Homeland Security: Public Restructuring and Private participation

1. Homeland Security: Public Restructuring and Private participation Drs. Simon Hakim and Erwin Blackstone Center for Competitive Government The Fox School of Business & Management Temple University

2. Topics Covered: • The problem and its significance • Objectives of this presentation • The nature of catastrophic events • Alternative solutions: • Restructuring emergency services • Private participation • Insurance

3. The Problem In spite of the substantial increase in federal spending, only one quarter of state emergency operations plans and 10 percent of municipal plans are sufficient to cope with a natural disaster or terrorist attack (Flynn, 2007:5). The majority of plans “cannot be categorized as fully adequate, feasible or acceptable to manage catastrophic events” (U.S. DHS, June 2006).

4. Significance of Problem Additional funding required to cover potential emergency response needs are approximately $98.4 billion over five years. This figure does not include overtime, training, and police force needs across the U.S. (Council of Foreign Relations, Rudman Report, 2003: 31). All expect the federal government to carry this additional burden.

5. Objectives of presentation • Examine whether resources within existing emergency services can be shifted to HLS with no loss in public good provision. • Examine outsourcing of emergency services • Examine incentives for greater private participation in HLS • Regulating insurance to encourage private precautions

6. Nature of catastrophic Event • Uncertainty of event. Timing, location, target, and nature are unknowable but consequences can be devastating. This implies difficulties in relying on preventive measures. Also, the uncertainty leads to excessive insurance premiums. • Peak-time nature. When an event occurs, normally unavailable resources are necessary. • Appropriate strategy requires on-going preparation and training and not just reaction when event occurs. Included are training of first responders, developing plans, procedures and protocols, conducting desktop exercises

7. Restructuring Public Emergency Services: Police • Police services that do not involve public good attributes include attending and investigating minor traffic accidents, escorting funerals and oversized vehicles, animal control, unlocking vehicles, recording citizen complaints, checking on people’s welfare, and traffic control during road construction. • The largest single item on police budgets is response to burglar alarms of which 94-99 percent are false.

8. Restructuring Police Services • Current local alarm ordinances prevent private response: - 3-5 free false response a year - Escalating fines - Cease response after certain number of false activations a year - Educating repeat activators - Police treat activators as criminals while they are consumers

9. Restructuring Police Services Private services provided by public police: • When alarm owners accidently activate their system or when a system malfunctions then there are no social benefits from catching or deterring burglars when police respond. • Inequitable since non-alarm owners or non-activators share the cost of response

10. Restructuring Emergency services: Police Our calculations show that if police indeed eliminate the delivery of non-public goods then 13 percent or 55,000 patrol officers could effectively be used for other services with no social loss. In dollar terms the total annual savings will be $2.8 billion (Blackstone, Buck, and Hakim, 2007). Solution: Verified response. Private security responds and if it is real burglary, police respond at high priority.

11. Restructuring Emergency services: Police If police choose to respond to all activations then consumers must pay for actual response service rendered at long run average cost. No cross subsidization with other public services provided by police. No annual fees. Free entry of private response companies should be allowed.

12. Contracting Out Police Services Some police services could be produced under market conditions where many potential suppliers exist. This will most likely improve efficiency in their provision. Police could contract out such services as handling abandoned vehicles, providing criminal information databases, enforcing traffic and parking regulations, providing lost and found services, guarding prisoners,

13. Contracting out police Services protecting court rooms and public infrastructures, processing reports, and fulfilling office administrative duties. Basically, wherever civilian workers could replace expensive sworn officers, savings on the order of 30 percent will be realized. Contracting out will lead to an additional annual savings of $1.15 billion or the equivalent of 23,000 officers (Hakim, Buck, and Blackstone, 2007).

14. Restructuring Emergency services: Fire Extinguishing fires is a public good since fires spread and cause harm and injury to others. However, responding to a false alarm is not a public good. If a resident overheats his stove causing a false alarm and a fire engine responds then others in the community gain no benefits while bearing a long run marginal cost between $365 and $1,050. Fifty-eight percent of fire responses are to false calls.

