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Police present 2026 operating budget; council weighs cruiser purchases and staffing
Summary
Richmond Police Department presented a 2026 budget similar to 2025 with increases for subscriptions and one additional investigator. Councilors discussed capital requests for cruisers and whether pension levy dollars could be repurposed for fleet needs.
Kyle Weatherly, a representative of the Richmond Police Department, presented the department’s 2026 budget request and answered council questions on operations, technical services, overtime and capital vehicle needs.
Weatherly said many operating line items are similar to 2025; contractual services, subscriptions and some investigative software fall under the department’s technical services. He told councilors the department increased a contractual/subscriptions line from $35,000 to $45,000 to cover hiring, testing and some mental‑health services for staff. He also said uniforms and accessories spending is projected to fall because the department is close to a full staff level of 80 sworn officers.
On staffing, Weatherly said the department has three officers expected to retire in 2026 and that overtime hours have trended down as hiring and training continued. “In 2024 we had 2,402 hours of overtime. We projected that it would go down in 2025 with the hiring of additional officers, which it has. To date…we have 8,039 hours with a difference of 2,363 hours, which is a 22% decrease,” he said.
Councilors pressed on investigative and technical vendors included in the budget: Weatherly listed services such as West Publishing, TriTech (record/scheduling), LexisNexis, warrant services and software used for drone and investigative support. He also confirmed Lexipol (policy management) is included in services.
On capital needs, the department requested $2.28 million for cruisers and $120,000 to outfit them, roughly enough to buy and equip five to six vehicles at the prices cited by staff. Weatherly said the fleet remains below ideal size; he estimated the department needs at least eight vehicles per year to maintain a healthy rotation and that the current request would not fully close the gap.
Councilors asked whether funds proposed to be taken from pension levies could instead cover vehicle purchases; finance staff earlier explained the one‑year move of $300,000 to parks was an administrative allocation for 2026 and not a permanent reallocation. Weatherly said he had not reviewed restrictions on pension levy spending and did not present a formal proposal to use pension levy funds for cruiser purchases.
The department reported an expected reduction in some contract costs tied to litigation and a one‑off rental (the Hawkins Road drug task force space) that was no longer being paid for. Weatherly and councilors agreed that buying vehicles on a regular replacement schedule remains a high priority for department readiness and officer safety.
