If sanity prevails and Officer Wilson is not charged I’m guessing that number could go a whole lot higher.

FERGUSON, Mo. (KMOV.com) — The massive police response to Ferguson in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 will take nearly $1.5M from the Missouri state budget.

According to the Missouri Department of Public Safety, the Missouri State Highway Patrol costs total $1.1M while activating the National Guard will cost the state roughly $384,000.

This estimate is solely for the initial response: from the time protests erupted right after Brown died to the last few weekdays of August.

St. Louis County officials estimated the county’s initial cost will be $4.2M. That’s a combination of money going to police overtime, fixing damaged cop cars and food and supplies for first responders.

It is unclear what will have to be cut to make up for the impact on the county’s budget.

“This will have an impact on future budgets,” said County COO Garry Earls. “It won’t have an impact on the current year services, but we’ll have to find a way to replace these dollars either by reimbursements from the state and federal government or by reducing services in the future from some of the things we already do.”

St. Louis City Police and Ferguson officials have not finalized the expenses of their responses.

HT: Jay