15. Restructuring Emergency Services:Fire We estimated that if false alarms are eliminated between 18,600 and 48,900 fire-fighters or equivalently between $0.93 billion and $2.44 billion could be saved or reallocated to other uses. Clearly, by pricing false alarms and enabling competitors to enter, cost of production will diminish, service level would remain the same, and social welfare will rise.

16. Restructuring Emergency Services:Fire Charging for false activations will reduce their number and the burden on public budgets. Also private companies or other response entities should be allowed to compete with the public fire department.

17. Annual Savings from Elimination and Contracting out of Services

18. Private Participation: Guards • Peak time demand: create HLS regional reserve units of pre-trained paid security guards. In 2005 in the US, 2.1 M guards and only 700K public law enforcement officers. • Pre-trained volunteer medical units: In Boston unit is trained to establish clinic to provide mass inoculations. A church group in Beaverton OR stuffed a flood information and referral line.

19. Private participation In New York City more than 1,000 private security organizations are linked with the police to prevent, prepare for, and respond to homeland security incidents. They work together on building evacuation plans, security screening of vehicles entering facilities and adjacent parking, checking suspicious individuals and packages, and sharing terrorism alerts. In Las Vegas, private security forces guide police in casino related criminal events, and the police train private security in the usual criminal incidents .

20. Private Participation: Executives • Tap expertise of private executives to head regional HLS existing and reserve units at time of catastrophic event. During non-emergency times, these executives will plan and train. It could include existing or former public officials, retired military leaders, corporate executives. These reserve management positions offer appeal to talented people. For example, Mayor Bloomberg, NJ US Senator Lautenberg, NJ Governor Corzine. Heading HLS efforts eases entry to elected position.

21. Private Participation: Capital A major event requires far more equipment than government normally maintains. This equipment includes fire engines, rescue vehicles, heavy construction type vehicles, medical equipment and other equipment that is event dependent and is difficult to anticipate. Since the private sector owns most of such equipment we need to develop a process by which such equipment could be transferred to the management of the event. The state legislature could grant the homeland security directors the power to requisition with appropriate compensation necessary personnel and equipment from the private sector.

22. Private Participation: Legal Issues Numerous legal, administrative, and payment issues arise whenever private resources are shifted to the public sector to respond to natural or terrorist events. Responders have to be assured that they will enjoy protection against liability for their interjurisdictional activities performed with usual care and diligence. Normally, police officers have everywhere within a state the authority to enforce the state law. Prior agreements for private sector resources including personnel and equipment have to be arranged to include their authority, duties, protection against liability, and payments for damages or injuries incurred in the course of their public deployment.

23. Insurance as a Catalyst for Efficiency Problems: • Few incentives exist for owners of infrastructure to take sufficient HLS precautions. • Uncertainty about the extent of the damage means that the federal government reinsures insurance companies only for large damages; most properties are not insured for HLS. Suggestion: The federal gov’t could require all commercial property above some amount to have terrorism insurance Anticipated Outcome: Competition among insurance companies will establish reasonable premiums and the insureds will be offered discounts for undertaking adequate security precautions in buildings safety, guards, electronic warnings etc.

24. Conclusions HLS Services could be significantly improved by greater participation of the private sector • Shedding non-public services • Contracting Out security services that are amenable to competition • Create regional HLS reserve units to handle peak time which might include private sector executives in leadership positions • Developing market incentives through regulated insurance.

25. References • Blackstone, Erwin A., AndrewJ. Buck, and Simon Hakim (2007). “The Economic of Emergency Response”, Policy Sciences, Vol. 40 (4): 313-334). • Council of Foreign Relations (2003). Emergency Responders: Drastically Underfunded, Dangerously Unprepared. The Rudman Report, NY, NY. • Clarke, Richard A. Rand Beers, et al. (2006). The Forgotten Homeland: A Century Foundation Task Force Report, the Century Foundation, New York, NY.  • Flynn, Stephen (2007). The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation. Random House, New York. • Hakim, Simon, Andrew J. Buck, and Erwin A. Blackstone (2007). “Funding the Local War on Terror”, Milken Institute Review, Vol. 9 (1), First Quarter: 46-56. • Kunreuther, Howard and Erwann Michel-Kerjan (2004). “Challenges for Terrorism Risk Insurance in the United States”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18 (4), fall: 201-214.