1 Overview of PFM’s Law Enforcement Staffing Services
Across the nation, changes to historical patterns of service-demand require governments to examine whether their current staffing model best meets the evolving needs of their communities – particularly in this uncertain economic environment as local governments seek the most efficient and effective structures to provide safety in their communities. This is an operational, fiscal, and policy imperative for local governments like Oakland.
It is against this backdrop, that the City of Oakland seeks to conduct a Police Department workload-based staffing study to identify the necessary personnel required for the Department to meets its mission to reduc e crime, respond to calls for service, and engage the community.
The resultant staffing plan is intended to provide elected and appointed officials with a clear picture of the Department’s needs for both sworn and non-sworn personnel – with or without policy changes. Such a plan helps to ensure sufficient resources are available to perform core functions and provide close and effective supervision of officer activity. This is especially important in the current climate, with most American communities facing a shortage of qualified applicants, iterative waves of coming retirements, and uncertain budgetary pressures.
PFM is uniquely qualified to be Oakland ’s partner in this important undertaking . Building off the U.S. DOJ’s- accepted best practices for workload- based police staffing assessment (developed by frequent PFM collaborators: the late Dr. Alexander Weiss and Dr. Jeremy Wilson), 1 PFM developed a prevention- first approach to staffing analyses that is centered on asking what services law enforcement should provide, and why, to help local governments tackle public safety priorities. By asking this formative question, local governments can reframe their analyses from debates about from the antiquated measure of success of how much of the budget is spent on law enforcement to focus on necessary inputs to generate the desired outcomes. A prevention-first approach to staffing cuts across every dimension of a police department – from how it resources each unit, how it recruits and retains employees, and how it operates and is organized.
The PFM team includes national experts: (Ret.) Chief Ronal Serpas, Ph.D. who serves as a Senior Advisor to PFM and frequent PFM collaborators, Eric Melancon on EJM Advisory Firm LLC and V2A Consulting. Dr.
Serpas served as chief of three large policing agencies, leading each through staffing and organizational / operational plans during his time as the head of the Washington State Patrol, the Nashville Police Department, and the New Orleans Police Department. Eric Melancon served until recently as the Deputy Commissioner for Compliance in the Baltimore Police Department (and previously served as Chief of Staff to the Superintendent of Police in both New Orleans and Baltimore) where he led both Departments’ development and implementation of staffing plans, efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of administrative services, and use of civilians to free-up officer time. Working with Dr. Weiss, V2A Consulting developed an innovative “touch time” a pproach to assessing the workload and staffing needs for investigative (detective) functions in multiple police departments across the nation.
Collectively, our team has conducted police analyses in dozens of departments across the multiple domains sought by Oakland, including among others: Albuquerque, Baltimore, Chester (Pennsylvania), Harris County Sheriff’s Office (Texas), Houston, New Orleans, Prince George’s County (MD), Providence (Rhode Island), Puerto Rico Police Bureau, and Rockford (Illinois). Additionally, we are currently conducting similar reviews for the District of Columbia and City of Phoenix Police Departments, among others.
The PFM team is uniquely positioned to be Oakland’s partner to deliver the requested scope of services .
Specifically, we provide the City with:
Significant experience completing projects similar in scope and complexity An expert team with deep understanding of public safety and local government – and a strong focus on police staffing studies
A proven, integrated approach
National expertise
1 https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter/ric/Publications/cops-p247-pub.pdf.
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2 PFM Law Enforcement Staffing Key Personnel
Seth Williams is a Director with PFM’s Management and Budget Consulting practice and is the Deputy Director of PFM’s Center for Justice & Safety Finance, which seeks to help local governments staff, operate, and manage necessary public safety priorities with the cost of criminal justice programs. Mr. Williams brings more than 17 years of experience to his role as the day-to-day project manager for numerous city and county criminal justice and public safety agencies throughout the nation – specifically, focusing on local government law enforcement. His work at PFM has helped reduce expenditures, increase efficiencies and outcomes, and redesign portions of criminal justice and public safety systems for a variety of government clients.
Mr. Williams supports state and local government clients with law enforcement and public safety staffing, performance, and operational assessments, workforce and organizational structure reviews, and financial improvement initiatives. He led and was the primary author of the recent engagements to rethink law enforcement and public safety operations and budgeting in Providence, Rhode Island and Harris County, Texas. He also recently led a police department operational, staffing, and data analysis for the Commonwealth-appointed Receiver in Chester, Pennsylvania. Currently, Mr. Williams is leading staffing studies for a range of police clients – from a large DOJ -involved department to a smaller fiscally -distressed municipality.
Mr. Williams has worked for a diverse set of clients, including: the Commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Virginia; the State of Hawaii; Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Hamilton County, Tennessee; Harris County, Texas; Mobile County, Alabama; Nashville- Davidson County, Tennessee; Shelby County, Tennessee; the City of Baltimore, Maryland; the City of Houston, TX; the City of Memphis, Tennessee; and the City/County of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Williams has also led reviews of the cost implications of the Orleans Parish (Louisiana) Prison consent decree and completed an analysis of the fiscal impact of potential reforms to bail.
Prior to joining PFM, Mr. Williams worked for the Office of the New Jersey Governor as Cabinet Liaison and Deputy Director of Management and Operations. He was the primary point of contact in the Governor’s Office on operations, budget preparation, organizational management issues, and tactical activities for 12 cabinet departments and sub- cabinet agencies. In this role, his responsibilities also included administration of workforce planning/personnel management initiatives and acting as the lead staff member to the New Jersey Commission on Government Efficiency and Reform (“NJ GEAR”), a high-profile Commission appointed by the Governor.
Ronal W. Serpas, Ph.D., is a Senior Advisor for PFM’s Center for Justice & Safety Finance and a Professor of Practice, Criminology and Justice, Loyola University New Orleans. Dr. Serpas recently retired from a 34- year career in American law enforcement. From 2001 to 2014, he served as the Police Superintendent in New Orleans, Louisiana, Police Chief in Nashville, Tennessee, and Chief of the Washington State Patrol. Dr.
Serpas has been Senior Advisor to PFM’s CJSF for more than five years.
In October 2017 Dr. Serpas became the 5th Honorary President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in the organization’s125- year history. Dr. Serpas is a Past Vice President of the IACP, former Chair of the IACP Community Policing Committee, founding Co- Chair of the IACP Research Advisory Committee and a Past Parliamentarian. Dr. Serpas is the founding Chairman of Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration (a collaborative of the Brennan Center and the NYU-School of Law), serves as the Board Chair of the National Police Foundation, a past member of the National Advisory Board to Cure Violence and National Advisory Board Member to the National Police Research Platform.
Dr. Serpas has published several articles on topics such as COMPSTAT accountability systems, police disciplinary systems, firearm violence in America, challenges in crime following natural disasters, implementing Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy, and evidenced based Use of Force policy development. Dr. Serpas’ expert commentary on crime rates, policing and criminal justice reform has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, The Hill, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, The Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, Governing Magazine, and MSNBC among other outlets.
Dr. Serpas was a career police officer from 1980 to 2014, serving in three police agencies. Following a nationwide search, Dr. Serpas served as the Superintendent of Police, New Orleans Police Department from May 2010 until he retired from police service in August 2014. Previously, he had been appointed as the Chief
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3 of Police of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (2004- 2010) and the 19th Chief of the Washington State Patrol (2001-2004).
Dr. Serpas began his police career in June 1980 with the New Orleans Police Department rising through all civil service ranked positions and appointed in 1996 Assistant Superintendent of Police and the first Chief of Operations. In this role, he was charged with implementing wide scale organization restructuring and initiating the COMPSTAT model in the New Orleans Police Department – the first police department to implement COMPSTAT following the New York City Police Department. Dr. Serpas utilized and expanded the COMPSTAT model of crime fighting in two major American cities and one state police agency.
