Police chiefs across the United States and around the world are confronted with meeting department budget challenges while still ensuring officer safety and the ability to provide professional law enforcement services. A police chief’s budget is like a leaky bucket: Despite the best fiscal controls, money still leaks from numerous causes beyond the chief’s best control efforts, through court subpoenas, training, officers’ shifts extended because of call volume or the necessity to complete reports, specialized responses to incidents such as major crimes or special operations callouts, and special community events.

The city of Roswell, Georgia, Police Department faces these same challenges and threats to achieving its budgetary goals. The department’s senior managers met monthly to review the overtime budget and looked for solutions to stop the hemorrhage. An additional stressor the department faced came when several highly productive officers had submitted letters of resignation, citing personal reasons: raising children, returning to college, or seeking personal development opportunities. They did not want to quit the police department, but they were unable to balance their future personal interests while working as full-time police officers.