Tennessee’s Budget, Explained: Public safety spending is broader than policing
Public safety is one of the most common phrases in politics and one of the least precise. Tennessee’s budget record shows why that matters.
by Brandon Burley and The Redemption Project
In ordinary conversation, people often use “public safety” to mean police.
Sometimes they mean crime. Sometimes they mean courts, jails, prisons, prosecutors, public defenders, emergency response, juvenile justice, disaster recovery or prevention programs.
The budget record is a useful corrective because it shows how broad the system really is.
Tennessee’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget document has a major section titled “Law, Safety, and Correction.” The document says the agencies and departments in that functional group are responsible for the interpretation and enforcement of the state’s laws.
That section includes the court system, attorney general and reporter, district attorneys general, district public defenders, correction, the Military Department, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Safety, among others.
Public safety is not only what happens when an officer responds to a call. It also includes what happens before a crime, after an arrest, inside the courts, inside correctional facilities, during supervision, during disaster response and when the state works with local governments on specific safety problems.
That is why budget literacy helps.
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