Public budgets are a concrete expression of values. Which activities and institutions receive what levels of resourcing reflects the priorities shaping public policy. For public budgets to reflect society’s collective priorities, it is important that all members of the society be able to understand and act on them, notwithstanding certain complexities of the budgeting process.

But municipal budgets, including public safety budgets, can be complex and opaque. This guide provides lessons and best practices we learned from working with partner organizations in three cities to democratize the public safety budgets in their jurisdictions. It offers those in local government and community-based organizations practical insights for improving the accessibility, and community understanding, of public budgeting information.

Who Is This Guide For?

This guide is designed for local government employees and community-based organizations. It provides practical insights for improving the accessibility, and community members’ understanding, of public budgeting information. The guide was prepared with those in local government and community organizations concerned with public safety investments in mind, but the lessons for improving the transparency and accessibility of public safety budgeting are also relevant for state government interest holders, community members, advocates, and funders working on a wide range of policy conversations.

What This Guide Offers

In this guide we provide lessons learned from working with the DC Fiscal Policy Institute in Washington, DC, Community Information Now in San Antonio, Texas, and the Polis Center in Indianapolis to democratize their public safety budgets. We discuss the importance of setting intentions, identifying partners, collecting and analyzing budget data, building a tool to present the data, and engaging community members around it. For each step, we provide an overview of key elements and discuss an example of how they were implemented in our partner jurisdictions.