.
I think most of us would be happy to apply a majority of any savings from, oh say...take home vehicles to getting the step increase system fully funded.
Think about it.
I happen to agree with an audit being needed. Many people agree with that thinking, you just don't hear it.
I have lived in this time for a long time and I have seem many areas that could use improvement. The take home vehicles are just one. To watch these vehicles sitting around at home, unused, more than they are on the streets is a waste of money. To see patrol vehicles used to transport their children to and from school is unaceptable.
To have a huge drug problem in our schools, and the Student Resource Officers are a complete waste of time and money. Do any of you know how much time off the Student Resource Officers take each year? Do you know how much their take home vehicles sit unused?
I would guess that many residents have no idea just how bad the drugs and crimes related to drugs really are in this town. People want the residents to think that Danny Sharp keeps us safe, crime and drug free. And that just isn't true at all.
So I say let's bring in an outside, independent, impartial, non union, and truly objective thinker to audit this police department.
OV,
Every time I read L.O.V.E., I find you are the only one who "knows" what others are thinking. You continually bring up negative things about our outstanding OVPD... things that no other has suggested. Others state the truth.
If all other taxpayer subsidized entities, such as school districts, have to be accountable for financial affairs, why not the police department of our town?
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