Police funding

  Most public safety departments are funded by their governing agency or board, such as a city council. Most governments have a “use it or lose it” governance on annual fiscal budgets, and core projects can be at least partially funded with leftover budget monies at the end of the fiscal year.  Funding for local law enforcement now increasingly comes from the federal government. ... The Department of Justice, which oversees the COPS program, says it has provided $14 billion since its inception to hire and train local police involved in community policing. 

Source

 https://www.npr.org/2020/06/09/872387351/how-federal-dollars-fund-local-police

There could be grants our community can apply for, but they are not transparent enough to let the community know if they even tried.

https://cops.usdoj.gov/grants

Gaines Township Michigan

This background info was copied from the Gaines Township Newsflash  Facebook page. For the new residents, this history may help to understand why some of us feel so strongly about this issue.

"To give some clarification to this report. ... in 2001, the Gaines Twp. police department was created under the MSP police pilot program at a cost of approximately $35,000 per year which would be funded out of the general budget. At that time, Genesee county sheriffs department was contacted, however it was a lot more expensive to contract with them for police protection. Overtime up to 2013 the cost of the department grew up to approximately $73,000 per year. A study was done two identify the need and cost of police protection and included the sheriffs department and metro police cost for coverage. (The study is included in this page to view it you’ll have to go into Photos and see it there.) For funding to cover the need of the township a half mill for 5 years passed by one vote, generating $84,000 in the first year ($90k in the last year). This was supplemented with general fund $$$$ also. The total cost was under $150,000 a year. It was found to be more economical in 2013 to maintain our own Police Department. Since then to Last year the police department budget increased significantly with the police chief requesting Approximately $245,000 a year and the board requesting a special assessment for Over $400,000 more than what the chief requested. This assessment failed by a 3 to 1 vote. Around this time metro police submitted a Proposal for police coverage to the board and they attended meetings to answer questions and to explain their proposal to the people, Which was a lot less the what The board wanted the people to pay for the same services. The board ultimately rejected the metro police proposal with the treasurer citing That the boards rejection was owing to Metro merely offering Chief Schmitzer A part-time desk job and a part-time patrol officer job and not creating an authoritative desk job position for the Chief Regardless that Contracting with Metro would be a lot more economical for the township."

Source:   Gaines Township Newsflash | Facebook