These numbers are taken from the respective cities Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports. They are to provide facts about the true cost of a combined Police and Fire department.

PSO information
Public Safety salaries
Using $80,000 as a benchmark for our research, more than double the median income in Kalamazoo, in Battle Creek there are 33 police and firefighters making more than $80,000. In Grand Rapids the total goes up to 70 people in police and fire making more than $80,000. But in Kalamazoo, a city half the size of Grand Rapids, there is literally double the amount of people in public safety making more than $80,000. There are 136 people.
In Kalamazoo, every dollar that comes in from property taxes goes directly to public safety.
KALAMAZOO TOP EARNERS FROM 2009:
--Employees making more than $80,000
Departments:
Accounting: 1
Administration: 2
Assessor: 1
Community Development: 1
Economic Development: 1
Finance: 1
HR: 1
IT: 1
Legal: 3
Parks: 1
Public Safety: 136 (24 in six figures)
Public Services: 17
Purchasing: 1
Transportation: 1
168 Total (32 in six figures)
BATTLE CREEK TOP EARNERS FROM 2009:
--Employees making more than $80,000
Departments:
Administration: 3
Department of Public Works: 4
Fire: 3
HR: 1
IT: 1
Licensing/Compliance: 1
Police: 30
Parks: 1
44 Total: (8 in six figures)
GRAND RAPIDS STATISTICS:
Number of people grossing more than $100,000 in 2009: 37 employees
Highest Salary in City: $144,337
Lowest Salary in City: $30,667
Average City Employee Salary: $60,801
AVERAGE SALRIES BY DEPARTMENT:
Assessor: $58,000 16 employees
Attorney: $79.000 15 employees (1 part-time)
Clerk: $59,000 9 employees
Com Dev: $60,000 19 employees (1 part-time)
Comptrol: $65,200 14 employees (1 part-time)
Dist. Ct: $47.350 81 employees (3 part-time)
DT Devel: $71,000 3 employees
Econ Devel. $77,750 4 employees
Engineer $60,740 42 employees (1 part-time)
Env. Prot: $53,700 85 employees (1 part-time)
Executive: $83,500 4 employees
Fac Maint: $57,400 13 employees
Fiscal: $76,740 7 employees
HR-EEO: $71,000 6 employees
HR: $61,200 14 employees (1 part-time)
IncomeTax: $50,700 14 employees
IT: $76,400 5 employees
Library: $53,200 56 employees (3 part-time)
MotorEquip: $53,700 26 employees (3 part-time)
Neigborhood:$55.900 33 employees (1 part-time)
Parking: $46.550 29 employees (2 part-time)
Parks: $60,200 27 employees
Pension: $70,750 4 employees
Planning: $61,000 9 employees
Purchasing: $70,300 3 employees
Streets: $46,500 94 employees
Treasurer: $52,700 16 employees
Water: $52,143 174 employees (3 part-time)
AVERAGE WORKER IN FIRE DEPARTMENT: $68,277 202 employees
Fire:
Battalion Fire Chief: $86,500 6 employees
Fire Captain: $77,750 12 employees
Fire Chief: $98,000 1 employee
Fire Equiment Operator: $66,000 42 employees
Fire Lieutenant: $74,000 31 employees
Fire Prevention Inspector: $72,600 5 employees
Firefighters: $65,000 98 employees (1 part-time)
Other Office Staff: $63,300 7 employees
AVERAGE WORKER IN POLICE DEPARTMENT: $70,886 374 employees
Police
Police Staff $51,060 33 employees
Emergency Communications $69,888 36 employees (2 part-time)
Police Captain: $91,500 6 employees
Police Chief: $119,000 1 employee
Police Desk Officer: $60,125 8 employees
Police Lieutenant: $92,200 15 employees
Police Officer: $71,000 242 employees
Police Sergeant: $78,690 33employees
From wwmt news channel 3 your paying for it story .

In Kalamazoo, every dollar that comes in from property taxes goes directly to public safety.
Kalamazoo Spends 65% of their budget on PSO.
Battle Creek spends 58% for separate police and fire. Both Battle Creek and Kalamazoo have 5 active fire stations. Battle Creek covers 43.7 sq miles Kalamazoo covers 25.2 sq miles. That means Kalamazoo is approximately 42% smaller than Battle Creek geographically. Battle Creek’s population is 53,364 Kalamazoo’s is 72,825. A 7% increase in the budget would be necessary for Battle Creek to equal Kalamazoo’s spending for PSO and would amount to a $2,892,577.00 a year increase. That is $ 54.20 a year for every man woman and child who lives in Battle Creek, or $135.50 for every household in Battle Creek. Battle Creek spends $ 446.70 per capita for separate police and fire; Kalamazoo spends $ 488.71 per capita.
This information is based on the (CAFR)  comprehensive annual financial reports from 2009 for both Battle Creek and Kalamazoo .

