Police budgets: What do Mineral County s towns get for their money?
Barbara High
Tribune Staff Writer
West Virginia municipalities finalized their budgets in March. As the News Tribune compared their budgets, specifically examining the funds set aside for their respective police departments, we wondered: What does each of the towns get for their money?
The law enforcement budgets are used for salaries, uniforms and equipment, vehicles, and maintenance. As the populations of West Virginia’s cities and towns have decreased, however, so has the share of money available for law enforcement. In 1977, municipalities comprised almost half of police spending in the entire state, compared to 39 percent in 2017, according to the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy.