Law Enforcement and It’s Budget Process
LEA 432
William Forbes
October 7, 2012
Law Enforcement and it’s Budget Process The economic downturn of the past several years has been devastating to local economies and, by extension, their local law enforcement agencies. According to a report by the National Institute of Justice, the United States is currently experiencing the 10th economic decline since World War II (Wiseman 2011). The impact of this downturn will result in a change of how law enforcement services are delivered. As has been discussed by the COPS Office Director, Bernard Melekian, in a series of recent articles published in the Community Policing Dispatch,
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The paper therefore recommends zero based budgeting to Nigeria at all levels (GJSS, 2012). Sometimes inefficiencies result due to poor integration of the finance and strategy. "Budgeting and performance are typically overseen by the finance department, whereas planning s coordinated by strategy department. Often, the two processes aren't well integrated, resulting in strategies that are often dictated by the budget process instead of vice versa" (Gary 2003). The reason for this could be that everyone involved may be attempting to accomplish the same goals, but also trying to make sure that the outcome will be beneficial to them, such as a substantial bonus or a reward. A budget cycle refers to the whole process from the commencement of developing a budget to the execution of the final charge on the budget. Since the majority of the budgets are prepared for a one year period, budget cycles cover the costs and expenditures for a period of one year. However, there are budget cycles that run for more than one year period. Government budgets have a budget cycle of at least 18 months from the conception of the various departments’ budgets to the time the appropriation bills are signed into law (Hyde, 2001). The initial steps of the budget cycle take place in the various departments and agencies. The program
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
Grant, H.B. and Terry, K.J. 2008: Law Enforcement in the 21st Century. (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, River, NJ. Pearson/Prentice Hall.
All together law enforcement has changed, but few see the drastic changes that have happened. Everyday, police and sheriffs are working to keep the people in their community safe. With improved technological advances and social changes, police and sheriffs are keeping a closer eye on things today. For example, improved weapons such as tasers have helped keep suspects safe, computers in police cruisers allow instant access of information of individuals. Other social changes, such as women allowed to join the police forces have helped law enforcement a lot with domestic violence cases because they are calmer then most men. No matter what happens police and the sheriffs will be there to protect and serve
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.
Unfortunately, the financial trend that has been seen in policing will likely continue for the foreseeable future, which will not only limit the ability to confront these new critical issues, but will likely exacerbate them as well (Police Executive, 2013). It is also foreseeable that new state efforts to combat their overall economic struggles will serve as a critical issue with adverse policing affects as well. More and more states continue to modify their early release policies, putting criminals back onto the streets sooner and in greater numbers than ever before, which has caused police officials to almost unanimously report that they expect to see increases in their crime rates as a result (Police Executive, 2013).
Those who beforehand were willing to step forward and report crimes will be less likely to do so now, fearing their own apprehension. It is this cooperation from the community that the street cops rely on to find and arrest criminals. Once this Faith between police officers and the community is broken, it can take years to reestablish.
Policing in America underwent a major paradigm shift in the way that law enforcement was carried out – this shift was known as a shift from the Political Era to the Professional (Reform) Era (Roberg, Novak, Cordner, & Smith, 2015). This switch in eras happened in the United States during a period branded as the Progressive Era, when many “types of problems … began to be addressed not only in the public sector but also in private enterprise” (Roberg et al., 2015, p. 41). This movement affected the United States and the American life since it functioned on the ideas that there should be “(1) honest and efficiency in government, (2) more authority for public officials (and less for politicians), and (3) the use of experts to respond to specific
more with less. Many police departments have had to lay off officers, and some have eliminated
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 law enforcement officers who protect and serve the local communities have and live stressful lives. How stressful is the occupation of a law enforcement officer in their job and in their personal lives than other occupations? How hard would it be to be a spouse or loved one of a law enforcement officer? Does the public know what goes on in a law enforcement officer's job life and the life of their family? Could the average person handle the daily stress that takes place in the lives of law enforcement officers? These are several questions that individuals could ask themselves on any given day. What are the answers to these questions? I know firsthand, because I am a wife of a law
In today’s society it seems as if all the violence that is occurring is revolved around race. Negative law enforcement involvement has been one of the major controversial topics that our generation has been faced with. Race, violence and authority is a very well-known racial disparity that will take some time to be seen otherwise. After the incidents occur, what really shakes the nation is that there is no real accountability. No one wants to admit that an injustice occurred and a small altercation lead to a casualty. Leadership within the justice system often gets challenged with such scenario. Does one discipline and makes an example out of his law enforcement officer (LEO), or does one address the public so that there is no uproar on such final decision.
Budgeting is crucial in the well-being of a company especially the financial health status of a company. In fact, no professionally managed firm would fail to budget, since the budget establishes what is authorized, how to plan for purchasing contracts and hiring, and indicates how much financing is needed to support planned activity. It is routine for a company to budget for its expenses. Expense budgets act as a guideline of how much revenue a company would require keeping the activities running. It is used to set the company’s targets for a certain period.
The 20’s century saw the use of budget involve due to a change in the environment. Indeed the control of output used to be obtained by the dissemination of tasks and so traditional budgets were very much highlighted, with a significant top-down influence. As an example of the importance of budget in the 1970’s IBM had about 3,000 people involved in their budgetary process. During the same period, the oil crisis brought concerns about rising in costs and led to the introduction of zero-based budgeting (ZBB), which can lower cost by avoiding blanket increases or decreases to a prior period’s budget. The increase in business uncertainties was in discrepancy with the stifling effect of fixed plans, promoting the use of rolling budgets. The 1990’s saw the growing influence of shareholders and steered the focus on a budget that included a wider view of organisation results, answering the investment community for quarterly updates on results and expectations (Bill Ryan, 2005). Budgets then started being used as a communication tool between the financial community and the organisation, allowing the corporation to be integrated in the capital market. Moreover companies started using flexible budgets rather than static budgets as nowadays various levels of activities can be observed in most organisations. The use of flexible budgets then enables firms to be consistent with their new environment and the market.
This project seeks to bring out the budgeting and budgetary control practices of UT financial institution, Koforidua, and how they can make sure their budgeting practices are done in such a way as to incur minimal or less cost for the organization