Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
INTRODUCTION
It will probably come as no surprise that public police budgets are not a common subject in the academic literature about policing. With a few exceptions, most policing scholars prefer to deal with policing objectives, methodologies and outcomes rather than come to grips with the more technical and undoubtedly drier subject of the financial underpinnings of police work. For many of us, budgets and accounts, with their long columns of figures and specialist language, are mystifying entities that we would prefer to remain the exclusive domain of accountants.
Police, however, have no choice but to grapple on a daily basis with issues concerning acquisition and allocation of resources. Not only must police get the job done, but they must be seen to be doing so in a way that is both efficient (not wasteful of resources) and effective (achieving desired outcomes). Political imperatives, such as the translation of private sector mentalities and methods into public sector activities over the last three or so decades, have driven changes in the way in which police strategize and implement resource decisions. Budgets for public policing are by all accounts getting tighter. Competition for security work is increasing, in the form of private security providers and volunteer organisations, while public demand for visible accessible public policing continues to grow. Police are facing the singular challenge of being required to function within a business paradigm while still trying to provide a ‘public service’ which delivers ‘justice’ and does so equitably and coherently.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.