GFOA has developed the following "new rules for police budgeting." 1. Historical precedent should not determine future spending. Focus on how to cost-effectively achieve community goals. 2. Departments and divisions are not the best decision unit. Bureaucratic units are useful for day-to-day management, but have limitations as the unit of analysis for budgeting. 3. Think outside of department "silos" and look for multidisciplinary solutions. Use the budget as a forum to bring other perspectives to the issues that make up public safety work. 4. Give prevention a chance. Measures of whether the community is better off than it was before might open the door to thinking about how to prevent the problems. 5. Identify what works. Ask how the requested funding achieves the public safety vision and require data and analysis to support funding. 6. Look for smart, strategic ways to save money. The money to enhance public safety capabilities can come from reallocating funds from things local government can stop doing or start doing differently. 7. Don't budget "either/or," budget "both/and." The budget should not be framed as a competition between two opposing views where only one can win. Read about how to implement these new rules in our research report "Time for Change: A Practical Approach to Rethinking Police Budgeting" at https://www.gfoa.org/materials/time-for-change

Posted by keludwig at 2021-10-26 19:57:33 UTC