In the United States, a department of public safety is a state or local government agency which often has a broad portfolio of responsibilities, which may include some or all of the following:
Fire services: provides fire prevention and suppression.
Office of emergency management (OEM): plans for and operates the emergency operations center during calamities, disasters, special events and emergencies.
These responsibilities are usually organized into separate agencies under a DPS due to their diversity, though there is a critical exception in certain local jurisdictions (as further explained below).
In other countries, equivalent agencies may be known as the ministry of the interior. In U.S. state or local governments that do not have a DPS, equivalent agencies may be known as the department of emergency services.
Many local jurisdictions (cities and counties), and special districts (schools and hospitals) have the umbrella configuration described above, in which the DPS is simply a joint administration of several distinct agencies. They may share administrative support staff and back-office functions, but sworn personnel remain specialized and have particular responsibilities (that is, the police continue to arrest people and the firefighters put out fires). The DPS of Cobb County, Georgia is one example.
However, a minority of jurisdictions have departments of public safety which have primary and direct responsibility for all emergencies. In these unusual organizations, all full-time sworn personnel are cross-trained as police officers, firefighters and EMTs, and can respond to emergencies in any capacity. Although it is more expensive to hire, train and retain such personnel, they have a clear advantage in terms of their flexibility. They can respond as first responders to many rapidly evolving situations rather than waiting for the arrival of other specialized personnel.[1]
This configuration was more widely popular in the 1970s and 1980s in the United States, but has since gone out of style because relatively few cities have been able to execute it successfully because of manpower limitations in handling major incidents.
In a few California cities (the San Gabriel Valley city of Duarte, for example), the department of public safety usually is restricted to code enforcement officers or animal control service agents (especially when those cities contract out for law enforcement with the county sheriff's office).
List of cities with departments of public safety with fully cross-trained personnel[edit]
Alaska
Hoonah Department of Public Safety
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Department of Public Safety
Fairbanks International Airport Department of Public Safety
