Brownwood Police Department: Case Study

The budget process is a powerful planning tool for government to make important resource decisions. According the Carney and Schoenfeld‘s article on How to read a Budget, an operating budget is a reflection of government’s financial plans. When a budget is

Before Ms. Antoinette Frank joined the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) she had a rough childhood. Ms. Frank came from a dysfunction family; her brother was a fugitive and her father was in and out of her life. Ms. Frank childhood dream was to become a police officer. In the year of 1993 Ms. Frank applied for the New Orleans Police Department during the hiring process, she had several major red flags during her process. Ms. Frank was caught lying on several times on her application and had failed two standard psychiatric evaluations. The psychiatrist at that time advised the New Orleans Police Department not to hire Ms. Frank. During the time the New Orleans Police Department was short-handed and needed Peace Officers (Police Officers)

Lawrence (Trey) McIntosh III has applied for a position with the Austin Police Department. Trey is currently employed as an intern for Nacogdoches Fire & Rescue and is a student at Stephen F. Austin State University. Trey has worked with us since June of 2015 and has been a positive addition to our staff.

Working as the budget director for the mayor of the city of Kelsey, we have recently been getting numerous complaints from the citizens about an increase in crime and also an issue of the public demanding for more police officers. With the population of the city growing daily, the increase of crime is continuing to progress as well. The mayor has informed us that this past year is the highest increase in crime in the city’s history, that the federal government has reduced the federal pass-through money for the state and that the budgeting group needs to revamp the budget for the coming year. Within this document as the

The budget process for each year begins by examining how much was spent each month. For each month, a budget is created for the following year. Staff members at the unit level impact the budget with supply usage.

Superintendent Mary Kamerzell presented the administrative budget proposal for the FY17 Maintenance and Operations Budget. She reviewed the revenue and expenditure planning assumptions and presented an at-a-glance budget summary of revenues and expenditures that highlighted anticipated changes to large budget categories compared to the current 2015-16 fiscal year

On January 5th, 2017, the Muskogee Police Department began an investigation into the possession and distribution of child pornography, by the suspect, Zackery Perry (“Perry”)(MPD Case #2017-557). Through the investigation and the analysis of electronic evidence that Perry possessed and was collected during a search warrant of his residence, a local juvenile victim was identified as Brooklyn Skelton (“Brooklyn”)(age 7).

The budgetary process in the United States is complex due to a large bureaucracy and amounts of money. However, the machinations can be determined through careful research and analysis. This author examines the three divisions of the federal criminal justice system with regard to the budgetary process each is involved in. A broad description of the federal budget process is detailed in the opening pages. Following this is a breakdown of how each criminal justice department accesses funds, and a conclusive analysis of reasons for budget shortfalls or gains.

The second phase of the process starts in November through to January referred to as The Executive Budget. In accordance to the preliminary commendations and the most up-to-date economic atmosphere, the Governor along with his staff then prepares the actual executive budget and by the closure of January, the executive budget is released to the next phase (New York State Government, n.d.). The budget proposed by the Governor at this stage must be financially balanced. The budgetary terms confirming the proposed budget are very indirect requiring the Governor to classify all the expenditures he anticipated to be realized prior to the end of the subsequent fiscal year.

All departments of the City are required to submit requests for appropriation to the Finance Department on or before the first week of January each year. The Finance Department uses these requests as the starting point for developing a proposed budget. The government’s manager then reviews this proposed budget and makes adjustments to be presented to the Council at the annual budget retreat held at the beginning of March. The Council then makes any suggestions or changes in programs and policy and instructs staff to provide a budget document by the end of April, sixty days prior to the beginning of the fiscal year ("City of North Myrtle Beach," n.d.). Council then holds a public hearing and as soon thereafter as possible, adopts a budget and passes a tax levy ordinance and such other ordinances as may be required for accounting and budgetary control ("City of North Myrtle Beach," n.d.). Budget-to-actual comparisons are provided in this report for each individual governmental fund for which an appropriated annual budget has been adopted ("City of North Myrtle Beach," n.d.).

This plan intends to cover next three years starting from 2015-2016, 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years. For 2015-2016 school year the budget will be used what was allocated. The other two years will have priority on creating school budget as the schools use technology more each day.

The State of Nebraska has a biennium budget that is set from 2013 all the way to 2015. Knowing what is in your budget and how to properly gauge what will be needed for the coming two years in each department is an important aspect to a successful budget. The person in charge of the budget for each department needs to know how to properly budget and respond to the needs of the state in the most fiscal way possible. A budget is only as good as the person who is running it. The Nebraska State budget is complex, but with the right amount of team work and dedication, it seems to run very smoothly.

The City of Branson’s fiscal year runs January 1 through December 31. Typically, the budget preparation process begins in mid-July when budget documents and instructions are distributed by the Finance Department to the each city department. The various departments have approximately three weeks to assess any budget goals, capital and personnel requests, and to complete projections for the current fiscal year. By mid-August, the Finance Department completes a preliminary review of the departments’ budget, personnel and capital requests. The City Administrator then meets with the Finance Director to review any requests, and schedules one-on-one meetings with each department head.

The final stage of the budget process is the audit. This stage ends when the biennium ends on June 30th. The audit purpose is to check up on the allotment of funds. “The audits verify the status, accounting, and dispositions of all funds for which the State has responsibility” (IN.gov).

Over the last several years, most police departments have been facing numerous financial challenges. The main reason is law enforcement agencies are expected to do more with less and the stagnant economy. The combination of these factors has been placing pressure on many departments to begin imposing budget cuts. Evidence of this can be seen with a survey that was conducted by the University of North Carolina. They found that 67% of police departments made some kind of budget cuts for 2011. The most severe reductions were occurring in large police departments such as Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. (Delfem, 2011, pp. 199 - 205) This is illustrating one of the most pressing issues affecting a wide variety of police departments across the country. To fully understand what is happening requires: examining the situation, how they are able to interact with other agencies (i.e. state / federal) and recommending the way this relationship can be improved. Together, these elements will offer specific insights about how police departments can effectively address this problem.