Public Strategic Finance
When one sees talk or analysis about strategic finance scenarios and tactics, this talk usually centers on private or publicly trade corporations in the private sector as opposed to agencies and power structures in the public sector. While it is certainly worthwhile to extend that focus, there are a lot of public agencies that have to make use of strategic finance tactics as well. Indeed, public finance strategy is probably more complex given that public agencies are often at the mercy of the amount of tax money that does (or does not) come in and the money that is allocated towards their work by the people holding the purse strings. The author of this report shall focus on police agencies in particular because the financing and execution of their work has been something that much more people are focusing on nowadays given the recent surge in violent crime and incidents between police officers and unarmed and/or minority citizens. While one would think that police agencies would be among the last to have to justify their funding and structures, this is far from being the case right now.
Analysis
Violent crime has always been a fairly major concern. However,...
However, race relations are very strained right now because of some recent events in the public eye. An obvious example of the events that can and have led to problems would be the Rodney King beating in the 1990's and the massive riots that ensued in Los Angeles when the officers involved were acquitted even though there was rather convincing video evidence that their tactics were completely and obviously excessive. However, the more recent cycle was ostensibly started by what happened to Trayvon Martin and there have been other incidents since then involving police and/or the justice system including Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and others.
What this has to do with strategic financing and police is fairly obvious. For example, some police departments have taken to doling out a lot of fines and citations but there are those that complain that blacks and other vulnerable groups like the poor are excessively targeted. Also, adding more cops to the street just roils those that are anti-cop and say that their presence is either over the top or is rendered in the wrong way. Of course, the overall headcount of the police force and the actions they engage…
