The Showdown with Shrinking Budgets: Police Departments in Economic Downturns

This chapter describes the shortfalls in local police budgets following the economic woes experienced by police departments during the Great Recession. Providing a timeline of external events impacting police budgets, in particular, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and the Great Recession, this chapter places these events since 2000 in an economic context. In addition, multiple sources, that is, interviews with police administrators, survey data, and news media content, are used to analyze police budget cuts. Most police administrators have already cut their budgets and report their jurisdictions anticipate more effects from the economic crisis. Significant reductions in police budgets, personnel and training are discussed. Both a police administrator and academic perspective of policing in an economic crisis are included in this chapter to better understand how recent budgets cuts affect the quality of policing.