Looks like Pacifica Five-0 and South SF Five-0 are going to try to merge parts of their PD's to save some Five-0 dough. Daly City, Colma and San Bruno Five-0's may consolidate with Pacifica and SSF Five-0's later.
http://www.speier.house.gov/uploads/SpeierFY2011%20Pacifica%20Police%20Department.pdf
Posted by Steve Sinai
3 comments:
How much did the Fire Dept. Merger save us??
Dear News Writers,
It was first on the website fixpacifica.blogspot.com that I saw
that Pacifica Police Department is considering consolidation.
Why hasn't this been mentioned anywhere else? Further investigation bought me to Congresswomen Jackie Speier's website (the link pasted above), where it shows that the city of Pacifica has requested funds for a dispatch consolidation.
Even though the Federal Grant states there was a public hearing held on February 8, 2010, this was the first time of my learning about it.
All the time, I see articles in the newspapers about merging occurring in other cities. Why isn't Pacifica's merger being talked about?
On February 11, 2010, Pacifica Police Chief Saunders, with the backing of Pacifica's city manager, Stephen Rhodes, and mayor Sue Digre, requested federal funding from Congresswomen Speier. The money awarded in the grant would then be given to the city of South San Francisco in order for them to improve their facility, so that they can take over Pacifica Police Dispatch.
As stated in the grant (the link above), the $1 million grant is not even enough to fully pay for the consolidation. If Pacifica Police Department is awarded with the funds, the success of the consolidation would be FULLY DEPENDANT on OTHER CITIES joining the consolidation as well.
In the request, Pacifica Mayor Sue Digre, told Congresswoman Speier that this Dispatch Consolidation will allow for joined agencies to begin responding to calls for assistance based on location of the police officer; it would remove borders and jurisdictions.
So with the shortage of police officers in Pacifica as it is, is the City Manager, Chief of Police, and the Mayor REALLY going to allow one of our officers to leave OUR city and respond to a South San Francisco's call for assistance? Because they are the closest police officer available?
Weren't the same things said when the County Fire Departments proposed to merge?
How's that working out for the cities?
How much money did that merger really save us?
What I didn't see in the appropriations request was "How many employees would be sacrificed?" and "What services would be lost to the citizens?".
I've been to council meetings and to the police departments disaster preparement meetings before, and there are existing mutual aid agreements currently in place.
How is this consolidation going to top what Pacifica and the County already has, other than a new computer system?
This seems like a very important issue that I don't think many Pacifica citizens are aware of.
For sure too many questions, not enough answers, but its likely in any such a consolidation Pacifica gains. We don't have much of a crime lab, our shared electronic communication technology has been way off for years. What police staff we have (the minimum) is overloaded with rookies.
On the other hand, Don Horsley (County Supervisor candidate, 12+ years county sheriff) was discussing this in a recent conversation, and he commented not all services can be consolidated.
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