No Free Lunch: Assignment Of Oro Valley Police Officers To "Outside" Agencies Does Cost Oro Valley

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There is no "free lunch" when it comes to the costs of Oro Valley police officer's assigned to agencies outside of Oro Valley ("outside assignments").  This, despite the fact, that we have frequently heard that outside assignments cost Oro Valley nothing. They do cost Oro Valley something!  Last year, outside assignments cost Oro Valley $244,589.

The following information was copied from The Oro Valley Police Department web site in May 2012. Since that time, the table was removed. We, however, have a copy of the original page before deletion of the table. We are displaying it exactly as printed. ( Click on the image to enlarge it.)

You can read about these assignments on the Oro Valley Police web site:

• Counter Narcotics Alliance (CNA)
• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
• Arizona Gang Intelligence Immigration Team Enforcement Mission (GIITEM)
• FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) 
  

Once assigned, the officer works under the direct supervision of the task force. Though the officer is a town employee, the town is prohibited from supervising the officer while the officer is on the task force.  Yet, the town pays the assigned officer and does incur cost of doing such.

This spending on outside assignments by the town of Oro Valley may be understated.  There may be "hidden" costs that appear elsewhere in the Oro Valley budget as line item expenses. These hidden costs could include the costs of take home cars, if the assigned officers have one; the costs of operating and maintaining Oro Valley vehicles they use, including the liability and insurance coverage; and the employee benefits associated with their employment.  "Hidden" costs, such as these, would further increase the Oro Valley investment in outside task forces.

The 2012-2013 police budget applies seizure and forfeiture funds to pay for 3 of these 8 outside  assignments. This amounts to an estimated $193,000.  So, one might argue that this reduces the cost to Oro Valley of these outside assignments; thus, some may argue, these outside assignments no longer cost Oro Valley money.

We disagree.   Outside assignments do cost the town.  The application of funds previously used for other uses does not change this fact.

This is the first year that the police department is allowed to use seizure and forfeiture funds to pay for police positions.   In prior years, seizure and forfeiture funds were used to pay for equipment.  The use of these seizure and forfeiture funds to pay for police officers is simply an accounting shift of the funds from one use, equipment, to another, personnel.  There is no net savings to the town.

Reimbursement for oustide assignments also depends on grants.  As Oro Valley history demonstrates, grants are not "forever".   If grants do not materialize then no grant reimbursement occurs.  Often, however, the item for which the grants applied does not disappear.  Instead, it becomes an ongoing expense to the town.  This is what happened when the state eliminated grant funding by the Arizona State School Resource Officer Program.  Oro Valley taxpayers now pay for the entire School Resource Officer program.

The Oro Valley web site contains details of the benefits the town gets from participation in each task force.  Benefits include:

• "Provides intelligence, expertise, personnel and resources to OVPD units, including the Community Action Team and the Criminal Investigations Unit, (CNA)
• The officers are provided extensive training from the federal government at no cost to the Town. This training benefits the police force upon the officers’ return to Oro Valley. (DEA)
• Helps direct OVPD efforts toward combating terrorism and protecting the Oro Valley community.  (JTTF)
• Discovered the following contacts existing in Oro Valley (GIITEM)
• four (4) types of motorcycle gangs
• two (2) different types of white supremacist faction
• fourteen (14) types of street gangs either traveling through or living in Oro Valley."

We don't know whether these and the other benefits listed on the web site justify Oro Valley's investment in outside assignments. We do know, however, that outside assignments do cost Oro Valley money.  As a result, these outside assignments should be discussed in a open forum by our Council.

The question: Is Oro Valley getting a return sufficient to justify its investment in outside assignments?

What do you think?
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