FIRM’S JOB: STUDY PROBLEMS, SUGGEST ANSWERS

The Public Administration Service, which conducted the Los Angeles Police Department deployment study, is a 54-year-old private, nonprofit consulting firm based in McLean, Va., that specializes in analyzing state and local government problems and recommending solutions.

Since 1970, the firm has done more than 80 studies on police departments, mostly small ones like Sterling Heights, Mich., Boca Raton, Fla., and Norfolk, Neb., according to Peter Bellmio, manager of the firm’s criminal justice projects and principal author of the Los Angeles report.

The Los Angeles Police Department is the largest department the firm has studied in many years, Bellmio said.

In most cases, the firm has done comprehensive organizational studies of departments, he said. However, it has done deployment studies similar to the one in Los Angeles for departments in Charlotte, N.C., Honolulu and Maricopa County, Ariz.

Bellmio identified the other principal members of the Los Angeles study team as George Sullivan, a San Diego consultant specializing in police matters; Bill Bieck, civilian director of operations support for the Houston police; Lt. Phil Keith, director of planning for the Knoxville, Tenn., police; Rick Solano, a La Jolla consultant specializing in personnel administration, and Howard Edwards, vice president of the 50-person Public Administration Service firm.

The 10-month, $183,000 study consisted of devising and studying computer reports on police operations, interviewing community leaders and police staff, riding with police and reviewing academic studies on deployment, Bellmio said.

The report states that the consultants enjoyed the highest possible level of cooperation from the department’s office of operations.