Here We Go Again: Lakeland Police Preparing for Budget Cuts

This is the time of year when we typically begin formulating our budget request for the upcoming fiscal year which starts October 1. The headlines across the state of Florida continue to chronicle the budget shortfalls that state, county, and local governments are facing as revenues fall short of projections. This the result of recent property tax reform and reduced collections of state sales tax and communications taxes.

Like other City of Lakeland departments, Lakeland PD is preparing for a 5% reduction in next year's budget from FY08 levels. That reduction goes along with increases in salaries and other fixed costs (like automobile fuel, etc.) that we do not control. The impact is going to be significant on our operations.

In order to minimize the impact as much as possible, this is a brief summary of what we are doing now:

• A hard freeze for hiring new employees to fill current vacancies is already in effect. We are trying to save money this year by doing more with less.
• We currently have 10 police officer and three public safety aide vacancies, which means the budget challenges are affecting us right now. These vacancies are spread across the entire department and have not reduced our ability to respond to emergency calls for service - our patrol squads are at relatively normal staffing levels.
• With operating and maintenance costs being a very small percentage of our annual  budget, a reduction of this size is going to mean the loss of personnel, both sworn and civilian. We expect to be able to meet this through normal attrition.
• We are once again assessing our efficiency measures to ensure we are getting the biggest bang for our buck across the board.
• Programs that face possible reduction or elimination are being evaluated to determine the long-term impact of any such a decision. We do not want to make program cuts without considering what the impact will be one to three years down the road.
• Service cuts, such as the types of calls we respond to in-person rather than handle over the phone, are being prioritized, too. Response times to non-emergency calls may have to increase as well.
• Staff is brainstorming to collect input from every corner of the organization to see if there are other ideas out there as to how we can reduce our operating costs. Often times the employees with the best ideas are those closest to the problems.

We will keep the community updated on our efforts as we go through this process. As always, we remain open to your ideas or suggestions.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere