AFSCME Privatization Update

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

Posted by Info Center at 3:27 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Public Safety | Permalink
Tags: Florida

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.

Posted by Info Center at 10:46 AM in Public Safety | Permalink
Tags: Illinois

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.

Posted by Info Center at 10:59 AM in Horror Stories | Public Safety | Transportation | Permalink
Tags: Wisconsin

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.

Posted by Info Center at 11:05 AM in Federal | Public Safety | Permalink
Tags: Pennslyvania

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.

Posted by Info Center at 11:08 AM in Horror Stories | Public Safety | Public Works | Permalink
Tags: Tennessee

Source: By Ellen Gedalius, The Tampa Tribune (FL), December 20, 2007

TAMPA - Chanting "No justice, no peace!" more than 30 union workers, including several city employees, protested outside city hall this morning.

They said Mayor Pam Iorio shouldn't proceed with plans to lay off 100 employees.

In November, Iorio announced 100 people likely would lose their jobs next year when the city privatizes some services. About 50 security officers and 38 janitors are among those targeted.

Posted by Info Center at 11:22 AM in Custodial | Public Safety | Permalink
Tags: Florida

Source: By Jane Huh, Post-Tribune (IN), August 29, 2007

Unions from across the region gathered in Merrillville on Tuesday to lend support to the town's paramedics.

About 50 people stood near the intersection of 78th and Broadway in front of the town's government building to protest the Town Council's decision two weeks ago to accept proposals from private emergency medical service providers.

Posted by Info Center at 10:12 AM in Health | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By Jane Huh, Post-Tribune (IN), August 22, 2007

Some Merrillville paramedics say they are bracing to lose their jobs a week after the Town Council began looking into private emergency medical service.

"Everybody's looking," said 39-year-old David Ferris, a paramedic who says he feels betrayed by the council's "sneak attack."

Last week, the Town Council voted to accept proposals from private emergency medical service providers until Sept. 25. Council president Shawn Pettit said town leaders are trying to find ways to cut costs.

Posted by Info Center at 10:42 AM in Health | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By Greg Garland, Baltimore Sun (MD), August 13, 2007

The O'Malley administration is moving to terminate the contract of a private firm charged with providing security at the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School after two youths escaped last month -- the third escape from the juvenile detention center this year.

Until last fall, securing and monitoring the gates and perimeter fencing at the facility in Baltimore County had fallen to state employees. But the service was contracted out to a private vendor late last year by the administration of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Posted by Info Center at 11:09 AM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: Simon Chesterman, New York University School of Law & Chia Lehnardt, New York University - School of La, eds., Oxford University Press, 2007

Download the Paper (PDF format) - July 20, 2007

Frequently characterized as either mercenaries in modern guise or the market's response to security gaps, private military companies - commercial firms offering military services ranging from combat and military training and advice to logistical support - play an increasingly important role in armed conflicts, UN peace operations, and providing security in unstable states. Executive Outcomes turned around an orphaned conflict in Sierra Leone in the mid-1990s; Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) was instrumental in shifting the balance of power in the Balkans, enabling the Croatian military to defeat Serb forces and clear the way for the Dayton negotiations; in Iraq, estimates of the number of private contractors on the ground are in the tens of thousands. As they assume more responsibilities in conflict and post-conflict settings, their growing significance raises fundamental questions about their nature, their role in different regions and contexts, and their regulation. This volume examines these issues with a focus on governance, in particular the interaction between regulation and market forces. It analyzes the current legal framework and the needs and possibilities for regulation in the years ahead. The book as a whole is organized around four sets of questions, which reflect the four parts of the book. First, why and how is regulation of PMCs now a challenging issue? Secondly, how have problems leading to a call for regulation manifested in different regions and contexts? Third, what regulatory norms and institutions currently exist and how effective are they? And, fourth, what role has the market to play in regulation?

Posted by Info Center at 1:17 PM in Federal | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: NBC6.com, 4:55 pm EDT July 24, 2007

Protesters in downtown Miami on Tuesday demanded that Miami-Dade County commissioners ban the Wackenhut security company from any county contracts.

The protesters from the Service Employees International Union protested outside the county government building as commissioners were meeting inside.

The protest came after an NBC 6 investigation into a preliminary county audit of Wackenhut's contract. The investigation showed millions of dollars paid by county taxpayers to Wackenhut were unaccounted for.

Posted by Info Center at 1:05 PM in Horror Stories | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By Jimmy Ryals, The Daily Reflector (NC), Sunday, July 08, 2007

The Pitt County Board of Commissioners will vote Monday on a plan for ambulance service north of the Tar River.

The plan they'll consider would extend county authority over ambulance service in Pactolus, Bethel and other northern Pitt areas to the end of the next fiscal year, June 30, 2008. Last month, the county canceled a $400,000 contract to privatize transportation in those areas.

Continued county management will cost $850,000, according to documents included in the agenda for Monday's county board meeting. Under the plan, employees who left the affected departments as the privatization effort began will be welcome to return, County Manager Scott Elliott said at a meeting with three commissioners Thursday.

Posted by Info Center at 10:50 AM in Health | Public Safety | Publicization | Permalink

Source: By Ryan J. Foley, The Associated Press (WI), June 14, 2007

A sheriff’s constitutional powers to run a jail do not include the right to hire and fire employees who feed inmates, a divided Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled today. In a 4-3 decision (.pdf), the court said a public employees’ union can challenge Brown County Sheriff Dennis Kocken’s decision to lay off its workers and privatize food service at the jail.

….. The decision means the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union can file a complaint with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission over the matter.

Posted by Info Center at 11:51 AM in Food Services | Laws/Legislation | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: JOSHUA STOWE, South Bend Tribune (IN), June 19. 2007 6:59AM

An Indiana State Police records outsourcing arrangement will continue to force Hoosiers to pay more for some crash reports, while giving them a more convenient way to get others. The convenience: Under the arrangement, Hoosiers since Jan. 1 have had two ways to buy crash reports from any local police agency in the state. For $12, they can buy a report from a private company by going online to www.BuyCrash.com. Or, for a lesser fee -- for instance, $5 in South Bend -- they can buy a report directly from their local police agency.

........ Although a $12 fee for an Indiana State Police report might not present a large financial burden for a person involved in an accident, he says, it could impair the ability of a citizens' group to gather and present data on multiple accidents that occurred along a particularly dangerous stretch of road.

Posted by Info Center at 11:24 AM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press. Tue, May. 29, 2007

Richard Bergendahl fights the war on terrorism in Los Angeles for $19,000 a year, one of the legions of ill-trained, low-paid private security guards protecting tempting terrorist targets.

........ Bergendahl, 55, says he often thinks: "Well, what am I doing here? These people are paying me minimum wage." The security guard industry found itself involuntarily transformed after September 2001, from an army of "rent-a-cops" to protectors of the homeland. Yet, many security officers are paid little more than restaurant cooks or janitors.

And the industry is governed by a maze of conflicting state rules, according to a nationwide survey by The Associated Press. Wide chasms exist among states in requirements for training and background checks. Tens of thousands of guard applicants were found to have criminal backgrounds.

Posted by Info Center at 11:15 AM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: YouTube.com, posted March 21, 2007

Privatizing public services is just a bad idea. Support your public service workers.

Posted by Info Center at 1:30 PM in Public Safety | Videos | Permalink

Source: By Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, Tuesday, January 2, 2007

....... With the sleeve patch on his black shirt, the 9mm gun on his hip and the blue light on his patrol car, he looked like an ordinary police officer as he stopped the car on a Friday night last month. Watt works, though, for a business called Capitol Special Police. It is one of dozens of private security companies given police powers by the state of North Carolina -- and part of a pattern across the United States in which public safety is shifting into private hands.

Private firms with outright police powers have been proliferating in some places -- and trying to expand their terrain. The "company police agencies," as businesses such as Capitol Special Police are called here, are lobbying the state legislature to broaden their jurisdiction, currently limited to the private property of those who hire them, to adjacent streets. Elsewhere -- including wealthy gated communities in South Florida and the Tri-Rail commuter trains between Miami and West Palm Beach -- private security patrols without police authority carry weapons, sometimes dress like SWAT teams and make citizen's arrests.

Posted by Info Center at 10:57 AM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: DAVE UMHOEFER, Journal Sentinel (WI), Oct. 13, 2006

In the first test of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's privatization proposals, a key County Board committee on Thursday sided with retaining county employees for courthouse security screening and housekeeping. The Finance Committee voted unanimously to delete Walker's plan to privatize more than 70 positions. .........

The vote came after testimony from union leaders and workers who questioned whether private companies would provide the same quality of service as county employees who run courthouse visitors through metal detectors at public entrances and clean county facilities.

Posted by Info Center at 11:37 AM in Custodial | Public Safety | Victories | Permalink

Source: Evan Brandt, Pottstown Mercury (PA), 08/03/2006

LIMERICK -- The disciplining of a security guard at the area’s nuclear power plant last week was not the first time the company that provides security there has dealt with a sleeping guard problem. ..... Wackenhut is a Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based security company with a division that specializes in nuclear power plant security and provides security at 30 plants across the nation, including all Exelon’s nuclear plants.

Posted by Info Center at 11:17 AM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Fox News, Sunday , April 16, 2006

Not long after national debate raged on the use of foreign entities to operate critical U.S. infrastructures, the Department of Homeland Security has made an about face, dumping a British-based security firm that was contracted to protect the buildings where U.S. security policy is formed. DHS had received a variety of complaints about Wackenhut Services, Inc., and was supposed to sign a new security contract on April 1. Instead, Paragon Systems of Chantilly, Va., announced last week it was getting the five-year, $29 million contract.

Posted by Info Center at 10:50 AM in Federal | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot, April 6, 2006

The U.S. Army and private contractors employed convicted criminals as security guards across the country despite repeated warnings in the past three years of the "risky situations" that could present, according to a new federal report. ........ The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, said this is the third time in three years that it has warned the Army that the lack of proper background checks could jeopardize security at some of the largest and most important installations, including Fort Bragg and West Point.

Posted by Info Center at 11:25 AM in Federal | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By Chip Reid, NBC News, Updated: 7:29 p.m. ET March 9, 2006

WASHINGTON - In a residential area of Washington, D.C., the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security is fenced, gated and patrolled by armed guards. The guards are employed by Wackenhut Services, a British company that provides security for many sensitive American sites, including many of the nation's nuclear power plants. But the Homeland Security headquarters is anything but secure, according to more than a dozen former and current Wackenhut employees who signed statements citing everything from unmanned guard stations to inadequate training. .... The Department of Homeland Security says it “maintains several security measures both seen and unseen” and notes that after the white powder incident, guards were given additional training and more training will soon be required under a new security contract.

Posted by Info Center at 11:10 AM in Federal | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By Miami Herald, Wed, Feb. 15, 2006

Miramar commissioners voted tonight to outsource crossing guards to Kemp Security. The contract is for up to $880,000 for the first two years. The company will provide 76 crossing guards to the city. The city police department had previously hired, equipped, and trained the school crossing guards in Miramar. Outsourcing the guards will take the strain off daily patrol staffing levels during the morning and afternoons on school days, city officials say.

Posted by Info Center at 3:11 PM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: BY GARRY LENTON, The Patriot-News (PA), Sunday, January 29, 2006

Veteran guards responsible for training new hires to the security force that protects Three Mile Island were sharing a key piece of insider information -- the best places to take a nap, according to an internal memo. "We have mentors and qualified officers informing new hires of all the locations that they can hide and catch a quick nap," wrote John Young, the head of security at TMI for Wackenhut, a private security force employed by the plant. ..... The memo, sent to security supervisors at the nuclear power plant on Oct. 17, also maintained that new hires were being told of shortcuts for tasks and warned of the "horrors" of working for Wackenhut. ..... Guards at TMI work 12-hour shifts, usually for two to three consecutive days, but sometimes longer. Documents provided to The Patriot-News show one officer worked more than 150 hours in a 14-day period, nearly the equivalent of two full-time jobs. The same officer averaged more than 54 hours a week for the first 10 months of 2005.

Posted by Info Center at 1:25 PM in Horror Stories | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: Dennis Wagner, The Arizona Republic, Jan. 22, 2006 12:00 AM

Forget the image of the pot-bellied security guard, asleep with a newspaper in his lap and doughnut crumbs on his chin. Post-Sept. 11, the old rental cop in many cases has been replaced by security officers who are screened, licensed, trained and equipped better than their quaint predecessors. Homeland defense experts, such as former FBI Deputy Director Weldon Kennedy, say the enhanced professionalism is critical because the private-security industry defends more than three-fourths of the nation's most likely terrorism targets.

....... Private officers are defending power plants, oil refineries, financial centers, computer systems, dams, malls, railroad lines and other prospective terrorism targets. They are responsible for millions of lives and billions of dollars in assets. And they are most likely to be first on the scene in major disasters.

.....Worldwide, private-security company revenues have been estimated at $100 billion by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The institute, which studies issues involving worldwide security, estimates the industry income will double by 2010.

..... The nation's security companies employ 1.5 million people and spend $52 billion per year, compared with public police agencies that have 600,000 workers and spend $30 billion,according to James Pastor, author of The Privatization of Police in America. Because government officers are more expensive, Pastor sees private guards rapidly absorbing roles once held by public peace officers, protecting stores and neighborhoods.

