Synthesis

The economic principle I examined was scarcity of resources and the opportunity cost associated with decisions. I found many examples of this principle, while studying police budget cuts and their effects on police spending. First, In Blog Post #2, I covered the typical police department budget and found out that a majority of the spending goes to labor cost. This shows us that decisions and budgets were made because these department’s have a limited access to funding  and resources.  Second, In Blog Post #4, we investigated a form of police funding called asset seizure that gives a police officer the ability to take a citizen’s money without probable cause. This demonstrates that asset seizure and other lucrative programs is a strong source of revenue for department’s that face budget cuts, which might be chosen over other opportunity costs such as more speed traps. Third, in Blog Posts #5, I covered the mandatory costs required by most departments in order to give their officers the equipment needed to fight crime. This means that the leadership of the department had to use their scarce resources and funding to make choices about what to buy, therefore creating opportunity costs with the items they chose not to purchase or prioritize. Overall, you can see that police departments deal with the economic principle of resource scarcity and opportunity cost on a daily basis in order to balance policing and budget.