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Why go with overtime NOPD instead of private security? |
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Written by Mid City Security District
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We think that there are benefits from private security or NOPD. Certainly the garden district patrol loves their private security, and we actually started out planning to go that route ourselves. We got pricing from every company listed in the phone book, and got feed back from people on the board of districts about pros and cons of NOPD and private security.
When we got pricing for private security, it turned out to be only slightly cheaper than NOPD, and they lack the ability to arrest anyone. The community also would not get the benefit of NOPD having increased awareness of what is going on in our neighborhood from having more patrol time. In addition, we found instances of private patrol guards actually telling criminals when people would be on vacation for a cut of the profits when they robbed houses.
While the cost savings are nice, the idea that we might be paying people to rob citizens is unacceptable to us. Also, after talking to both NOPD districts that overlap in Mid-City and learning about the benefits of increased communication between the two and the increased awareness from added patrols, we decided that it would be worth the small increase in cost to use NOPD officers instead.
That being said, there is always the flexibility to switch to a private patrol later if NOPD does not work, so we will not be forced to pay for something if it is not working. |
