Police Chief Magazine: It’s All About The Revenue Stream

Generating New Revenue Streams

 

 

 

” The common reaction to a budget crisis is reducing personnel and cutting services. The focus of this article is to provide police agencies with an alternative to personnel and service reductions. This alternative could help the survival of a city and maintain or expand police service through generating new revenue streams as a proactive approach to meet the fiscal crisis of today and the uncertain future of tomorrow.

  While generating revenue streams is not new to most agencies, the focus and resources necessary to meet current and emerging public safety needs are unprecedented in law enforcement’s history. Law enforcement executives are accustomed to the ebb and flow of fiscal budgets. The current trend, however, is much more far reaching and will impact almost all cities in California and most likely all communities in the United States.

  Five years ago, the current state of the economy facing cities and counties was not even a concern. Now, however, many law enforcement agencies are facing the reality of severe budget cuts, reduced workforce, and the elimination or reduction of many law enforcement programs. Today, police chiefs are being asked to look for ways of economizing, increasing efficiency, eliminating redundancies, and finding revenue sources.

  This trend will be prompted in two possible ways. First, increasing financial pressure will require more severe budget cuts to the point that many agencies will be able to provide only basic services. Second, cities will begin to see successes at nearby agencies and look to new revenue streams as a panacea to forestall reduced services or even bankruptcy. Based on the research for this article, there is a clear presumption of need for law enforcement to generate new income streams. A first necessary step in that process is to examine possible revenue-generating ideas.
Possible New Revenue Streams

  A group of experts in the fields of city government, business, real estate, and entrepreneurship assembled in April 2008 to identify possible new income streams that could be initiated by law enforcement.² Their suggested new revenue streams serve as an example of ideas that can be generated in a short period of time. Each idea must be weighed against the feasibility of implementation, profit potential, and appropriateness for law enforcement involvement. Their most prominent recommendations were

• fees for sex offenders registering in a given jurisdiction,

• city tow companies,

• fine increases by 50 percent,

• pay-per-call policing,

• vacation house check fees,

• public hours at police firing range for a fee,

• police department-run online traffic school for minor traffic infractions,

• department-based security service including home checks and monitoring of security cameras by police department,

• a designated business to clean biological crime scenes,

• state and court fees for all convicted felons returning to the community,

• allowing agency name to be used for advertisement and branding,

• triple driving-under-the-influence fines by the court,

• resident fee similar to a utility tax,

• tax or fee on all alcohol sold in the city,

• tax or fee on all ammunition sold in, the city,

• public safety fees on all new development in the city,

• 9-1-1 fee per use,

• police department website with business advertisement for support,

• selling ride-a-longs to the public, and

• police department–run firearm safety classes.

  In addition to concepts that may lie ahead, there are also many examples of revenue-generating ideas that have been tried and proven in actual use. “

 

 

    Yes , as this police chief acknowledges however inadvertently , it’s all about the revenue generation and less about public safety …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The “Train Wreck” Is Becoming A Multi-Car Pile-Up

Industry Source Tells NRO: WH May Have To Consider “Unthinkable Options” If Website Meltdown Continues Into November

 

 

 

” Today’s must-read comes from Yuval Levin, who spoke to five managers at the HHS department that’s running Healthcare.gov and three health-insurance industry managers. Their reactions to two weeks of total chaos on the site: “Restrained panic” from the former and more or less pants-wetting panic from the latter. I don’t think this qualifies as the news story we’re all waiting for because Levin has no sources up the chain in the decision-making parts of the executive branch, but if people in the industry are whispering about “unthinkable options” now, rest assured that people in the White House are too.

I can’t excerpt all the parts that are noteworthy, although if you’ve been following news about the Healthcare.gov apocalypse you already know some of what Levin reports — the login fiasco is a result of HHS demanding that people create an account before seeing what plans cost, the system still can’t calculate subsidies correctly (which means some people are getting the wrong price when they buy coverage), the “back end” communications between the federal data hub and private insurers are a shambles, and the chaos will only increase if HHS solves the login problems without solving the back end problems. (Imagine insurers having to sift through 5,000 garbled enrollments per day instead of 50.) What about the timeline, though? Per Levin’s sources, D-Day will come sometime in mid-November.

