The Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM) has delivered a final analysis report for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office. The Operations and Data Analysis Report details CPSM’s evaluation of the department’s workload and staffing, and provides 99 recommendations for improvement.
Located in Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) is made up of hundreds of officers who serve and protect the county’s communities. PCSO had been requesting additional manpower due to increasing population growth and the county’s large expanse. The County reached out to CPSM for a scientific approach for sufficiently staffing the department.
An initial study of the data behind the operations revealed that PCSO was adequately staffed to handle the growing workload – the only necessary change was to streamline how the work and the assigned staff members were managed. Though the project was stalled by the previous sheriff, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors placed the staffing request on hold until the study was complete.
A new sheriff, Mark Lamb, was voted in during the next election cycle. Committed to finishing the study, Sheriff Lamb picked up where the project was left off and worked with the CPSM to finish its review and analysis. The final report was presented to the Board in January 2018.
“Because we were working so closely with CPSM, we were able to start on some of the recommendations before the report was done,” said Sheriff Lamb. “Their input let us know we were on the right track. Out of the 99 items, we have implemented around twenty, with another twenty in the pipeline.
“The CPSM team members were professionals,” continued the Sheriff. “They were great to work with and very thorough. They were dedicated to finishing the study and presented a great report to the Board. From our standpoint, the process was as seamless as it could have been.”
“I do not think we could have asked for a better result,” said County Manager Greg Stanley. “The team’s background in both local government and public safety definitely helped because they could talk to the entire chain of command, from commanders to deputies. Without a team that had such a high level of experience and expertise in the field, I don’t see another consultant being able to do what CPSM has done for our County.”
Pinal County originally reached out to CPSM after hearing about its previous work in the City of Florence, Arizona. Additionally, over the years, several county staff members had attended workshops or seminars hosted by CPSM on police and public safety topics.
“Our team of Ph.D.- and graduate-level operations researchers have delivered terrific subject matter expertise to communities of all sizes throughout the country,” said CPSM principal and co-founder Leonard Matarese. “Though there are always some unexpected bumps in each new project, we work through issues by really diving into the data and helping leaders understand how to use this information to their advantage. Data will paint a clear picture of trends that have happened in the past and solutions on how to improve for the future.”
CPSM will continue to partner with the Sheriff’s Office to advise on the implementations of the study recommendations.