As a professor in the School of Criminal Justice and the director of the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection at Michigan State University, Jeremy Wilson has spent much of his career focusing on police issues. Like any dedicated and inquisitive researcher, his work often uncovers new questions that, despite being uncomfortable, nonetheless must be answered. Such is the case with the often controversial issue of police consolidation, and his latest research effort is helping to educate people around the country.
Years ago, Wilson worked with police organizations at a time when many were finding it difficult to recruit and retain officers. When the economy started to worsen, however, the issues shifted to what police departments and local government could do when budgets were slashed and jobs were threatened. Police consolidation was an option many considered, but the safety fears in communities if they were to lose officers and concerns among the officers themselves about job losses made it a non-starter in many circles.
Wilson realized that, while such fears are understandable, it’s important that discussion and decisions be based on evidence and analysis as opposed to emotion and anecdote. These difficult processes could be assisted by independent research on the various forms of public safety service delivery and which may work where and under what circumstances. That led to the birth of PCASS – the Program on Police Consolidation and Shared Services at MSU in the School of Criminal Justice.
“The cuts in some of these communities were so deep they would have to reduce staff in some significant way because personnel is the largest portion of most communities’ budgets,” Wilson said. “Public safety is always something that’s protected. The problem is that you had communities who had to do something fairly drastic, but they didn’t have any guidance on what the options are or their short- and long-term implications.”
When looking at police consolidation actions happening in communities around the country, Wilson and his co-researchers saw first-hand the visceral response people often have when discussing the issue.
“We’ve always been very clear that we are not advocating for consolidation, but rather we’re simply studying the different options and presenting the information so that others can determine for themselves what type of option might be best for them based on their own circumstances. None of these are one size fits all solutions.”
Now, with support from the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Service office and National Institute of Justice, along with the MSU Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, Wilson and the PCASS team have completed several studies around the country that critically examine different types of consolidation. All of it has led to several major publications and the creation of an online portal on the PCASS website.
Wilson and the PCASS interdisciplinary team of researchers from Criminal Justice, Marketing and Human Resources and Labor Relations are having an impact through the web portal. They collected, annotated and coded all of their research studies, as well as hundreds of other resources, and made them searchable so that any community can find whatever information it needs.
While some people are immediately against any kind of work involving police consolidation, others have embraced this new body of research for its independent and scientific nature. The PCASS team has provided assistance to many communities. One police chief, for example, wrote to Wilson to personally thank him for presenting consolidation issues to consider that were previously unknown.
“Word has gotten out there that if someone has a consolidation question, MSU is the place to contact because we’re leading the science behind all of it,” Wilson said.