Police Departments
Increasing surcharges on every traffic violation has been recommended to be one of the alternative sources of funds by (Wilhelm & Turner (2002). While opponents to the idea suggest that the police department has no obligation to raise revenue, supporters argue that the fee is appropriate because it is passed to those people who cause the problem.
Another approach that has been recommended is to redirect resources from other sources based on expenditure estimates, which are made 18 to 24 months in advance. The estates enable the finance department to modify the service delivery to the people, reduce consumption, and to improve the efficiency of existing service delivery systems (Wilhelm & Turner, 2002).
Courts
According to Wilhelm and Turner (2002), an innovative and alternative approach of increasing revenue for the courts include raising the court filing fees, increasing the penalty fees, and increasing user charges. A task force, which was given the task of look for different sources of revenue, recommended an increase in taxes even though taxes are under the legislative power of the government. Another suggested approach is to evaluate the staffing patterns to reduce cost incurred in paying salaries.
Correctional Agencies and State Prisons
One of the sources of funds include issuing a revenue bond for prison facilities through the State authority, issuing certificates of participation where the State provides some of its property to a financing agent who subleases the property to interested parties to raise revenue for the prison or correctional agency. The privatisation of correctional facilities, private financing through public private partnerships, and lease purchasing financing are additional sources of funds (Wilhelm & Turner, 2002).
“Virtual Organization” Public Budget
Virtual Organisations
The volume of the local government budget for public safety includes the money that is devoted to the court security for the different sections of the public safety components under the Law Enforcement Services Account (Phelps, 2011). The budgetary allocation for the safety of the courts for the virtual system is 6,719.9 million dollars.
The key components in the budget include the security of the court system, local costs, program growth costs, and local public safety programs among other programs. An analysis of the State budget allocations to public safety compared with other agencies where revenue is spent shows that only 7% of the budget is allocated for the public safety (Phelps, 2011).
An analysis of the services provided by the public safety shows that the public safety is in need of an increase in the money allocated to enable the prevention of crime, ensuring the safety of residents, ensuring that other support components work towards achieving the ultimate goal of the safety of the public. However, other departments, which include education and health among others, are equally in need of funding to ensure the execution and proper delivery of services.
By simply taking money from other city agencies to “give more” to public safety is that it could limit the capacity of the agencies to provide their core services and the way they operate. Phelps (2011) and Wilhelm and Turner (2002) argue that the ramifications could include loss of the important services, which are provisioned by the other agencies besides the violation and lack of the legal force to transfer the funds to fund public safety (Phelps, 2011).
References
Phelps, M. S. (2011). Rehabilitation in the punitive era: The gap between rhetoric and reality in US prison programs. Law & society review, 45(1), 33-68.
Wilhelm, D. F., & Turner, N. R. (2002). Is the budget crisis changing the way we look at sentencing and incarceration?. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 15(1), 41-49.