If the problems now plaguing the system are not resolved by mid-November and the flow of enrollments at that point looks like it does now, the prospects for the first year of the exchanges will be in very grave jeopardy. Some large advertising and outreach campaigns are also geared to that crucial six-week period around Thanksgiving and Christmas, so if the sites are not functional, all of that might not happen—or else might be wasted. If that’s what the late fall looks like, the administration might need to consider what one of the people I spoke with described as“unthinkable options” regarding the first year of the exchanges…

Sick people with preexisting conditions whose coverage will be very expensive for insurers will spend all day on the site trying to sign up. Young, healthy people, whose money insurers desperately need to help pay for that very expensive coverage for sick people, might try once or twice and then give up. Result: A giant bill for insurance companies with no way to pay it except by jacking up premiums on everyone who currently has insurance, and even that might not be enough. That’s the death spiral, and that’s why “unthinkable” options are suddenly, but inevitably, on the table.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ObamaCare In More Trouble Than You Might Think

Americans Opt-Out

 

 

 

” Selling the American people on ObamaCare was always going to be a big challenge. That’s why it was passed all but in the middle of the night. Now, with the number of people who say they will opt out of ObamaCare and pay the fine instead growing – the selling of ObamaCare is only going to become more difficult, not less.

 According to Gallup, more people than ever are now saying they will pay the fine, as opposed to enrolling.

… A key to making the Affordable Care Act work as designed is for all Americans to carry health insurance. To ensure this happens, the law stipulates that Americans are subject to fines if they do not have health insurance. When Gallup reminds uninsured Americans of this requirement and asks what they are most likely to do, 56% say they plan to get insurance, while 34% say they are more likely to pay the fine.”

 

That opt-out percentage is up 9 percent since September .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Huge Victory For Religious Liberty And Hobby Lobby

Court: Hobby Lobby Has ‘Established A Likelihood Of Success’ In Challenging Obamacare Birth Control Mandate

 

 

 

 

” Hobby Lobby, an arts and crafts company arguing that the contraception mandate contained in Obamacare violates the religious liberties of the company owners, “a majority of the court” believes the company has “established a likelihood of success” in making that argument and so does not have to pay fines for refusing to comply with the mandate as the case proceeds, a federal court ruled today.

“We hold that Hobby Lobby and Mardel are entitled to bring claims under [Religious Freedom Restoration Act], have established a likelihood of success that their rights under this statute are substantially burdened by the contraceptive-coverage requirement, and have established an irreparable harm,” the 10th Circuit Court ruled in the opinion released today.

The Justice Department wanted the court to dismiss the case on the theory that Hobby Lobby is almost certain to lose. “The preventive services coverage regulations do not substantially burden any “exercise of religion” by for-profit, secular companies and their owners,” DOJ argued last year. “Even if there were a substantial burden on religious  exercise, the regulations serve compelling governmental  interests and are the least restrictive means to achieve those interests.” “

 

    What , pray tell are “compelling governmental interests” ? Just another indication of the diversion of interests between the People and their “servants” .

 

“Today’s ruling was the most decisive victory yet against the abortion-pill mandate,” said The Catholic Association’s Ashley McGuire said in a statement today. “The number of religious freedom victories against the mandate continues to mount, sending the clearest signal possible to the Obama administration that no employer, no matter where he or she works, should be forced to choose between violating his or her conscience and paying a fine. We hope that President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius will heed the court and give people of faith all over this country relief from this unjust mandate.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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FBI Pushes For Wiretap-Ready Internet

FBI’s Latest Proposal For A Wiretap-Ready Internet Should Be Trashed

 

 

 

” The FBI has some strange ideas about how to “update” federal surveillance laws: They’re calling for legislation to penalize online services that provide users with too much security.

I’m not kidding. The proposal was revealed in The Washington Post last week — and a couple days ago, a front-page story in The New York Times reported the Obama administration is preparing to back it.

Why? Federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI have long feared their wiretap capabilities would begin “going dark” as criminals and terrorists — along with ordinary citizens — shift from telephone networks, which are required to be wiretap-ready under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), to the dizzying array of online communications platforms available today.”

 

 

 

Related articles

• How the FBI Wants to Penalize Internet Companies for Providing “Too Much” Security (silveristhenew.com)
• FBI’s Latest Proposal for a Wiretap-Ready Internet Should Be Trashed (dailyqueernews.wordpress.com)
• Experts Warn: Wiretap Law Could Create ‘Backdoors’ For Hackers (huffingtonpost.com)
• FBI wants backdoor wiretapping access to Google, Facebook, and other popular websites (dottech.org)
• President Obama Wants the FBI to Have More Access to Spy on You (hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• FBI’s Latest Proposal for a Wiretap-Ready Internet Should Be Trashed (readersupportednews.org)

 

 

 

 

 

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