The New York State University Police Officers Union is looking to consolidate its individual police forces, including Binghamton University’s, into one centralized force.

On Nov. 17, James McCartney, president of the University Police Officers Union, gave testimony to the SUNY Board of Trustees outlining the multitude of inefficiencies in the state’s university police departments, as well as explaining ways to alleviate them.

There are currently 28 different police departments across SUNY campuses, each one operating as a sovereign police force with its own rules, regulations and policies.

“Because they’re not centralized, there are too many losses,” McCartney said. “We have 28 different people doing the same job.”

McCartney went on to explain that centralizing the campus police force would save millions of dollars, which would eliminate the need to raise tuition.

Aside from economic aspects, McCartney outlined practical benefits to centralizing the campus police force.

“We see a lot of waste inherent in the unusual structure of a highly decentralized university police department that employs 65 managers at a cost of $6.2 million for 400 officers,” McCartney said. “Compare that with New York’s three other police agencies combined (State Police, Environment Conservation and Park Police) that manage nearly 4,500 officers with only 24 managers at a cost of $3.8 million.”

McCartney stated that both New York state’s attorney general and governor have been considering the centralization of the campus police force.

“During our analysis of the structure of SUNY’s police department, we were hard pressed to find any other police department, or private entity for that matter, organized in such an inefficient matter,” McCartney said. “The problem is not just the sheer numbers of managers that the system employs, but the peculiar way in which the police department is structured.”

According to David Henahan, spokesman for SUNY, campus safety is of top concern to SUNY.

“We will be reviewing the testimony presented to the board and appreciate the time that our University police colleagues spent in providing us with their recommendations,” he said.

Whereas each SUNY police department has its own chief, other agencies within the state have a consolidated system.

“In a SUNY system, there are different reps for different campuses,” said Peter Barry, executive vice president of the University Police Officers Union. “The first three [police agencies] have a centralized model — one person is charged with the goal of supervising all of its members.”

The centralized model for the New York state police forces came about in 1999, but the SUNY police force has yet to adapt to this system.

“Police service is not campus-by-campus,” Barry said. “It needs equal distribution. Under this system all students would be given equal protection. Centralization is a blanket effort — it’s cheaper, and there is a cost benefit. When you have separate entities, it costs more.”

Officer John Nunez of Binghamton University’s New York State University Police accepted the changes.

“Just like anything, it has its pros and cons, and some will not like it, but we will find ways to deal with that,” Nunez said. “We are pursuing what is good for our members.”

According to McCartney, the members of the union recognize the state’s current fiscal crisis and want to do their part to help.

“We want to do our part during these tough budgetary times to make recommendations that we feel will make the State University Police Department more efficient and less expensive,” he said.