Law Enforcement as a Business
Even if consolidation did lower costs, there are other considerations more important than money.
The story of the transformation of law enforcement in Salt Lake County to one “unified” police force illustrates some of the harmful consequences of consolidation.
In a widely reprinted article entitled “The Sheriff Who Sold His County,” Clint Richardson recounts the “evolution” of law enforcement in this Western ski haven. According to Richardson, on January 1, 2010, Salt Lake County “became a police state” when the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Department was officially dissolved and in its place a corporation took over all law-enforcement duties. The private company that was given control of police functions is called the “Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake” (UPD).
First, the UPD became the “new police force” for all of the cities and unincorporated area within Salt Lake County. As Richardson says, this abolished “the only true lawful protective body within the county, the elected Sheriff’s ‘Department.’”
At the time of the consolidation, a report published by the county mayor declared that the man the people elected as sheriff, Jim Winder, was appointed by the County Council to be the chief executive officer (CEO) of the UPD, a private company that would be handling the county’s crime prevention duties and running the “day-to-day police operations.”
This reassignment and relabeling seems to turn the man who was once the duly elected sheriff into an unelected personal commissar of the politicians who run the county.

Read the entire article: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/12931-police-consol...

All concerned police chiefs nationwide, proud of their noble profession and their responsibility to protect and serve their fellow citizens, who are facing the hard press from local politicians to cooperate with the move toward consolidation, should learn from Salt Lake County.
Without simplifying the situation too much, the plain fact is that a business now runs law enforcement in Salt Lake County. Local police chiefs, if they still exist, no longer have any control over policy or procedure. In Salt Lake County, control right now belongs to an unelected and unaccountable board of directors that is driven not by a zeal for the fighting of crime or the well-being of officers, but by an obligation to mind the bottom line and keep the profit margin wide.
For their part, the people can’t turn to a man who lives in the community and benefits from the protection and safety he maintains. Police chiefs and the public will have their control, their autonomy, and their dignity co-opted by a corporation.
In the case of Salt Lake County, Clint Richardson ably sums up the sad situation:

A corporation is always designed to make a profit, even in a so-called non-profit structure. Therefore the Sheriff, as CEO of the UPD Corporation, has been catapulted into a position that now directly conflicts with the lawful purposes for which the voters elected him into office. As the corporate president of this police corporation, he must ensure a profit is made for the company. Therefore, the people of the county will suffer the consequences of their Sheriffs [sic] conflict of interest.