Police Administration - Chapter 12

Identify three major ways in which a police budget can be supplemented.

1) Federal and general foundation grants 2) Donation programs 3) Forfeitures 4) User fees 5) Police taxes 6) IRS rewards and reimbursements

As a newly appointed police chief, you direct your planning and research unit to come up with a proposal to create a police foundation. From whom or what types of businesses would you solicit or not solicit funds?

Anyone but political candidates, political representatives, or political organizations.

The practice of comparing one's organizational performance to those that are recognized leaders in the field is known as:

Benchmarking.

____________ is the action phase of budgeting.

Budget execution.

The single most important political statement made by any unit of government in a given year is the:

Budget it adopts.

A ____________ is a plan expressed in dollars.

Budget.

Groups together multiple large-scale, nonrecurring projects.

Capital budget

In contrast to operating budgets, ____________ are typically non-recurrent.

Capital budgets/capital improvement projects.

Forecasting revenue, determining how much money will be left unexpended in the current fiscal year budgets of the department, and issuance of the budget calendar are functions associated with the:

City or county department of finance.

The majority of forfeitures are determined in which court?

Civil.

Which of the following is not a common method of adjusting a budget?

Cutting employee benefits.

Assume that you are assigned to conduct a program audit of a grant to a municipal police department whose purpose is to reduce driving while intoxicated violations. What documents would you want to review and what kinds of data would you think is important?

Depends on the scope of the grant. Data related to enforcement (law enforcement efforts to prevent or deter DWI behavior), prevention (community awareness programs), screening (identification and reporting of DWI offenders), treatment (programs designed to reduce consumption and serve offenders with substance abuse problems), intensive supervision (programs which strengthen probation efforts to assist courts with monitoring of offenders), coordination (planning, organizing, directing, controlling, reporting of all program activities by local DWI coordinators), alternative sentencing (programs that offer alternatives to traditional incarceration with access to intervention services) Analysis of various DWI related statistical information (drivers license revocations, alcohol related crashes, arrests, and convictions, etc.) Review of applicable state statutes, regulations, and administrative manuals Review of DWI related contracts

Recent police budgets have been negatively affected by all of the following except:

Expanding tax bases.

Assume a budget period runs from October 1, 2011, until September 30, 2012. It is properly referred to as:

FY '12.

The largest amount of funds flowing to the police has always been through the ____________.

Federal government

____________ determine(s) whether unauthorized charges to the budget or reimbursements from the budget were made.

Financial audits.

Property can be subject to ____________ in the U.S. if it is used to facilitate criminal activity.

Forfeiture.

Budget format that incorporates features from one or more other budget formats versus being purely one type of format.

Hybrid budget

When a police department's budget format incorporates a variety of orientations which are blended together to meet its particular needs, it is properly referred to as:

Hybrid.

A budget which begins on ____________ and ends on June 30, 2013, is called a Fiscal Year 2013 budget.

July 1, 2012.

What is the name of a letter written by a chief of police to whatever office authorizes the audit contrasting one or more findings by the auditor?

Letter of exception.

Budget whose focus is on controlling expenditures.

Line item budget

Identify the focus of a line item budget and a program budget.

Line item budget: focuses on controlling expenditures. Each object of expenditure has a separate line in the budget. Program budget: focuses on achieving goals. It is organized around programs/activities, and has a line item budget for control.

The oldest, simplest type of budget format is:

Line-item.

A recurrent budget.

Operating budget

Type of budget that includes kindred expenses.

Operating budget

Contrast operating and capital budgets.

Operating budget usually covers a 12-month period and is for such things as salaries, fringe benefits, uniforms, crime scene supplies, ammunition, training, and telephone service. It is a recurrent budget. Capital budget is for large-scale expenditures that may be "one-time" and take place over several years such as acquiring land and building a new police station. In contrast to operating budgets, capital budgets are typically non-recurrent.

What budget format was written a lot about from 1960 to 1971, and, although practices in the federal government, was never widely used outside of the federal government?

PPBS.

Also referred to as a results based budget

Performance budget

Can tell whether current programs are being done right, but not whether the right things are being done.

Performance budget

Focuses on results, measuring them through a series of performance measurement indicators.

Performance budget

Compared to other types of budget formats, the ____________ is relatively expensive and difficult to develop and implement.

Performance budget.

The budget format which emphasizes efficiency rather than effectiveness and is expensive to operate and develop is the:

Performance.

In a typical large municipal police agency, whose responsibility is it to submit the police department budget to the city manager?

Police chief.

Why is it that the budget process for some police departments attracts more attention and is more political than is the case with other departments within the city government?

Police union involvement. Media attention. Citizen interest.

Budget whose focus is on achieving goals.

Program budget

Links programs, expenditures, and goals.

Program budget

For present purposes, a ____________ is a planning tool that links the expenditures for each program to the achievement goals.

Program budget.

As a police chief, would you prefer to manage an annual or biennial budget? Justify your answer.

Pros of biennial budget: More time for substantive deliberation and program evaluation, can reduce program disruptions by spreading cuts or averaging revenue over two years, allows for long-range planning that could result in more efficient use of dollars, lower budget preparation costs, provides more certainty about funding levels, saves time. Cons of biennial budget: No annual review (deviations from projections could go unnoticed for a longer period), difficult to respond quickly to the availability of (i.e. federal) funds, revenue estimates more likely to be incorrect, could increase the need for supplemental appropriations, salaries usually expressed in one-year increments.

Allotments are normally made:

Quarterly.

What does the budget cycle consist of?:

Sequential steps which are repeated every year at about the same time in a well-operated unit of government.

What is the last phase of the budget cycle?:

The audit:

Define the steps in the budget cycle and briefly describe them.

The budget cycle is a sequence of four steps that are repeated every year about the same time in a well-organized government. Budget preparation - Obtain input from stakeholders, budget is built and transmitted to city manager Budget approval - City manager meets with police chief, budget hearings Budget execution - Budget implementation Audit - Independent verification by someone how has no stake in the outcome

The foundation of all other budget types or formats is:

The line-item.

Which of the following is not determined during a financial audit?

Whether crime scene technicians are being adequately paid.

The Decision Package (DP) is part of a four-part analytical process that is the heart of the ____________ budget.

Zero-Based (ZBB)

A budget is:

a. A contract between the appropriators and the department. b. Translating financial resources into human purposes. c. An estimate of future expenditures. d. To some degree, all of the above. To some degree, all of the above.

Which of the following is typically included in an operating budget?

a. Fringe benefits. b. Uniforms. c. Telephone service. d. All of the above. All of the above.