Posted by Info Center at 3:36 PM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: LARRY LEBOWITZ AND SCOTT HIAASEN, Miami Herald (FL), Sun, Jan. 08, 2006

At Miami-Dade's Metrorail stations, armed security guards say they are often asked to work seven days a week or up to 20 hours straight. And still, several current and former employees say, The Wackenhut Corp. can't cover enough shifts, forcing supervisors and roving patrols to fill the gaps and sometimes leaving ''ghost posts'' that stay empty for hours. The allegations, brought to light in whistle-blower lawsuits filed by former Wackenhut guards, raise questions about the company's ability to live up to its five-year, $89 million no-bid contract with Miami-Dade Transit. That agreement caps each guard's workday at 13.5 hours and requires that no post be left unguarded. Miami-Dade County's auditor is now investigating whether Wackenhut has overbilled the county -- an accusation the company denies. The auditor has seized scores of payroll records and company log books detailing guard activity along the county's transit lines.

Posted by Info Center at 3:20 PM in Public Safety | Permalink

Source: Sarah Posner. American Prospect, 01.18.06

...... Some of the country’s largest government contractors, already fat on Pentagon pork, have retained well-connected lobbyists to win their slice of the DHS budget. Lobbyists who double as Bush Rangers and Pioneers, raising hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars, now represent some of the biggest DHS contractors. These lobbyists and their clients -- through both individual donations and those of their political action committees -- have poured still more hundreds of thousands into the campaigns and PACs of powerful Republican members of Congress who control DHS appropriations and oversight. In the age of terror and natural catastrophe, knowing the right people is still the right way to get rich. ....... Another eager client signed up by former Ridge staffers at Blank Rome was the Homeland Security Corporation (HSC), a company started in 2001 by a Tennessee businessman named Doctor R. Crants. The politically connected Crants had once headed the country’s largest privatized prison firm, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which he established in 1983 with a former chair of the Tennessee Republican Party and modeled on the Frist family’s Hospital Corporation of America, creating an industry based on incarceration-for-profit. ..... Today CCA, HSC, and CCA’s closest competitor in the private prison industry, Wackenhut -- brandishing lobbyists, political connections, and lavish contributions -- have all won DHS contracts to train and supply security guards and screeners and to build, manage, and maintain detention facilities.

Posted by Info Center at 10:43 AM in Federal | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: ZACHARY GORCHOW, Detroit FREE PRESS (MI), December 13, 2005

Wayne County sheriff's deputies are expected to take over policing Detroit's public housing facilities, replacing a private corporation that has been providing security. Under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which still has to be approved by Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and county commissioners, the sheriff's department would be responsible for policing the city's 19 public housing complexes. ..... If approved as expected, the sheriff's department will replace Wackenhut Corp., a private company that now handles security for public housing. Five months ago, HUD took over the Detroit Housing Commission, which runs public housing in the city, after decades of complaints about fiscal mismanagement and dilapidated buildings. Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans said his department could better police housing units because, unlike Wackenhut's personnel, his deputies can make arrests and have the resources to pinpoint crime trends. When Wackenhut responds to a situation, its personnel have to contact Detroit police to make an arrest.

Posted by Info Center at 10:59 AM in Public Safety | Publicization | Permalink

Source: Tom Wyatt, Post-Tribune (IN), Dec. 8, 2005

...... Privatization is just one of several options town leaders will ponder in an effort to get Merrillville EMS out of a $250,000 hole created after functioning in the red for a number of years. But just the idea of privatization has put Merrillville paramedics on edge. If the town outsourced its EMS, the 12 full-time paramedics, as well as office staff, would be out of jobs. Part-time paramedics would have to find work elsewhere. Town officials, though, say they don’t want that to happen. Amid all the hubbub over privatization, they insist it is a last resort.

Posted by Info Center at 10:13 AM in Health | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: MARK JOHNSON, Associated Press (NY), December 6, 2005, 5:54 PM EST

Delays in issuing contracts for guard services continue to raise the security risks for state employees and people visiting state buildings while also wasting taxpayer funds, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office said Tuesday. A state comptroller's audit conducted in 2001 and 2002 found that private security companies hired by the state's Office of General Services provided hundreds of unlicensed and unqualified guards to protect state buildings, universities and other facilities. …. Steve Madarasz, a spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association, the largest state government employees' union in New York, said the situation reflects poorly on Gov. George Pataki.

Posted by Info Center at 1:50 PM in Public Safety | Permalink