Recently in Public Safety Category

Source: By Larry Sandler and John Diedrich, Journal Sentinel (WI) July 1, 2009


A former Milwaukee police captain was paid more than $600,000 through a no-bid contract to set up a police computer system that repeatedly failed to give commanders the information they needed to track crimes, city officials said Wednesday.

Source: By BOBBY WHITE, Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2009

 Facing pressure to crack down on crime amid a record budget deficit, Oakland is joining other U.S. cities that are turning over more law-enforcement duties to private armed guards.

 ........ Oakland is not alone in seeking to improve public safety while reining in spending. This month, the Chicago City Council, facing a possible $200 million budget deficit, proposed expanding the responsibilities of private armed security forces by authorizing them to write traffic citations. In New Orleans, neighborhood committees have sought to expand special tax incentives to pay for private security for neighborhood patrols.

Source: By CHRIS GERBASI, Herald Tribune (FL), Friday, January 23, 2009 at 12:45 a.m.


CHARLOTTE COUNTY - The county is exploring the privatization of jail and fire/EMS operations to save money. But the idea has sparked job security concerns among corrections workers and firefighters, who argue that it could diminish the quality of public services.

Source: Nancy Amons, WSMV (TN), 11:34 am CST November 21, 2008

A private security company that is trusted to help keep Nashville safe is accused of twisting the facts in order to get the job. Wackenhut wasn't the lowest bidder when Metro was looking for a security company. But Wackenhut got extra points by saying it would subcontract 20 percent of its contract to a local small business, Specialized Security Consultants (SSC), run out of a house in Mount Juliet.

Wackenhut was quick to lay the blame on SSC after the Davidson County Election Commission break-in last December and blamed SSC when Metro discovered it was overbilled. But now Metro lawyers have said the two companies really aren't very separate. Metro alleges that Wackenhut moved some its own guards to the SSC roster, Wackenhut did their payroll, ordered their uniforms, performed their background checks and that SSC used Wackenhut's office space.

Source: By NICK WERNER, Muncie Star Press (IN), June 4, 2008

.......... Mayor Sharon McShurley announced Monday she was considering -- among other things -- privatizing the Muncie Fire Department to help compensate for an expected shortfall of $7 million in tax revenue between 2009 and 2010 combined.

Source: South Florida Business Journal, Friday, May 9, 2008 - 9:11 AM EDT

An audit claims Wackenhut Corp. billed Miami-Dade Transit about $6.02 million over three years for work its security officers did not do.

Wackenhut said it disagreed with the methodology used by the auditor.

...... Wackenhut is currently responsible for three contracts with the county -- the care and custody of juvenile detainees at the Juvenile Assessment Center, security services for Miami-Dade Transit and security services for a Public Works Special Taxing District.

Miami Dade Audit & Management Services

Source: By Patrick Ferrell, Herald News (IL), April 1, 2008

NEW LENOX -- The Illinois Labor Relations Board has requested a hearing over whether the New Lenox Fire Protection District improperly reassigned 55 part-time firefighters in April as they were in the midst of unionizing.

........ At issue is whether the district should have negotiated with Service Employees International Union Local 73 before it took away all shift work from its part-timers, instead privatizing the department's entire firefighting ranks as the part-timers successfully culminated their unionization attempts.

........ The district has contended all along that it privatized all of its ranks because it was having difficulty filling the four of 12 daily shifts set aside for part-timers.

Source: By STEVE SCHULTZE, Journal Sentinel (WI), Feb. 1, 2008

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on Thursday blasted the private security firm hired to guard local buses, questioning whether the $1.1 million annual cost was worth it.

Wackenhut Corp., an international company headquartered in Florida, has provided security for Milwaukee County Transit System buses since 1993. Clarke said in a letter to the County Board that the company had "top-heavy administration that leads to fewer people actually performing a security function."

...... Clarke said Wackenhut had refused to provide detailed information about its bus security operations to his department. He also said Wackenhut guards spent too little time riding buses.

Source: Guardian Unlimited, Thursday January 10, 2008

They stand sentry at America's most sacred freedom sites - Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was ratified in 1776, and the Liberty Bell, now housed in a new building nearby. But to hear some of the more than 40 contract security agents employed by the massive government contractor Wackenhut Services describe their working conditions, it instead evokes another image from that era, the miserable winter that George Washington and his ragtag army spent at Valley Forge some 20 miles west of here.

The private guards - hired after the federal government decided to bulk up security at the Philadelphia historic sites in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks - describe long, sometimes cold days in which they are issued little or no protection from the elements, in which a torn raincoat is patched with duct tape and workers are disciplined for leaning against a wall or post.

..... Last September, the workers guarding Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell voted overwhelmingly - by a 31-2 count, with 15 abstentions - to join SEIU Local 32BJ, but so far Wackenhut has been able to fall back on a set of arcane labour regulations to avoid recognising the union.

Source: BY AMANDA N. MAYNORD, Nashville City Paper (TN), January 8, 2008

For three months last year the building that houses the Davidson County Election Commission was not guarded on Saturdays, but the city was being billed anyway according to Metro officials.

.......... Wackenhut Corp., which has provided security through a subcontractor for the building since May 20, 2007, as well as several other Metro buildings billed the city under a long-term contract the company has to provide security to Metro government buildings. The subcontractor, Specialized Security Consultants, Inc. and Wackenhut have come under fire in connection with A Dec. 23 break-in at the Election Commission that resulted in the theft of two laptop computers containing the Social Security numbers of 337,000 registered Davidson County voters.