The Impact of the Economic Downturn on American Police Agencies

The economic downturn of the past several years has been devastating to local economies and, by extension, their local law enforcement agencies. According to a report by the National Institute of Justice, the United States is currently experiencing the 10th economic decline since World War II (Wiseman 2011). The impact of this downturn will result in a change of how law enforcement services are delivered. As has been discussed by the COPS Office Director, Bernard Melekian, in a series of recent articles published in the Community Policing Dispatch, expectations will not be lowered just because an agency now has fewer officers, or because the budget is limited. Simply doing less while waiting for local budgets to recover to pre-2008 levels is not a viable option. Faced with a dramatic budget contraction, law enforcement leaders need to start identifying different ways to deliver police services and, perhaps more importantly, articulate what the new public safety models will look like to their communities (Melekian 2011a). The effects of the economic downturn on law enforcement agencies may be felt for the next 5?10 years, or worse, permanently. The permanence of this change will be driven not just by the economy, but by the local government officials determining that allocating 30?50 percent of their general fund budgets for public safety costs is no longer a fiscal possibility (Melekian 2011b).