Riley County Police Department Director Brian Peete is approaching the upcoming budget cycle cognizant of the current, more conservative Law Board’s desires to maintain a lean budget.
Peete spoke Thursday on KMAN’s In Focus podcast about the upcoming budget process, which will begin to take shape in April. Budgets have gone up every year since 2020, when the Law Board held expenditures flat, due to uncertainty amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the Riley County Law Board approved a 6.5% increase in expenditures. The previous year, the increase was roughly 8.5%. In 2021, the board approved a 3.5% boost.
Peete says RCPD staff have done a lot of internal homework, looking at the interior allocation of funds and how RCPD is attracting new personnel.
“It is unsustainable and I think irresponsible for law enforcement agencies to take advantage of the current situation to keep trying to outbid each other for salaries and benefits,” he said. “If you want to protect the community, you serve the community, and want to look out for their pocketbook as well.”
Peete says RCPD intends to bring forth a “very responsible request” for its 2025 budget and will be seeking grant opportunities when possible.
“Our law board members are stewards and they’re representative of our community. To me it’s a spit in the eye if we disregard what they’re seeing and what they’re bringing,” he said.
While he acknowledges there may be room for negotiation on whatever RCPD presents, he isn’t expecting any political back-and-forth from the request RCPD will put forward.
Formal adoption of the budget will take place in June.
Earlier this week, the Riley County Police Department released a report illustrating the disparity of crime occurring during Fake Patty’s Day and during home K-State football games.
RCPD’s Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) drafted a comprehensive report revealing that within a two-block radius of Aggieville, Fake Patty’s Day yields an average of 35.7 crime reports, based on data between 2017 and 2019 and again from 2022 through 2024. Home football game weekends, using data from 2021-2023, witnessed a significantly lower average of 6.2 reports. Director Brian Peete joined KMAN’s In Focus Thursday, and says the report was put out so the public could gauge how those numbers differ.
“If you’re on the other end of things and are responsible for the safety of the individuals who are there but also the protection of property as well as the safety of the individuals who are exposed to what’s going on at Fake Patty’s Day, then you look at it through an entirely different lens,” he said.
RCPD has been scrutinized by some for their reaction to Fake Patty’s Day. Earlier this month, Peete called the event a bane on the community and has said he doesn’t want to hinder businesses from making money, but says Manhattan’s economy is diverse enough that it doesn’t need the behavior associated with the unsanctioned event
“To me it’s not necessarily worth it in the culmination of the fights and in the culmination especially when it goes to the safety of our officers and that’s the biggest thing that I advocate for,” he said.
The comparison report is available on the RCPD website.
