Both local police forces have larger budgets than years previous.
Safety comes with a price.
And with rising concerns for better security, the Athens and Ohio University police departments are facing budgets that are rising as well.
Ohio University Police Department
The OU Police Department’s budget increased 16.5 percent for OU’s 2015 fiscal year, which began in June.
About $3.5 million was allocated to OUPD for the 2014-15 academic year, according to documents acquired by The Post. During the previous academic year, OUPD operated with a bit more than $3 million.
OUPD’s budget has increased roughly 29 percent since the beginning of the 2010-11 academic year.
The increase is mainly related to hiring five new officers, said OU Police Chief Andrew Powers.
That staff expansion, approved by the OU Board of Trustees in June, makes up $407,754 of the $430,000 add-on to the department’s budget. The remainder is for a new bomb-sniffing dog named Alex, equipment and training for the new officers, according to a previous Post article.
OUPD has 26 sworn officers as of press time; Josh Weinmann is the most recent of those to join the force. Powers said his department is in the process of hiring three more candidates.
OUPD has effectively worked with the budget’s funds during the 2010-13 fiscal years, said OU spokeswoman Katie Quaranta.
“OUPD’s ability to remain under budget during those years can be attributed primarily to salary savings from unfilled positions,” Quaranta said in an email.
But OUPD does overshoot one area within its budget for the past four years: staff overtime. Powers said his department’s overtime costs have steadily increased and “consis
tently exceed the budget line.”
OUPD enhanced police and security staffing at special events during the 2013-14 academic year, which not only exceeded staff overtime estimates, but also pushed the department over budget, but officials reduced costs of other areas within their existing budget to absorb some of the overage.
OUPD’s allocated overtime budget for that academic year was $150,000, but the department spent $283,996 by the end of that fiscal year.
Power said the 2013-14 year was the first year that overtime costs caused his department to overspend the total budget at the close of the fiscal year.
“In every year previous, we had consistently absorbed the additional overtime in salary savings and remained within our total, overall budget,” Powers said.
Athens Police Department
APD also saw an increase in its annual budget, although the hike is smaller in comparison to OUPD. Athens allocated more than $3.8 million to the division of police this year — that’s just more than a 3 percent increase from its previous year’s budget. APD’s budget has had almost a 17 percent increase since 2010.
Unlike OUPD, APD has consistently remained under the budget line on its overtime. The department was given $221,000 in 2013 for overtime costs and spent about 99 percent by the end of that year.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl estimated about 25 percent of the city’s general fund is invested in APD. Wiehl added that the increases were mainly attributed to union contracts and equipment replacements.
In an interview with The Post in early October, Wiehl said there may be further spikes in next year’s budget because of a new union contract negotiation.
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