While many budget styles exist, the author contends that an activity-based budgeting strategy offers the most benefits to law enforcement agencies in terms of providing an understanding of the full costs of service and resource allocation. Activity-based budgeting allows police executives to create a clear nexus between workload and costs. Accountability in budgeting and the politics of budgeting within police agencies are considered before the author turns to a discussion of successful budgeting strategies and justifications. Budgets should be based on a plan or strategy; the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) has suggested that police agency budgets be based on careful workload and crime data analysis. The budget of an agency, carefully derived through the analysis phase, should then be justified in three separate spending categories: mandatory, based, and discretionary. The process of a workload analysis is described and is recommended in order to develop an objective budget based on empirical data. Finally, the process of the actual budget development is described, including tips for calculating salaries, materials and equipment costs, and present level of service. Figures, endnotes