Public Safety expenditures comprise 37 percent of the Greenbelt City Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2017-2018 and nearly all of that goes to funding the Police Department. The proposed police budget at $10,197,900 is essentially a “hold the line” budget, proposing an increase of only $8,900 over the current year’s budget. Rather than growing in numbers, the department has all it can do to maintain its current authorized strength due to retirements and vacancies. Fortunately, the crime rate continues to decrease within the city.
At an April 5 worksession, the Greenbelt City Council met with the police command staff led by Interim Chief Thomas Kemp, City Manager Nicole Ard and Finance Director Jeff Williams to review the police budget. Before this, council met with others to review the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad, Greenbelt Museum and other minor city budget proposals. The meeting location was the Springhill Lake Recreation Center, selected to make it more convenient for residents of Greenbelt West to attend the meeting. While at one time there was a small crowd in the meeting room, by the time the council considered the Police Department budget, only a couple remained.
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