cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19641276
That does include parking enforcement. Which is done through that half of Townhall. Oh yeah, that’s the other part. They get literally half the real estate of town hall which is delightfully unsubtle.
But yeah, remember specifically that freaking the cops taking on all of these duties, or having these duties thrust upon them outside of their control whatever version of this that you buy into,. Having a whole bunch of unrelated social functions being addressed under the regions of the police forces is the criticism, it’s not some separate part. Why, does parking enforcement or local security or non union road crews get organized and paid from the police department instead of the local government?
For the 2024 budget, police get about 22% of the operating budget in my city, and happened to get 3.6% of the capital expenditure budget. Capital budget can fluctuate a lot from year to year; for 2023, it was 1.6% for police.
Which validates my usual feelings about Madison, WI. We didn't go all in on some of the bad ideas that have plagued American cities since the end of WWII. Certainly some, but we're in a much better place than most.