Bellingham City budget cut - Research Paper Example

the services and duties carried out in the Bellingham City Police department and then determine which of these services and staff should be let go in order for the department to operate within its budgetary allocation without collapsing. I will also look at some of the duties that can be merged or reassigned so as to reduce financial constraints in the department. Law enforcement in cases of robbery, burglary and murder is one of the normal operations of a police department. Police duties also include maintaining order.

Order maintenance is normally done during police patrols in different areas of jurisdiction. Police services are also part of the standard police operations in the US. These services range from giving first aid to creating safety awareness among people. All these operations are supposed to contribute to the security and other needs of the community (Dempsey and Forst, 2009). Different officers carry out different tasks in the police departments depending on their level of competence. These officers are normally trained in police training academies, most of which are run by police departments.

Different areas have different security and police service needs. Therefore, one police department cannot be completely similar to another in terms of operations. For instance, burglary prevention may be a priority in one police department and drug trafficking may be a priority in another department. The staffing and budgetary allocation needed for these departments will therefore differ, depending on the security needs of a particular area (Talaga and Tucci, 2008). There are some services that are redundant and can be removed in order to streamline the police department’s budget.

These are the services that do not contribute much to the major interests of a particular police department (McKenna and Evans, 1994). Some of these services have been discussed below, outlining their pros and cons, as well as why the cons outweigh the pros. Police departments