Saving Money

[eta34]

Our department is facing some budget issues. The chief has asked us to come up with ideas on how to increase revenue and/or save money. Any and all ideas are appreciated.

[Turbinator]

Let you guys carry and service your own personal weapons maybe?

Open up a kiosk at the station and start selling off roster handguns?

Turby

[ivane068]

Our department switched to cheaper training ammo for quaterly qualification purposes, not sure if that helps..

[the42cop]

Online reporting of most property crimes (especially without suspect info) has helped my department save a TON of money on OT from unnecessary report writing time. It saves officers from writing THOUSANDS of reports every year. That is a lot of wasted man hours for those reports that will never go anywhere anyway.

It took a few years for us to really get down what should be handled online and what should require an actual officer to write, but it has been amazing for the workload. Now going to work is like trying to swim with cinder blocks tied to you while being thrown into a raging river. Before online reporting it was more like trying to swim up Niagara Falls every shift.

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[Samuelx]

Change all your buttons/snaps to brass... oh wait a minute...

[Samuelx]

Pull personnel from flex schedule positions and force them to cover vacancies in other areas... oh wait a minute...

[Samuelx]

Continue using equipment for about 30 years after it's been recognized as obsolete... And when upgrading, give the new equipment the same limitations as the old equipment, just so users will feel at home... oh wait a minute...

[Samuelx]

Seriously though, I don't know what the cost of paper and toner cartridges is but man we go through a lot of that crap (and a lot of that is unnecessary BS stuff!).

Maybe look into grants/grant writing and/or federal excess/military surplus?

[Samuelx]

Ignore knowledgeable LE specialist attorneys and use of force subject matter experts and write your force policy(ies) with ridiculous and ignorant verbiage that opens up your department bank account for basically guaranteed withdrawals by every ambulance chasing POS public defender/criminal defense attorney out there... oh wait a minute...

[Samuelx]

Oh, I could keep going (for days) but I'm probably gonna get fired as it is...

[Redemption]

- Instead of Melting down confiscated weapons maybe have them inspected, restamped (where needed) and then put up for sale?
- A Cop calendar for lonely house wives.
- A bake sale?
- Fundraiser
- Government grants?
- I dont know about all departments but I know near me the motorcycle division does all their servicing at third party facilities, any wiggle room in bidding there?

Let you guys carry and service your own personal weapons maybe?

Open up a kiosk at the station and start selling off roster handguns?

Turby

I like your second idea there.... I would be poor...very very poor.

Our department switched to cheaper training ammo for quaterly qualification purposes, not sure if that helps..

Are there places where this hasnt been done? Chino PD was joking with me one time that guys in my field get more trigger time per year than they do. though we do ours on our own dime! theres a thought! Make all the PD pay for their own training ammo...brutal though. I still like the idea of an off roster handgun kiosk.

Online reporting of most property crimes (especially without suspect info) has helped my department save a TON of money on OT from unnecessary report writing time. It saves officers from writing THOUSANDS of reports every year. That is a lot of wasted man hours for those reports that will never go anywhere anyway.

It took a few years for us to really get down what should be handled online and what should require an actual officer to write, but it has been amazing for the workload. Now going to work is like trying to swim with cinder blocks tied to you while being thrown into a raging river. Before online reporting it was more like trying to swim up Niagara Falls every shift.

Online reporting for property damage could be an interesting method... but where to draw the line? Does one draw it at misdemeanor property damage or online reporting for felony property damage too? I can see without suspect info.. but if for all property damage, wouldnt that just cause more undue tension between an overworked and under funded LEO force and an ignorant but already frustrated population?

[mixicus]

Guessing you guys got the PERS increase talk too.

Look to make sure all existing fees are being collected (parking cites, muni violations, alarm permits, etc).

Bring more training in-house. By training up a few officers as POST certified instructors in each of the mandatory areas (first aid/CPR, firearms, less-lethal, etc), you can save future 'operator' course costs.

Management of OT. Take a look at shift minimums. Encourage shift trades instead of straight days off when an OT slot would be required.

Shift some tasks to non-sworn (cadet, PSO, CSO). No suspect property crimes and non-injury TC's would be reasonable. This may allow for re-deployment of sworn staffing.

Other stuff could be stretching the life cycle for some equipment like another 10K miles on units before replacement.

Do you guys have a 'foundation' or business out-reach that could work to get sponsorship for equipment or training.

[CBR_rider]

Definitely do billable alarm responses for chronic false alarms...

[ElvenSoul]

Solar up the station house

[ElvenSoul]

Jail garden

Unused Cells Airbnb