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"Ah, money. As Pink Floyd says, “It’s a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash…” Each year the City and County, whose fiscal years begin on July 1, divvy up their annual budgets. Given the important role law and order plays in our society, it’s worth a look at how much the City and County allocate for police administration from the general fund. While the charts below show the City spends approximately twice as much per capita on its police department than does the County, the numbers might be a tad misleading, according to Lee Catlin, spokesperson for Albemarle County. That’s because the County’s Police Department gets ad-ditional funds from federal and state-wide sources such as Homeland Security and criminal justice program grants. Catlin also points out that the capital budget provides funds for technology like video cameras in the patrol cars and radios. As for Charlottesville, Police Chief Timothy Longo notes that as a result of a 2002 salary survey, Charlottesville found it ranked in the bottom third of police departments surveyed when it came to starting salaries. Thus, Longo’s energies have been directed at improving that ranking in order to recruit and retain the best officers. In two years, he has budgeted for a starting pay increase for officers, going to $32,000 from around $27,000, and moving Charlottesville’s ranking to the “high-middle” of the pack, according to Longo. “We’re making progress,” he says, “but we still have
a ways to go and need to concentrate on making [salaries] a
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