Comment Criticism of a six-member school police force in Uvalde, Texas, after its response to a mass shooting this spring has drawn attention to a ubiquitous American institution: the tiny police department. While proponents of such services say they provide a personal touch that larger police departments can’t match, critics say they often lack the training, expertise and accountability expected in today’s world of heavily armed criminals and increased police scrutiny. officers. In Uvalde, it took more than an hour after the first officers arrived for law enforcement to enter the classroom and kill a gunman who fatally shot 19 children and two teachers. The school police chief has borne the brunt of the blame, although larger agencies have also come under heavy criticism. Police departments with fewer than 10 officers have also made headlines in Pennsylvania, Maryland and elsewhere in recent years for hiring and misconduct issues. As the nation grapples with what policing should look like in the 21st century, many are questioning whether these smaller police departments — which operate in nearly every state, employ more than 20,000 officers nationwide and provide the first line of defense for millions Americans – they can adequately perform their mission. Officials in some states have pushed to consolidate smaller departments into larger, neighboring agencies, often drawing opposition. One reason police reform is difficult? So many small sections. “The only reason they exist is because of politics and they provide jobs for certain people,” said Charles A. McClelland Jr., who led the Houston Police Department from 2010 to 2016. “Uvalde is a perfect example of what’s wrong with the separate law enforcement jurisdictions we have in this country. Even though it happened in Texas, it could happen anywhere.”
“Dedication to Service” Agencies with fewer than 10 officers make up nearly half of the nation’s more than 12,200 local departments, according to a 2016 federal survey. In many cases, these agencies have emerged and evolved alongside the cities and communities they serve. “These agencies literally define community policing,” said Sean Marschke, who heads the 15-officer Sturtevant Police Department in Wisconsin and represents agencies with 15 or fewer officers on the board of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “A lot of these captains are the Little League coach. They also serve in the volunteer fire department. … So there is this dedication to service and really knowing the people you serve in these communities by their first names.” However, it is difficult or impossible for these departments to match the resources of the larger ones — resources that go to things like training, communications systems, body cameras and professional standards units. McClelland said officers in many of Texas’ smaller agencies receive only the minimum of 40 hours of continuing education every two years, while those in larger agencies often far exceed that. “The state’s requirements are very minimal and not sufficient,” he said. Lack of resources also translates into lower pay and fewer benefits, which makes it difficult to recruit players with a single-digit roster. In Maryland, Timothy Maloney, a trial attorney who served in the state legislature from 1979 to 1994, says the tiny departments there have long had a reputation for unstable hiring. “Some of their best officers are retired from large county departments,” Maloney said. “But they also take the refills and rejects from other agencies. There’s a food chain in law enforcement just like anywhere else.” This chief hires women to reduce ‘toxic’ policing The town of Fairmount Heights, population about 1,500 on the edge of Maryland’s border with DC, has lost all of its officers in recent years to resignations, misconduct and death. One officer, Martique Vanderpool, faces state and federal charges after he was accused in 2019 of stopping a 19-year-old woman for speeding and threatening to jail her unless she had sex with him. His attorney, Joseph Wright, said Vanderpool “believes he will be fully exonerated at trial.” The Fairmount Heights chief and other officers resigned soon after Vanderpool left. Last year, a grand jury indicted one of the city’s remaining officers, Philip Dupree, on charges of kidnapping, perjury and misconduct in office. Dupree, who is also awaiting trial, allegedly pepper-sprayed a handcuffed man and then left him unattended at the station for hours. He had been fired from two other departments before Fairmount Heights hired him, state records show. Justice Department to investigate Maryland State Police hiring, discrimination claims After the lone remaining officer died last month, the city council decided to rebuild the department, rather than seek police services from Prince George’s County, which has long struggled with allegations of misconduct and corruption. “We looked at a lot of alternatives and basically when we weigh them all, it seems like the community would rather have our own facility,” Mayor Lillie Thompson Martin said. “They want to see our community police remain.” Chief Earl Fox, who heads a three-officer department in Crofton, Md., northeast of Prince George’s in Anne Arundel County, says giving someone a second chance can seem preferable to letting a position sit empty. . “I’m struggling to find a suitable candidate,” he said. Fox hired one officer after he had been fired from a larger sheriff’s office, and within months the second was in trouble again, charged with felony theft. But Fox says another of his officers has redeemed himself after being terminated from a previous service. Large police departments have created plenty of scandals of their own, to be sure. It’s hard to know for sure how small departments fare in comparison because so little research has been done on them, said David Weisburd, distinguished professor at George Mason University and executive director of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. Weisburd points out that local control is a feature of American society. Communities like to have their own police just as they have their own libraries and education systems. “There are great advantages to local control, because it means the community is very close to what’s going on,” he said. Texas report says police agencies, large and small, were at fault in Uvalde’s shooting But Weisburd said the advantages of scale for larger police forces, such as specialized units and data-driven crime prevention strategies, are clear. “I really don’t understand how you defend a six man police department.” The spotlight turned on a tiny Pennsylvania department this month when the city of Tioga hired the former Cleveland police officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice in 2014 as its lone officer. In this state and across the nation, officer shortages are prompting many small agencies to consider merging with neighbors. In the area around Scranton, Pa., more than a dozen cities are debating whether to consolidate their departments, largely because of recruiting challenges and increased costs. The state Department of Community and Economic Development is working to facilitate these discussions and offer technical assistance. But there, as elsewhere, some worry that a regional division would lose focus on community policing. “You’re not going to get an officer that quickly when there’s a blocked road, a barking dog, things like that,” said Chief Andy Kerecman of the Throop Police Department, which has seven full-time and six part-time officers. timers. The town of about 4,000 inhabitants is participating in a study to investigate the merger of its police force with seven others. Pennsylvania AG says city broke law by hiring Tamir Rice’s killer “I know probably 98 percent of the people in this town,” said Kerekman, 62, who grew up in Throop and whose father served on the police force before him. “I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘This better not happen.’ “ There are downsides, too, for officers, who stand to lose prized shifts, rank and hard-earned contracts, Kerecman said. “The cops are apparently like, ‘What, are you kidding me?’ “ In Florida, some consolidation was prompted by the 1993 shooting death of Officer Jeffery Tackett, who was the only member of the Bellaire police force on duty overnight while investigating a wanderer. Tackett found the suspect and called for backup. Then the man grabbed his gun. “I’m shot. It’s bad,” Tackett said afterward. The dispatcher arrived at the police station of the nearby town. But when help arrived, Tackett was dead. The shooting death has sparked a debate about whether police agencies located on Florida’s central Gulf Coast should transfer their responsibilities to larger sheriff’s offices. Many residents and city officials were fiercely protective of the tiny units, which they saw as providing a constant and personal presence. Dennis Jones, then a state representative, saw it differently. “These small towns with seven, eight people on the police force. They don’t have a K-9. They don’t have undercover narcotics detectives. They don’t have a homicide division. They don’t really squat, except to walk around the community and be seen,” Jones said in a recent interview. “But that’s not really law enforcement in this day and age.” Much of America wants policing to change. But those trainers say the officers are doing well. In Pinellas County, Florida, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says there are 24 cities in his county and 13 of them now contract with his agency for police services, getting “as good or better service” than they could provide on their own . By taking advantage of the sheriff’s office’s economies of scale, a small town or city will “save a load of . . .
