Following completion of a consolidation study by CGR for the Fire Districts of Hamlin, Morton and Walker, commissioners of the 3 districts voted unanimously to consolidate. The districts, located primarily in the northwest quadrant of Monroe County NY, jointly agreed to study consolidation to address the increasing challenges of finding volunteers, training them to higher standards, and meeting the demands of fire and emergency services under NY’s new property tax cap. Working with district representatives, CGR concluded consolidation could lower costs by 5%, result in better long-term capital purchase power and planning, and streamline the governance structure to promote better cooperation among the fire companies.

CGR completed, in partnership with Hofstra University, a major research engagement that looked at current ambulance and emergency medical services for the Town of North Hempstead (population 220,000) in NY’s Nassau County, where fire departments represent the most numerous emergency medical providers in the community. CGR completed extensive data collection of fire department/district finances, operations, resources and deployment strategies. The study culminated in 2 final reports: a) delineating current challenges to baseline operations and b) identifying specific short- and long-term options for enhancing service quality and addressing the system’s cost structure. The second report pointed out that the community is foregoing more than $3 million in potential annual revenue under the current structure, and presented a structural model that would allow the community to realize this revenue.

Massachusetts is looking to provide more efficient and effective public safety and emergency dispatching services. CGR was recently approved by the state’s E911 Department as a qualified firm to provide consulting services to localities in the state that are considering consolidating their public service answering points (PSAPs).  CGR and its partner, Blue Wing Services of St. Paul MN,  are rated qualified in all 3 of the consulting areas sought by the state (i.e., technical, operations, governance) – one of only 6 applicants to achieve this designation.  CGR is now eligible to work with communities across the state, which are eligible for grants from a pool of $12 million in state funds to use for consolidating and modernizing their PSAPs.

Recently CGR studied public safety options in both the Central and Finger Lakes regions of NY.

• Over many years, 4 villages and 1 town in Oneida County had discussed consolidating their separate police departments. CGR was engaged to provide comprehensive, fact-based information. Subsequently, all 5 endorsed moving forward with discussions to develop a detailed consolidation plan.
• As part of examining options for a village’s police and court services, CGR identified options for consolidating (in full or in part) the Village of Penn Yan’s police department with the Yates County Sheriff’s operation. Having the county, rather than the village, provide police service in the village, CGR found, could potentially save taxpayers up to $400,000 annually.

To see how a law enforcement study has been applied to actual practice, learn about the Rochester NY Police Department (RPD) patrol division reorganization, based on a major CGR study involving:

• Interviews with key stakeholders
• Analysis of 390,000+/year calls for service
• Comparison of call patterns with patrol staffing
• Use of GIS to evaluate patterns and call volume
• Identification of service expectations and resource constraints
• New approaches to better match patrol officers to demand
• Design of potential management staffing models (command staff and facilities)

The reorganization involved a police internal planning process and resulted in RPD keeping the same number of uniformed staff. An evaluation of the first 6 months showed, by moving from 7 to 2 sections and shifting some officers’ tours of duty, RPD reduced call-for-service response time by more than 10%, evened out command staff’s span of control, and reduced overtime costs by $900,000.