Dr. Serpas has successfully implemented the Community Oriented Policing philosophy, innovative crime fighting strategies and achieved demonstrated success in reducing crime and improved citizen satisfaction and support in each of the three departments he has led. Dr. Serpas has been a successful change agent in three major law enforcement agencies and has also been a leader in applying the concepts of “Legitimacy and Procedural Justice” to bring transformational change to American Policing.
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requent PFM Police Staffing Partners
EJM Advisory Firm
EJM Advisory Firm, LLC is owned and operated by Eric Melancon, who has over 12 years of experience in consulting and government service, with a focus on law enforcement and public safety agencies.
Until September 2023, Mr. Melancon served as Deputy Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department’s Compliance Bureau. Prior to his promotion, Mr. Melancon served as the Chief of Staff to the Police Commissioner where he was responsible for maintaining and updating the BPD Staffing Plan in coordination with court appointed experts (Alexander Weiss). He was charged with reviewing the plan on an annual basis to ensure all assumptions, strategic focus, and burden reduction initiatives were properly aligned with management goals. Mr. Melancon was also responsible for developing and implementing agency-wide plans for civilianization of several administrative functions throughout the BPD, to include the creation of civilian investigator positions to perform functions that historically were only staffed with sworn personnel. Mr.
Melancon also led the agency’s negotiation team in 2021 for collective bargaining of the uni on agreement between the BPD and the Fraternal Order of Police. This agreement introduced several targeted initiatives that not only increased starting pay, but also incentivized education of officers, granted greater flexibility in the Police Commissioner’s deployment of operational resources, and enhanced accountability measures to align with state mandates on police disciplinary reform.
Mr. Melancon prior work includes serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff at the New Orleans Police Department, where he created and implemented a comprehensive pay plan proposal for sworn personnel that led to 20% decrease in officer attrition in 2018. He was responsible for developing and maintaining the staffing plan for NOPD to ensure personnel resources were optimally assigned throughout the agency. Mr. Melancon also managed several special projects related to policing reform efforts, including; improving processes for recruitment of new officers; establishing the unclassified Commander rank, and developing promotional processes for the selection of Command Staff.
Prior to his work at the NOPD, Mr. Melancon also managed administrative and planning functions related to the consolidation of 9-1- 1 operations in the City of New Orleans into the Orleans Parish Communication District (OPCD) in 2016. This included development of staffing plans, pay structures, job descriptions, organizational charts, budgetary analysis, and the cooperative endeavor agreement between the City and the OPCD. Mr. Melancon also acted as a financial liaison for the City of New Orleans to the Compliance Director of the Orleans Parish Jail in accordance with the Stipulated Order of the Federal Court, including management of the process to revise the 2017 Jail Budget, as well as development of the Director’s remedial action plan to achieve compliance with the provisions of the Orleans Parish Jail Consent Judgment. This effort required the reorganization of all jail personnel costs to ensure expenditures were being managed within the authorized budget provided by the City.
Prior to his public service in the City of New Orleans, Mr. Melancon was an associate at TMG Consulting where he supported the financial management planning of the Regional Transit Authority and the New
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4 Orleans Aviation Board from 2013- 2015. Mr. Melancon was also previously a Senior Consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton where he served the Marine Corps as a cost estimator on the MRAP Vehicle Program from 2010-2012.
V2A Consulting
V2A Consulting (V2A) has been a frequent partner of Alexander Weiss Consulting LLC and PFM in police staffing analyses.
As part of these engagements, V2A developed an innovative “touch time” model for assessing necessary levels of criminal investigative staff that has been used in consent decree and non- consent decree jurisdictions . V2A’s senior personnel, Carlos Aponte and Roberto Jiménez, are seasoned practitioners who led criminal investigative staffing and workload analyses in multiple consent decree departments.
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