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Issues Faced by Police Departments in Today's Society

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Issues Facing Police Departments in Today's Society
Introduction
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.
The Current Situation Since the last recession began in 2008, many law enforcement agencies have been dealing with budgetary cuts. This is because all levels of government have been seeing shortfalls in tax revenues. In most cases, the situation is so severe that municipalities and states have been forced to deal with large budget deficits.

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