Municipal governments present a challenging atmosphere for security. There’s the potential for leadership turnover at each election, and there are “politics,” which may manifest in strained relationships and difficulty accomplishing goals. Procurement rules and bureaucratic red tape can slow down even simple processes in some city governments, and then there are the challenges of zero-balance budgets.
In the United States, state budget cuts and reductions in federal grants have impacted city budgets significantly in recent years, and there’s evidence that most cities have dealt with the shortfall by cutting expenditures rather than raising taxes or fees to increase revenue. This places all city departments in a struggle to secure even inadequate funding, and security – so often seen as a cost center – can easily fall to the end of the line.