News & Events

Police departments and sheriff offices may face heightened budgetary challenges in the near future, but cash counters can help them meet some of these difficulties.

Many law enforcement agencies rely on seized currency to fund various projects. For example, the city of Lawrence, Kansas used drug forfeiture money to support the police department's rising costs, according to Lawrence Journal World. Training costs were one of the department's most significant expenses, including hostage negotiation training, leadership development and a homicide investigation course. All of these training and development programs are essential for officers to continue serving the community, and the seized cash prevented the department from going over the budget.

New laws, technology could impact police budgets
Not every area's police departments may be able to rely on seized cash from drug busts to fill in gaps in federal and state funding. A few states have moved to legalize marijuana, and a column by Colin Neagle in Network World pointed out that some were opposed to this move in Washington state not because of the risks of the drug, but due to police departments losing out on a valuable source of revenue.

Citing data from the U.S. Justice Department, the article stated that marijuana-related seizures result in $1 billion between 2002 and 2012. This currency often supplements the budgets of the law enforcement agencies that recover it. However, the legalization of marijuana in some areas could impact budgeting. For example, a drug task force in Snohomish County, Washington cut down its budget forecast by 15 percent after the state legalized marijuana.

With changing regulations, law enforcement agencies need new ways to increase their efficiency to contend with shrinking budgets. Money counters can help police officers streamline the process of totaling seized funds to avoid using more payroll hours than necessary on this task.