KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In a time of budget crisis, almost everyone is being forced to do more with less including the city and police department in Kansas City, Mo.

A tip to the KCTV5 Investigative Team raised serious questions about how and where police resources were being used.

Private citizens expect certain services that are paid for collectively and are available to everyone. But once an individual crosses the line, KCTV5 looks into the issue of whether this person is entitled to special treatment and benefits paid for by taxpayer dollars.

KCTV5 asks whether these practices are ethical and financially responsible.

Money is a touchy subject at City Hall. This year’s budget of almost $200 million is $15 million short of what the Kansas City Police Department said it needs to operate.

"I've pushed and pushed to strengthen and support our police department and to do the other things we need to do to keep the neighborhood safe," said Mayor Mark Funkhouser, on July 20.

Police said no pay raises and no new hires could mean losing up to 100 officers on the streets in the next two years. It may mean that at least 30 recruits from the Police Academy will not have jobs after they graduate. There's no doubt this is a department struggling for money, materials and manpower.

Police Chief Jim Corwin has been fighting for every dollar for months.

"If we cut those practical places, we’ve got to take the cops off the streets,” Corwin said, on March 12. “(We don’t want) to put them back doing what they did before. We don't want to go back there and reverse the cycle. We want to move forward."

So KCTV5 was surprised when it was contacted by an officer inside the police department who wanted the station to investigate how, where and why police were spending more than 100 man-hours protecting people 24 hours a day.

"The deputy chief of patrol felt like that was the appropriate thing to do,” Capt. Rich Lockhart said. “He wanted to ensure that the chief's girlfriend was not going to be harmed, or that the property itself was not going to be harmed."

From June 15 to June 19 on-duty officers were stationed outside of Corwin’s private home in the Northland. KCTV5 saw officers there at various hours of the day and night. This occurred while the chief was in Australia attending an FBI training conference.

"All I know is we had a situation, and we used our resources in a way we thought would handle the situation," Lockhart said.

The situation developed the weekend before the surveillance began when police said they were called to the home in response to an altercation between Corwin's ex-wife and his girlfriend.

But ex-wife, Glenda Corwin, tells KCTV5 there was no altercation.

And while, police confirm several officers and supervisors responded to the chief's house, they said no incident reports were ever taken or filed.

Lockhart said the second in command at the department, Deputy Chief of Patrol Cy Ritter, ordered the round-the-clock protection for the chief's house and girlfriend without Corwin's knowledge.

"He wasn't involved in the decision,” Lockhart said. “So it's not something he's going to discuss."

Police said they can't put a price tag on the 13 separate shifts that it took to sit at the address, because the officers were "in-service." So if a call for service came in, they would leave the house, answer the call, and then return.

Lockhart said the officers were called away from the chief's house twice during the week. And he added police have provided this type of protection for other public figures in the past.

"In the case of like the mayor, or the city manager, or some council members, we've done it for them just to make sure nothing happens," Lockhart said.

But Lockhart said no paperwork exists detailing when or how the protection was provided in the past.

"Again, we have done this for people who are in similar situations,” Lockhart said. “Maybe not to this extent, but we have done it for individual situations. It depends on what the circumstance are that are presented to us."

According to police, if a private individual feels threatened, he or she can ask for an officer's presence at any time. Those calls are typically handled like any other 911 call.

Whether or not a private person would get round-the-clock protection is determined on a case-by-case basis, police said.