Fort Collins police expected to seek $4.2 million more in 2027 budget

Fort Collins Police Services is expected to request approximately $4.2 million more than its 2026 budget for 2027, with the additional funding intended to maintain current service levels. The expected request was reported July 6 as the city began developing its next two-year budget.

The figure is not a final appropriation. The approved reporting does not identify a completed request, a staffing breakdown or a City Council-approved increase. It also does not establish that the additional funding would require higher taxes or cuts to other city services.

Police request enters 2027–28 budget process

The expected request is part of Fort Collins’ 2027–28 biennial budget development. City staff are compiling more detailed information at the program level rather than relying only on department-wide totals. That work is intended to give officials a clearer picture of the costs associated with individual services as they prepare the spending plan.

For Fort Collins, the immediate question is how the city will weigh the cost of maintaining existing police service levels against other priorities in the upcoming budget cycle. The available sources do not specify whether the expected increase would support additional employees, compensation, equipment or another category of police spending.

Those details remain important because the reported $4.2 million is an expected funding request, not a final decision about how much Police Services will receive. The final amount, the uses attached to it and the effect on police staffing or service levels were not available in the reviewed material.

The Fort Collins City Council is expected to review the police request as part of the broader budget process. The sources do not identify a final date for the city’s 2027 budget decision, so the next known step is continued budget development followed by council consideration.

Photo-radar revenue also under review

The same budget discussions include a separate review of Fort Collins’ photo-radar and red-light program. The program remained slightly revenue-positive in 2025, but it did not meet its revenue projections.

City staff planned to revisit the assumptions used to forecast the program’s revenue during the 2027–28 budget process. They also planned to examine vendor accountability and the program’s costs. The reviewed sources do not provide the program’s dollar revenue, the size of the gap between actual and projected revenue or a proposed change to the enforcement program.

The photo-radar and red-light review is separate from the expected police funding request. Together, however, the issues show two kinds of questions city officials are preparing to examine while building the budget: the cost of maintaining current public-safety services and the reliability of revenue and cost assumptions for an existing program.

Neither issue had reached a final council-approved outcome in the reviewed material. The police request could influence city spending priorities, police staffing and service levels during the 2027–28 budget cycle, but the sources do not establish what decision the council will ultimately make.

For now, the key unresolved points are the final size of the police request, how any additional funding would be allocated, the outcome of the photo-radar and red-light review and the date of the final 2027 budget decision.