Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
In a recent “Letter From The Editor†that I read the topic of how law enforcement should plan to handle looming challenges was addressed. Several suggestions were made on how to prepare and one of the suggestions included partnering with other agencies to form regional task forces. I smiled when I read it because no matter how intelligent it might be to partner with allied agencies, politics, egos and sundry other things seem to get in the way. Let me give you an example.
Not long ago I regularly interacted with an officer who had been tasked by his Chief to explore the concept of forming a multi-jurisdictional SWAT team. The concept was that the team would start out as a special assignments team, regularly train and increase their skill sets until they could start handling high risk warrant services. After that point was reached and the concept proven (again – since it’s been done so many places around our country) then the team could start training to expand their capabilities to include hostage rescue, barricaded gunmen, etc. The officer tasked with this effort had approximately 17 agencies to involve in the team building and he had to find a way to get all those Chiefs “on boardâ€.
Some of the reasons he was given why Chiefs would NOT allow their agencies to participate were:
- What about liability insurance? I don’t want to be responsible for the actions of officers from other agencies.
- What about the county’s SWAT team? We don’t want to insult them by building our own.
- What about oversight? Who would control the team?
- When my officers, if they’re on the team, are operating in other jurisdictions, who pays the costs for them to be there?
There were plenty of other complaints. These are the ones I remember because, to me, they were all so easy to address. Liability insurance? Virtually every agency involved uses the same insurance consortium to be “self insuredâ€. Off-duty officers are in your jurisdiction every day. Will you be responsible for them if something happens and they have to take action? Think about it. Insulting the county SWAT team? This is ludicrous. The county SWAT team is already so over-worked that they even offered to help train up the multi-jurisdictional team. Oversight? Control? Well since there is no efficient way for ONE team to answer to 17 Chiefs, the suggestion was made that a panel of 3 Chiefs be created and the team leader would answer to that panel. All Chiefs thought this was a great idea – provided they were one of the Chiefs on the panel. Costs to operate in other jurisdictions… hmm… This one got me. Let me think: when YOUR officers operate in another jurisdiction, YOU pay for them. That’s YOUR agency’s contribution to the effort. But guess what? When the OTHER officers are in YOUR jurisdiction doing something YOU need, the OTHER agencies are paying for THEIR officers. Isn’t that how “sharing resources†works?
This rice bowl thinking is very frustrating to me. In my three years of contracting to the U.S. Army I saw the same thing. Two separate operational entities could need and build an identical structure that each would only need 15 to 20 hours per week. So why can’t they just build ONE and share it? The answer I got was, “Because if I don’t spend the dollars to build that resource then I might lose those dollars in the next budget year. I have to look out for my section.†My first thought was, “What a waste of tax payer dollars.†My second thought was a scary realization: This is how the mentality is at upper levels across the board. Don’t believe me? Look at the current economic crisis and tell me how many of our elected representatives have COMPLETELY put aside party interests to represent the voters?
Together we stand; divided we fall is a quote that has been used across the centuries. How have we not learned from it? Or do we simply refuse to see the lesson and keep repeating ancient mistakes?
Across our country there is a shortage of men and women stepping up to serve in the law enforcement profession. There is an equal shortage of those volunteering for military service. Sure, we can attribute the latter to the fact that we have two current war fronts. But let me ask you this: if our services are only manned by those who are willing to serve when there is NO war going on, what good are they? The purpose of our military is to protect and defend – in war and in peace. In fact, there’s another good quote:
If you want peace, prepare for war.
The same can be said for those who wear a police or deputy’s uniform. Crime fighting is never easy. Sometimes it’s boring and monotonous but at other times it’s filled with moments of stark terror intermixed with high energy fights for your survival. No one serving on a front line, whether it’s in a military uniform or a law enforcement uniform, should labor under a leader who suffers the curse of rice bowl thinking.
What do you think?
