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Abstract
Budgeting for a large number of people within a given county can be a complicated issue to deal with. Of the issues that need to be included in the budget, there are some that given certain circumstances demand more attention. However, funding is inevitable. It has been identified in the works of Grimm that the basic needs that a city is concerned about and ought to be included in the budget include water, collection of trash, police, sewer, streets, and fire departments. Some of these departments can have other ways and means of raising funds to substitute with the federal funds. For example, trash collection is chargeable which in return contribute to decrease in budgetary allocation from the Federal Reserve. However, the police department does not have a direct source of income and depends on funds and budgetary allocations from the county government finance department.
Introduction
It has been argued that it is inevitable for people to want to feel safe by having enough police officers on their streets ensuring that there is enough protection for the citizens (Grimm, 2010). This has been and still remains the adamant need of the community to have police patrol their streets. The presence of police officers on the street is different when one officer has to represent a large number of people. In moderation, there should be about one police officer serving about 1000 people (Coe & Wiesel, 2001). However, when the population increases and the number of police officers is not increased accordingly, the rate of crime is likely to increase as the police officers are overwhelmed by the cases that they have to respond to.
One question that the budgetary committee would likely seek to answer is, ‘has the population growth happened rapidly or has it been gradual?’ To answer that question, this population increase has been gradual. As the chief of the police in the city, it has been noted that there has been gradual but firm increase in the number of residents in the city. In a city that has seen a growth rate ranging between 3 and 5 percent per annum, more business opportunities have presented themselves and thus people from rural areas as well as those from other cities having to immigrate to this city.
Initially, the 30 police officers in the city have been very effective and thus no demands for more police officers for the city for the last six years. However, there has been a recorded increase in violent crime that has been brought to the attention of the police administration in the city. It is not the increase in crime that can be justified that has caused for the request for more police officers, but rather an increase in the wave of violent crimes most of which the perpetrators are juvenile (Coe & Wiesel, 2001, p. 721) and (Monroe, 2010).
In essence, one police officer serves about 2500 people in a city whose population is 75, 000. There are only 30 police officers serving in the city. In reality the city should have about 70 police officers for effectiveness in proactively dealing with crime in the city. Hudzik et al. (1981; Coe & Wiesel, 2001) is noted to have argued that the work of police is to serve, respond to traffic accidents, work towards decreasing crime rates, decrease response time to act as well as attend special events (p. 718). However, this is not achievable currently especially on attending events. Juveniles can be managed if there would be an increase in recreational centers in addition to hiring of school resource officers who would work in conjunction with the police ((Coe & Wiesel, 2001, p. 721) and (Monroe, 2010)). This means that there is need for more police officers for this to be realized.
One thing that is about to be asked is how much is being spent on the police station and how much would be expected to cater for the additional officers, an idea that is supported by Monroe (2010). Given the economic hard times, the city police does a request for addition of 3 to 5 police officers instead of the ‘would be 40’. On salary, there would be an increase of between $ 107,198 (for 3 additional police officers) and $ 178,663 (for 5 police officers) that would result to total salary for police officers being between $ 1,191088 (inclusive of the three officers) and $ 1,262,553 (inclusive of the 5 officers). Health insurance would increase from the current $ 17,104 to $ 18, 952, for all the police officers.
For fuel consumption, there would be retention of the current $ 11,000 an instead purchase of bikes for police officers (estimated to cost $ 2, 500) who are intended to use for patrol to increase accessibility to lean lanes in the city and thus ensure safety in the city at large. Miscellaneous financial allocation should be increased from the current $ 8,900 to $ 12,500 to give way to increased police interaction and involvement with the community and arranging events for the community to build stronger neighborhoods (Coe & Wiesel, 2001, p. 723). In total, the city’s police request for budgetary allocation totals of between $ 1,236,040 and $ 1,307,505 up from the current $ 1,120,894 that is a relatively small increase in the previous budget.
Conclusion
The increase in miscellaneous allocation comes from research that has shown that upon increase in recreation and community policing does help in decreasing juvenile crimes and decrease in gang group formation. The city police are confident that upon addition of the requested police officers, there would be better service delivery failure to which there is a predictable annexation that might demand a large number of police officers to curb its spread. The budgetary increase is quite minimal and affordable for better service.
Reference List
Coe, C. K. (2001). Police budgeting: Winning strategies. Public Administration Review, 61(6), 718-727. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197169962?accountid=45049
Grimm, J. A. (2010, Feb 15). Question and answers with district 1 city council candidates. McClatchy - Tribune Business News, pp. n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/458677120?accountid=45049
Hudzik, J. K., Bynum, T. S., Greene, J. R,. Cordner, G. W., Christian, K, F., & Edwards, S. M. (1981). The environment of manpower decision making. In Criminal Justice Manpower Planning: An Overview, Edited by Hudzik, J. K., 180-208. Washington, DC: U. S. Law Enforcement Assistant Administration.
Monroe, S. (2010, Feb 15). Clinton, Maine, makes case for own police force. McClatchy - Tribune Business News, pp. n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/458679230?accountid=45049
