University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Dissertations UMSL Graduate Works 4-25-2016 Police Contracting in St. Louis County: Focusing Events and Changes in Image and Venue in Five Case Studies Alan W. Karr University of Missouri-St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://irl.umsl.edu/dissertation Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Karr, Alan W., "Police Contracting in St. Louis County: Focusing Events and Changes in Image and Venue in Five Case Studies" (2016). Dissertations. 126. https://irl.umsl.edu/dissertation/126 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the UMSL Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Police Contracting in St. Louis County: Focusing Events and Changes in Image and Venue in Five Case Studies Alan W. Karr M.A., Political Science, University of Missouri – St. Louis, 2013 M.P.P.A., University of Missouri – St. Louis, 2010 B.A., Philosophy & Letters, St. Louis University – St. Louis, 2004 A dissertation submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Administration and Urban Politics. May 2016 Dissertation Committee Todd Swanstrom, Ph.D. Chairperson E. Terrence Jones, Ph.D. Andrew Glassberg, Ph.D. Daniel Isom, Ph.D. Table of Contents Abstract ...............................................................................................................................3 Introduction .......................................................................................................................4 Policing St. Louis County ..............................................................................................18 Literature Review ............................................................................................................35 Hypotheses and Methodology ......................................................................................56 Contracting Municipalities: Fenton ...................................................................................................................71 Jennings ................................................................................................................85 Dellwood ............................................................................................................101 Non-Contract Municipalities: Rock Hill .............................................................................................................115 Hazelwood .........................................................................................................122 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................130 Tables ..............................................................................................................................145 Charts ..............................................................................................................................152 References ......................................................................................................................178 2 Abstract St. Louis County, Missouri is a fragmented suburban area, covering 505 square miles, with ninety separate municipalities. Fifty-six municipalities maintain in-house police departments, while thirty-four contract police services from other governments. Previous research concerning interjurisdictional collaboration efforts has been rooted in the rational choice theory. However, the rational choice theory alone does not explain why some municipalities do or do not enter into contracts for police services. The purpose of this work is to examine police contracting decisions in St. Louis County, specifically the drivers behind contracting discussions and decisions in five sample municipalities in St. Louis County. The five case studies were examined utilizing theories from the policy process literature, namely focusing events and changes in image and venue. Decisions were also examined utilizing Wilson’s typology of police styles. Of the case studies that resulted in a police contract, a change in both venue and image occurred. In the case studies that did not result in a police contract, a change in image and venue related to matters of policing did not occur. Therefore, it was determined that changes in image and venue as well as a focusing event on police were necessary for successful decisions to contract police services. 3 Chapter 1 Introduction St. Louis County is a patchwork of municipalities that, like a true patchwork quilt, vary in shape, size, and community fabric. Despite the differences in these municipalities, each community strives to protect its citizens through police services. The way in which these municipalities provide police services is just as much of a patchwork as the myriad of municipalities. Some municipalities maintain their own police departments while others contract police services from the County or another municipality. The purpose of this work is to examine police contracting decisions in St. Louis County, specifically, the drivers behind contracting discussions and decisions in five sample municipalities in St. Louis County. The question of contracting decisions touches on matters of efficiency, police- community relations, as well as justice and fairness. Agreements between governments may be made informally, through formalized networks, voluntarily created, or mandated by an outside party. Mandated agreements may be required by legislative bodies. In St. Louis County, contractual agreements for police services are formal agreements created voluntarily between governments. Formal agreements have been described as “transactions that require financial transfers [that are] usually…formalized in order to protect property rights of the participating governments” (Andrew 2009, 134). Legally binding agreements are important to delineate responsibilities and to ensure that financial 4 commitments and responsibilities are met. Lakewood Plan Lakewood, California was one of the first examples of a municipality that contracted all of its municipal services with another government. In 1954, Lakewood incorporated to stave off annexation by Long Beach, a neighboring municipality. Lakewood utilized contractual agreements to avoid start-up and maintenance costs of standard municipal bureaucracies (Miller 1981). Lakewood maintained its legislative governing functions, which included responsibilities such as budgeting, finance, planning, and policy formation, while contracting municipal services, such as police, fire, and trash services. This model became known as the “Lakewood Plan.” The Lakewood Plan provided a road map for municipalities to contract services production traditionally reserved as a responsibility of the provisioning municipality (Jamison and Bigger 1957). The police services provided to Lakewood represent a standardized service delivery model. Services are standardized because the provider, the County Sheriff’s Department in this case, maintains a set of uniform standards that apply to police practices (Mehay 1979, 61). Under the Lakewood Plan the Sheriff’s Department developed a unitized method through which police services were offered. An example of a defined unit was a police-car-on-continuous-patrol with the associated auxiliary services provided (Ostrom, Tiebout, and Warren 1961, 839). The Lakewood Plan also 5 provided an example of standardized police services provided to a municipality by a contracted agency and an example of how to provide police service with unitized methodology. The Lakewood Plan is important to any discussion of contractual agreements for the provision of municipal law enforcement services because the plan has been successful. Lakewood was the first municipality to contract police services from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department 2009, 5). Today, the Sheriff’s Department still provides police services to the City of Lakewood. The Sheriff’s Department provides police services for forty-two of the eighty-eight municipalities within Los Angeles County (personal interview, September 11, 2015). One former ranking member of the St. Louis County Police Department pointed out that the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department program was an example for St. Louis County officials on how to effectively implement and manage municipal police contracts (personal interview, June 9, 2014). Why Understanding Police Contracting is Important The state provides police services as a public good for order maintenance. A pure public good is non-rival and non-excludable. Non-rival means that the consumption of the good by one consumer does not diminish the ability of another consumer to utilize the good. Non-exclusion means that it is impossible to prevent people from using the good, even those who may not be paying for the good (i.e. free-riders). When a public good is both non- 6 rival and non-exclusionary then it is known as “pure.” However, most public goods—such as police services—are not pure (Hirsch 1970 and Hardin 1982). Police services are rivalrous, therefore, they are not pure. Traffic on a freeway is commonly used as an example to explain rival goods. As traffic increases, the ability for drivers to fully enjoy the