A new survey has found many law enforcement officials around the state view their funding levels as inadequate.
The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan says its latest Michigan Public Policy Survey sought the input of all 1,856 general purpose local governments in Michigan on a range of issues, and this year’s census also focused on police. Report author Debra Horner tells us statewide, about 59% of sheriffs and 45% of police chiefs said they get too little funding. She says she was surprised by how the numbers shook out.
“I thought that places that were serving big populations, big counties, big urban areas would be most likely to say that they were underfunded,” Horner said. “But indeed it was actually the smaller agencies, places that had fewer than five full-time employees or even six to 40 employees.”
Horner says only about 30% of agencies with more than 80 employees reported being underfunded. The same questions, about law enforcement funding, were also asked of non-police public officials.
“And they don’t have quite the same concerns about underfunding that the sheriffs and chiefs of police do. Only about 19% of local government officials. So for example, county board chairs or county administrators, mayors, and city managers, only about 19 to 20% of them said that, ‘Oh, we’re underfunding.'”
Horner says police agencies complain that inadequate funding makes recruitment more difficult because they can’t afford to offer hiring bonuses and generous benefits. Interestingly enough, she says not many police agencies reported a correlation between inadequate funding and crime.
The results of the survey are being made available to local governments statewide so they can better understand their budgeting needs.
