**ENNFAX LEAD STORY**
In what appears to be the first attempt at privatization of a fire department in the northeast, the Village of Rye Brook, New York, will discontinue contracting with an adjacent town and have a private corporation provide it with fire protection.
In a story published by "The Reporter Dispatch," a Westchester County-based Gannett newspaper, Rye Brook has contracted with Rural/Metro Corporation, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, to setup and provide Rye Brook's fire protection for an initial three year period. Rye Brook is a small town just outside the more-urban Port Chester, NY. Rye Brook is an affluent community, where homes can cost upwards of $400,000, located about twenty-five miles north of NYC, in Weschester County.
Port Chester provides for 12 paid firefighters, 300 volunteer firefighters, and 10 pieces of fire apparatus for both towns. The new privatized contract with Rural/Metro will provide for nine paid firefighters, 25 paid reservists, and four pieces of fire apparatus for just Rye Brook, alone. The contract will cost Rye Brook $30,000 more than the contract with Port Chester. However, Rye Brook town officials say that, since it is expected that real estate values in Rye Brook will increase in the coming years, it will still be cost-effective.
The privatization of the Rye Brook FD has sent shock waves throughout New York State firehouses. Both paid and volunteer firefighters have raised their voices in the press and at public meetings. The firefighters have raised a "safety vs.finances" argument, but it has apparently fallen on deaf ears. The private fire department will begin operations on February 1st.
Westchester County is known for its affluent towns, where corporate executives from NYC-based companies live. However, many of the bigger and older towns within the county are made up of middle-class workers, many of them civil servants, and many of them firefighters from the paid departments of Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, and from NYC. The privatization of a public service, such as the fire department, may cause political consequences. But the public officials quoted in "The Reporter Dispatch" story disagree, saying it was the fiscally responsible thing to do.
There is some concern that the adjacent towns that respond to Rye Brook for "mutual aid" may hold a grudge against Rye Brook, since some of these towns have union workers as volunteers, and some others have paid drivers in their volunteer departments. Fire department watchers in the New York area think not, but this remains to be seen.
While the Rye Brook privatization is the first fire department to be converted, other government operations in the NY-NJ area have been handed over to private corporations. In New Jersey, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service contracted the operation of a detention facility to a private company. The company hired under-qualified and under-trained persons as "detention officers" to work in the jail facility, where illegal immigrants were held prior to deportation.
Last year, an uprising by the detainees caused a tremendous amount of damage to the facility. It was reported at that time that the detainees rioted against the private detention officers due to their abusive behavior against the immigrants. The supervisors waited before calling professional law enforcement to suppress the riot, believing that the employees could handle it. But by that time, the damage to the facility and injuries to the contract officers and detainees was extensive.
In another previous privatization try, a town in Morris County, NJ, contracted with a private security firm to have uniformed, armed, security guards to patrol its streets. They took no police action, except what was lawful for a private citizen to do. The security guards called the New Jersey State Police, that patrolled nearby towns and highways, to conduct investigations and to effect arrests. This privatization of police work was struck down by a New Jersey State Superior Court, and the security company's contract was cancelled.
Elected officials throughout the United States have come out in favor of the privatization concept, but it has generally been limited to clerical and non-public safety operations. It is expected that the Rye Brook situation will be watched carefully by New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut officials, union leaders, and public safety employees.
(c) EmergencyNet News Service, 1996, All rights reserved.