Phoenix Police Department Budget

The Phoenix Police Department receives most of its funding from the City of Phoenix budget process, with a few notable exceptions. The City of Phoenix and its Police Department have revenues and expenditures that are some of the largest in scale for the State of Arizona. The Phoenix Police Department receives the largest single portion of the Phoenix City budget with public safety and crime suppression representing serious motivators for local spending, even during depressed economic times.

Funding

The Phoenix Police Department is primarily reliant upon the City of Phoenix budget process for funding. Before any organization can divide and allocate resources, they must have the ability to collect revenues and provide a means of forecasting

There is one exception to this policy, and that is with the Code Enforcement Unit (CEU). It is designed to primarily as a cost recovery group. Similar to a water department or trash collection service, most of CEU is required to be self-sufficient from monies that are collected in fines and user fees. The CEU is responsible for overseeing police ordered vehicle towing, filling public records requests, alarm services and loud noise/party abatement, and fingerprinting services. During the 2016-2017 budget year, the CEU generated 5.4 million dollars from the collection of fines and fees (Rothschild, 2018). The amount that can be charged for the fines and user fees are established either through State law or Phoenix City Council action. The Vehicle Impound section generates the most revenue of the three sections of CEU and it exceeds its operating costs. The surplus revenue from vehicle towing and impound services supplements the other areas of the unit. The user fees from the Public Records section is kept artificially low by the approved rates set by the City Manager and City Council and when vehicle fees are lower for the fiscal year, the Public Records section of CEU can be funded by revenue from the General Fund. During the 2016-2017 fiscal

L. Mikesell states is “both fundamentally preposterous and the right way to prepare a budget proposal” (2014, pp 265). The significance of the statement is that it is impossible to have a truly zero-based budget plan because every government entity that espouses to that philosophy has existing expenses that cannot be ignored such as city buildings, existing parks, and other mandatory expenses like debt services and pension payments. However, the idea that no prior services or level of funding should be expected in the upcoming fiscal year is the right approach to providing a balanced budget (Mikesell, 2014). There are no exact dates for the budget process, apart from the City Charter mandate that the budget be adopted by the City Council no later than June 30th because the new fiscal year starts July 1st. Every fall all Phoenix departments “start from zero and submit an estimate of the costs associated with providing their current level of service for the following year” this provides the means of establishing the budget base (Phoenix 2017-2018 Summary Budget, pp 65). The submission of the budget base is reviewed by Budget and Research staff, who determine the accuracy of the figures submitted in relationship with changing circumstances, such as rising labor costs, or increases or decreases in the cost of utilities or fuel (Phoenix 2017-2018 Summary Budget). This evaluation is done to