|
The Department of Public Safety is a state or local government umbrella agency in the United States which serves to assist the certain agencies in their services by providing administrative, financial, and technical services and support for core public safety functions for some or all of the following: In other countries and states, an equivalent might be known as the Ministry of the Interior or Department of Emergency Services. There is no Department of Public Safety at the federal level of the United States, but the closest equivalent is the United States Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for federal emergency services via Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States or (FEMA).
State level In state governments in the United States, the DPS is usually a law enforcement agency synonymous with the state police. At local and special district levels, they may be all-encompassing. Examples of states having these include Texas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Arizona, Alabama, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Local level Most local jurisdictions (cities and counties) have the umbrella configuration described above, in which the DPS is simply a joint administration of several distinct agencies. They may share administrative support staff and back-office functions, but sworn personnel remain specialized and have particular responsibilities (that is, the police continue to arrest people and the firefighters put out fires). The DPS of Cobb County, Georgia is one example. However, a minority of jurisdictions have Departments of Public Safety which have primary and direct responsibility for all emergencies. In these unusual organizations, all full-time sworn personnel are cross-trained as police officers, firefighters and/or EMT's, and can respond to emergencies in any capacity. Although it is more expensive to hire, train and retain such personnel, they have a clear advantage in terms of their flexibility. They can respond on their own to any number of rapidly evolving situations rather than waiting for the arrival of other specialized personnel. This configuration was widely popular in the 1970s and 1980s throughout the United States, but has since gone out of style because relatively few cities have been able to execute it successfully. List of cities with Departments of Public Safety with fully cross-trained personnel See also | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |