Collaboration Efforts by Regional Police Agencies

Law enforcement agencies in today’s day and age face numerous challenges in accomplishing their mission of serving the public. Among these challenges are financial burdens to departmental budgets, equipment needs, poor project management, ineffective communication, and a lack of cooperation on public safety based programs. Law enforcement agencies that effectively collaborate by forming specialized teams often find they can do more good for their respective community verses going alone. When examining this model some departments tend to be afraid of several factors, which include encountering resistance to collaboration efforts by the rank and file police officers of the agencies that employ them. In addition, the municipalities overseeing these agencies often fear losing control of their local police departments, especially when the idea of collaboration is new to their geographic region. This is especially true among the smaller agencies in the United States. However, police departments in numerous communities have found great success by collaborating their resources on specialized teams. An analysis of this theory has shown that law enforcement agencies who collaborate make better arguments for serving the public and their safety needs