Plenty of Bang for the Buck

The Miami Gardens Police Department

During the recent budget adoption process, I was asked on several occasions about the cost of the City’s police department; especially as compared to when we were using the Miami-Dade police department prior to 2008. There has been a lot of hearsay concerning this, so I want to set the record straight.

1) According to the City’s official audit for FY 2007 (the last complete year we used the County police), the City paid the County $30,483,370 for police services. At that time, the County provided 144 sworn officers working out of the local sub-station on NW 27th Avenue and provided specialized services from their Doral headquarters. 2) Today, according to the City’s adopted operating budget for FY 2013 (Oct. 1, 2012 – Sept. 30, 2013), our total net expenditures for the City’s police department are $29,265,866. This includes 211 sworn officer positions.

So, after five years, the City has 67 more police officers than it did under the County, and the cost to our taxpayers is $1.2 million less, not to mention that our residents no longer have to go to Doral to pick up police reports or to recover impounded property.


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