Spearfish safety budget tops $6 million for 2024

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Public safety matters, no matter the size of the town.

Spearfish is home to a little more than 12,000 people and their public safety department has more than enough resources to ensure the safety of all its residents.

$6.8 million: this is currently where the budget of Spearfish’s public safety department sits for 2024.

Spearfish Public Safety Director Patrick Rotert says those financial resources aren’t their biggest concern.

“Our biggest asset is people. You can look at any one of our budgets and the vast majority was not operated. It’s not necessarily vehicles and equipment, although those are important. They’re the smallest portion of our budget. The largest portion is the people,” said Rotert.

Rotert added with the town’s population gradually increasing over the years, the department has never had trouble getting more resources.

“To keep pace with population growth, the resources have to increase. Staffing has to increase. Equipment has to increase. We’ve always been able to do that,” said Rotert.

Out of the $6.8 million budget, more than $900,000 went to fire operations. In addition, the Spearfish Police Department receives approximately $3 million of the pie.

“The City of Spearfish I can speak for, has that process very dialed in. I’ve never had it where my budget allocation was inadequate, and we work very well together with the other departments in the city to make sure we’re all getting our needs covered,” said Rotert.

Rotert says the Public Safety Department’s biggest hurdle is finding the right candidates when they’re hiring.

“It’s a big challenge, you can look across the country at any law enforcement agency and they’re struggling to find qualified candidates,” he said.

Rotert added the reasons for this may be attributed to differing world views.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KEVN. All rights reserved.