The UT Institute for Public Service serves as a conduit for the knowledge of UT faculty members and consultants and puts that knowledge to use solving real-world problems. Through its four agencies, IPS provides training and technical assistance to state and local government leaders, law enforcement personnel, and industry innovators.
Cost-effective detention facilities
Rutherford County is constructing a new juvenile detention center and workhouse for $14 million less than anticipated as the result of implementing recommendations from UT’s County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS). As suggested by CTAS, only misdemeanor inmates will be sentenced to the workhouse, which eliminates the need for a separate maximum-security area. CTAS recommended changing the workhouse program from direct supervision to indirect supervision, thus reducing the staff required to manage the program. As a result, county taxpayers will save $7 million every year in operation costs.
Proficient state government
The UT Institute for Public Service provides administrative oversight to two of the Tennessee Department of Personnel’s premier leadership institutes. The Tennessee Government Executive Institute and Tennessee Government Management Institute have provided leadership training for more than 700 of Tennessee’s top government leaders. These programs serve all departments of state government.
Skilled crime-scene investigators
Last year, six crime-scene investigators from the Nashville area completed training at UT’s National Forensic Academy. Officers from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Brentwood Police Department, and the Franklin Police Department joined CSIs from across the country to receive hands-on instruction in such areas as forensic anthropology, latent-fingerprint collection, bullet trajectories, bloodstain patterns, arson, and explosives.
Safer workplaces
In Wilson County, UT’s Center for Industrial Services helped an industrial client develop a customized safety plan, saving the customer $85,000 in the process.
Funds for park improvements
In the city of Eagleville, a Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) consultant helped with budget planning. By redeeming a $150,000 bond and issuing a $350,000 capital outlay note to finance the bond redemption, the city acquired $200,000, which it will use to match a state fund for park improvements.
Secure communities
The Law Enforcement Innovation Center hosted bomb-awareness training for local and regional public safety officials in Nashville at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation headquarters. Seventy participants representing law enforcement, fire departments, and homeland security participated in the training.
Expanded fire-protection services
MTAS helped the city of Hendersonville conduct a fire station location study, which documented the city’s need for an additional fire station and staff. With this justification in hand, the city applied for and received a federal grant of $250,000 for its fire service needs.
In 2006 in Davidson County and those surrounding it–Cheatham, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson–UT’s Institute for Public Service:
- created or retained 1,286 jobs
- answered 2,087 requests for assistance
- generated an economic impact of $54,686,945