This analysis aims to update and expand upon our previous study on public safety spending. Following the migration crisis of 2015, public safety emerged as a prominent issue in public discourse, political debate, and government communication, resulting in a number of consequences. Among these, our focus here is on the evolution of expenditures allocated to public safety.
The primary question we seek to answer is whether spending on public safety has indeed increased in recent years as a result of its elevated social and political importance, and whether the structure of budget allocations in this field has shifted over time. In other words, can the growing societal valuation of public safety be observed in actual spending patterns, or are we simply left with rhetorical commitments unbacked by concrete financial action?
