PROVIDENCE – The city could cut costs, improve services and make its police and fire departments more efficient by creating a new department to coordinate and respond to social service-related needs.
This was the primary conclusion of a nearly 200-page report published on Tuesday analyzing the city’s Department of Public Safety budget and operations. Mayor Jorge O. Elorza in September announced plans to hire a consultant, the Public Financial Management’s Center for Justice and Safety Finance, to review and recommend ways to improve city public safety in response to a growing movement calling for municipalities to defund their police departments.
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While the report does not explicitly call for defunding the Providence Police Department, it does note the high cost for public safety: The department as a whole, which also includes the fire department, emergency management and public safety commissioner, comprised 46.6% of nonschool-related spending in the fiscal 2020 budget.
Furthermore, a majority of calls for service to Providence Police are not for serious offenses; traffic calls and traffic stops, business and building alarms and “well-being” checks were roughly 30% of all calls for service in 2019. At the same time, Federal Bureau of Investigations Part 1 crimes – larceny, shootings, aggravated assaults, etc- have continued to decline in recent years, falling below 3% of total calls for service in calendar year 2020.
Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare in a virtual press conference Tuesday acknowledged the need to relieve police officers of the “burden” posed by a high volume of mental health and well-being-related calls.
“We go because there’s no one else to send,” Pare said. “We know they’re not the best-trained to respond to those calls.”
The report outlined a series of “prevention-first” options to better use expensive police and fire resources while addressing the concerns that dominate public safety needs in the city. Among them is creating an Office of Neighborhood Services, which would free up the police department to be a “spoke” in delivery of services rather than the “hub.”
The new office would focus on social support services for the community, coordinating across departments and managing a third-party vendor to respond to mental health, substance abuse and homelessness-related calls. The exact cost of this new department was unclear; the report provided an estimate of personnel costs through fiscal 2026 of $2.5 million.
What this means for the police department is also not spelled out; the report stated the department may require a new staffing analysis in light of its revised responsibilities. The department should also stand up an “alternate response model” to deal with the high-volume of mental-health, homelessness and substance-abuse related calls, while looking into ways to reduce the high number of false building alarms triggering police responses.
Better reporting, including on controversial police use of force and racial disparities in arrests, was also recommended. One-third of arrests in 2019 were of black city residents, though they comprised just 15% of the population, according to the report, though it stated more nuanced analysis was needed to understand racial and ethnic disparities in arrest patterns.
The report also analyzed and made recommendations related to the Providence Fire Department, which continues to see more emergency services-related calls than those for structure fires. The report recommended the department take an emergency services-focused approach, including reducing the number of fire companies, equipment and personnel while partnering with hospitals and other agencies to increase health-related prevention services.
“Nothing is broken, but there are great opportunities and options to improve efficiencies and cut costs,” Pare said.
The report is part of a number of steps the city is taking to better understand and improve its public safety services for the present and future needs, Elorza said. Other actions include a review of its use of force policy, updated training for new officers and increasing diversity in recruiting and hiring.
A private donor paid PFM for the report. Elorza on Tuesday again declined to identify the donor.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com.
