Shared Services Project with Norwich Schools (2013 LGAA)

City of Norwich (Winner)
County: Chenango County
Population: 5,001 to 10,000
City Hall: (607) 334-1207

The City of Norwich has entered into a shared services agreement with the Norwich City School District that is advantageous to both entities, saves taxpayer dollars and increases school safety. The agreement, signed in April 2012, trades police services provided by the City's police force for in-kind information technology (IT) services provided by employees of the school district's IT department.

Prior to this agreement, Norwich Police Officers worked at a variety of school-sponsored events including graduation ceremonies, varsity sporting events, school dances, and others. Typically, the City billed the School District for the time spent providing police service. City officials believed there had to be an alternative to one municipal entity charging another for services, especially when City residents pay taxes to both. The City of Norwich police chief soon realized that the school district's robust IT department would be a tremendous asset to connecting the police department records management software to patrol car laptops – an expensive endeavor that the City needed to undertake. If not for the school district's expertise, these services would have been competitively bid to an outside contractor to complete the work, at a significant cost to the City. Working collaboratively with the Norwich School Superintendent, the police connectivity project will commence this summer when school district employees have no student IT needs to support.

As a result of the incident in Newtown, Connecticut, this program has been expanded to include the presence of police officers at all City schools on a daily basis, not just for special events. Since the agreement was signed in April 2012, the City police have provided 116 hours of police service to special events at Norwich schools. Many of these hours would have been billed to the school district for services rendered. In addition, since January 2013, the City police have also provided 121 hours of police patrol at four school district buildings and two additional church-based schools within the City limits. These extra patrols are not specifically subject to the shared services agreement, but have occurred, in no small part, as a result of the existing relationship that was initiated through the shared services agreement.

This is a project that could easily be replicated by other municipalities by examining the skills and assets that their school districts or other entities possess and developing good working relationships with these potential partners.