Paying for something that you hope you never have to use is always unpopular. You pay for auto insurance, home insurance, police and fire service. I would never think of buying two policies on the same car. If I needed more insurance I would upgrade the policy I have. Why do we pay for three police departments? Wouldn't it make more sense to combine some of the police services we already pay for. That way police officers wouldn't have to go through the extensive learning curve necessary to become expert in two separate professions. If we combined the sheriffs department with the city police we could upgrade the service and save money at the same time. You would eliminate one administrative staff saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. The street police numbers would remain the same or increase, providing better police coverage with no loss of service in the fire department. Nobody wants to pay for police or fire. They do want what the police and fire can provide. Lets keep them separate and professional but combine like services with like services and get bigger bang for the buck.

 2012 UPDATE

PSO information
Public Safety salaries
Using $80,000 as a benchmark for our research, more than double the median income in Kalamazoo:
 In Battle Creek there are 33 police officers and firefighters making more than $80,000 a year.
In Kalamazoo, there are 136 public safety officers making more than $80,000 a year, with 24 of those public safety officers making over $100,000 a year.
KALAMAZOO TOP EARNERS FROM 2009:
--Employees making more than $80,000
Departments:
Accounting: 1
Administration: 2
Assessor: 1
Community Development: 1
Economic Development: 1
Finance: 1
HR: 1
IT: 1
Legal: 3
Parks: 1
Public Safety: 136 (24 in six figures)
Public Services: 17
Purchasing: 1
Transportation: 1
168 Total (32 in six figures)
BATTLE CREEK TOP EARNERS FROM 2009:
--Employees making more than $80,000
Departments:
Administration: 3
Department of Public Works: 4
Fire: 3
HR: 1
IT: 1
Licensing/Compliance: 1
Police: 30
Parks: 1
44 Total: (8 in six figures)
Information gathered From wwmt news channel 3 your paying for it story 

Kalamazoo Spends 65.4% of their revenue on PSO.
Battle Creek spends 60.5% of it's revenue for separate police and fire. Both Battle Creek and Kalamazoo have 5 active fire stations. Battle Creek covers 43.7 sq miles Kalamazoo covers 25.2 sq miles. That means Kalamazoo is approximately 42%  smaller than Battle Creek geographically. Battle Creek’s population is 53,364 Kalamazoo’s is 72,825. That means Battle Creek is 26% smaller than Kallamazoo in populous. A 4.9% increase in Battle Creek's  budget would be necessary for Battle Creek to equal in proportion Kalamazoo’s spending for PSO and would amount to a $2,193,458 a year increase. That is $ 41.10 a year for every man woman and child who lives in Battle Creek. Battle Creek spends $ 507.77 per capita for separate police and fire; Kalamazoo spends $ 597.26 per capita.
This information is based on the (CAFR)  comprehensive annual financial reports from 2010for both Battle Creek and Kalamazoo .

In 2010 Battle Creek expended  $27,096,596 to provide safety to the public through separate police and fire departments.
In 2010 Kalamazoo expended $43,495,846 to provide safety to the public through a combined PSO department.
Kalamazoo spent $16,399,250 more than Battle Creek in 2010 to provide safety to the public through a combined PSO department.

It is important to keep in mind the millage rates when comparing the two cities. Battle creek's total mileage rate is composed of two components  the operating millage which was 11.0580 and the Police/Fire pension millage which was 3.4180  together they total 14.476 mills. 
Kalamazoo's total millage is composed of three components the operating millage which is 19.2705 the refuse collection and disposal collection millage which is 1.5500 and the mass transportation millage which  is 0.6000 for a total of 21.4205 mills. As can be clearly seen  the city property tax rates are nearly 33% higher in Kalamazoo and there fore must be taken into consideration when comparing percentage of revenue spent to provide safety to the public.

This saving can be attributed to the fact that most firefighters work approximately 25% more straight time hours than police officers for roughly  the same pay. 
In a year a Battle Creek police officer will work 2,080 straight time hours for their base wage a Battle Creek firefighter will work 2,756 straight time hours for their base wage which is only $764.24 more than their counter parts in the police department even though they worked 676 more hours than the police officer did in the same year. That means that 75 firefighters each working 676 more hours a year totals 50,700 more hours worked in a year by the firefighters; those hours equates to having 24.375 more 40 hour employees each working 2080 hours a year for no extra cost.