As OFFICER Media Group has done for the past nine years, in partnership with our sponsor Damascus Gear, this summer we sent out a survey invitation, asking our readership to answer 33 questions regarding their budget in the coming year. As many agencies are already in their 2026-2027 budget year (started July 1), or they are in the planning stages of their 2027 budget year (starting October 1 parallel to the federal budget year), we believe that the information we get back is fairly accurate and of value. Whereas other organizations offer information on what law enforcement budgets were three or more years ago, through the data in this survey we get a glimpse of what budgets are or will be in 2027 — next year. We encourage you to review the information so you can use it to support or justify your own budget requests/changes or to get ideas of what other agencies are doing in the coming year that you perhaps haven’t thought of yet.