5 takeaways: What’s driving Salem’s rising public safety costs amid city budget crisis 

Salem’s police and fire departments have close to the same number of employees they had 20 years ago despite more than doubling their spending during that time.

Weeks of reporting by Salem Reporter found that the city’s public safety costs have grown at more than twice the rate of inflation since 2006. The same can be said for overall spending on Salem’s general fund, which currently faces a nearly $14 million shortage and is largely…