Budget Cuts Hit Idaho Falls Police Department

The Idaho Falls Police Department is finding ways to cut money due to rising health care costs. The Idaho Falls City Council is in charge of the department’s budget.

City Councilwoman Sharon Parry said the cost of health care is rising by almost 10 percent,and changes have to be made.

Twenty-six million dollars, that’s the portion of property tax the city council has to work with when it comes to the police department’s budget.

“There has been a big insurance increase so that’s the question, where is the money going to come from?” said Chief Steve Roos, Idaho Falls Police Department.

The city council and mayor do not anticipate a tax increase. They are trying to keep their dollars flat.

“In order to do that we need to find efficiencies within the city. We are looking hard, we are looking deep to make sure those happen,” said Parry.

Boot and cleaning allowances for non-sworn officers will be phased out, a service that been around for decades. When an officer retires, a non-sworn officer will possibly replace that position.

“Boot and cleaning will save $20,000 a year and our civilizing program we are working on will save $64,000. Our overall operations has been trimmed $37,000,” said Roos.

How did they come to this decision?

“We have a pretty good system that we tweak every year, as far as how the budgets are proposed through the mayor to the city council,” said Parry.

The process is three basic questions: efficiencies, attrition, and how to hold the dollars flat? But the council and the department know that some non-sworn officers need boots. The solution?

“We will actually provide those things physically to the people that need it. For instance, Animal Control. The boots would now be part of their uniform provided by the department,” said Roos.

Chief Roos said if they have to tighten things up more, then the next step is to ask the public what services they want cut from law enforcement.

The city council will go over the changes for the next three weeks before the new cuts will go into effect.