opinion
july13
2010
An Opinion: How Many Police Officers
3
is Enough? Let’s Consider Some Facts
By Scott Laird
The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI
puts out a report each year on police employee data,
which lists, by region, the average number of full-time,
sworn police officers employed in communities. The
report is broken down into five categories based on
the size of communities, starting at cities over 250,000
down to communities with populations of less than
10,000 citizens. In the 2008 report, in the Pacific
West region, for cities under 10,000 in population, the
average number of full-time police officers per 1,000
inhabitants is 3.7.
The City of Vernonia just approved a new
budget for fiscal year 2010-2011 which included
some cuts in certain areas, including the elimination
of the part-time Chief of Police position beginning
on September 1. The Vernonia Police Department is
currently down one officer, because of a resignation
earlier this spring, currently leaving Vernonia with
three full-time officers and a part-time Chief. The
department is currently going through the process of
hiring a new officer.
Which has once again started the conversation
around the community, at least in some circles, of
whether we have too many police officers here in
Vernonia. What the real discussion should be is, How
many officers can we afford? And, What levels of
service are we willing to accept?
As we are all well aware, many governmental
agencies are currently having to make significant cuts
to their budgets. They are looking at ways to trim
expenses and reduce services. Vernonia is no different.
Recently, I have heard people here in Vernonia
state that the recommended number of police officers
is one officer per 1,000 of population and are using
this figure as an argument for reducing our police
department. I have not heard anyone explain where
that recommended figure of one officer per 1,000
comes from.
According to that calculation, Vernonia should
only have two-and-a-half officers. That figure doesn’t
make much sense given our circumstances, especially
the fact that we have reduced levels of support from
our County Sheriff ‘s Department and are located so far
away from any other backup agency.
Is one officer per 1,000 inhabitants really a
recommended figure? I decided to do some research.
Which is when I came across that above-mentioned
Department of Justice report.
That above report goes on to clarify that these
are average numbers and not recommendations. The
report states: “Because of law enforcement’s varied
service requirements and functions, as well as the
distinct demographic traits and characteristics of
jurisdictions, readers should use caution when drawing
comparisons between agencies’ staffing levels based
upon police employment data from the UCR Program.
In addition, the data presented here reflect existing staff
levels and should not be interpreted as preferred officer
strengths recommended by the FBI. Lastly, it should
be noted that the totals given for sworn officers for any
particular agency reflect not only the patrol officers on
the street but also officers assigned to various other
duties such as those in administrative and investigative
positions and those assigned to special teams.”
I take the above paragraph to mean, among
other things, that the Department of Justice does not
make recommendations for staff levels.
I did some further investigations and talked
with a few law enforcement officials from around
Oregon.
First of all, no one that I spoke with could
confirm that there is any kind of recommended number
of officers per 1,000. Erik Gabliks of the Oregon
Department of Public Safety Standards and Training
(DPSST) says his agency doesn’t deal in recommended
staffing levels. “That’s not something we get involved
in,” said Gabliks in a phone interview. “As far as our
Department is concerned, there are no set standards or
recommendations for numbers of officers.”
Lieutenant Greg Hastings, Public Information
Officer for the Oregon State Police stated that he was
unaware of any recommended number and
noted that what most communities do is look
at other surrounding communities in their
region when establishing their department
size.
To help cities compare their
departments with others around the state,
the Oregon League of Cities (LOC) provides
a Police Officer Data report; for 2009, the
following are figures for the communities in
Columbia County:
City
Clatskanie
Rainier
Vernonia
Scappoose
St Helens
Population # of
Average
Officers
1735
1825
2370
6605
12,380
5
2.88
5
5
10
19
2.74
2.11
1.51
1.53
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
As you can see, Vernonia is right in
the middle in terms of population and average
number of officers. What needs to be noted is
that the figure of five officers for Vernonia is
not accurate. Vernonia has not had been fully
staffed with five officers since 2008. The
Vernonia Police Department spent the last
year with four full-time officers and a half-
time chief. The figures for other communities
might also be slightly skewed, but the
point is that Vernonia is similarly staffed in
comparison to other departments in Columbia
County.
Columbia County Sheriff, Jeff
Dickerson, had this to say when asked about
recommended numbers of officers, reinforcing
the idea that it really is about financial
constraints and expected service levels: “It
really depends on what educated voters and taxpayers
are willing to pay for. If you only have two or three
officers in your town, what does that mean? It means
that if you dial 9-1-1, maybe no one is coming. That’s
the reality. But it is also a question of sustainability.
In the unincorporated areas of Columbia County, we
have around 24,000 residents. It would be nice if we
had twenty-four deputies, but there is no way we could
afford that.”
Dickerson also went on to note the need for
municipal departments to have higher levels of staffing.
“They have people who live outside their cities who
use city resources,” said Dickerson. “They come in to
shop, they drive through, they attend events.”
How does Vernonia compare to the ten other
communities closest to our size from around the state?
Here are more figures from the Oregon LOC:
City
John Day
Enterprise
Rogue River
Gold Beach
Gervais
Stanfield
Vernonia
Myrtle Point
Lakeview
King City
Burns
Population # of
Average
Officers
1855
1975
2090
2140
2260
2290
2370
2550
2685
2785
3025
4
4
4
4
3
4
5
5
5
5
4
2.16
2.03
1.91
1.87
1.33
1.75
2.11
1.96
1.86
1.80
1.32
According to the Oregon LOC, here are
the overall average figures for small communities in
Oregon:
Population Total
Cities
2-5,000 26
Low
High Average
1.06 2.74 1.79
Contributors
April Bamburg
Copy Editor
Nancy Burch
Dennis Nicks
Kim Camarda
Stephanie Carr
Photography
Crystal Ann Carreon
ChitChat Images
Randal Harvey
Susan Ely
Jessica Jensen Jones
Scott Laird
Maria Lemay
Eric Larke
Erika Paleck
Shannon Romtvedt
Trena Loftesness-
Randy Sanders
Anderson Photography
As stated in the report quoted above from
the Department of Justice, there are many variables
that should be considered when analyzing this type of
Want to advertise?
Contact: ads@vernoniasvoice.com
Have an article?
Contact: news@vernoniasvoice.com
One year subscriptions (24 issues) $35
PO Box 55
Vernonia, OR 97064
503-367-0098
www.VernoniasVoice.com
data: “...service requirements and functions, as well
as the distinct demographic traits and characteristics
of jurisdictions...” In other words, how far away is
the closest back-up agency? What is the call volume
and crime rate in the community? What are the local
financial constraints?
As you can see, the trend in Oregon is for
smaller communities, for the most part, to have more
officers. This trend is also reflected nationwide.
According to the Department of Justice report,
the Pacific West region has the least number of average
officers of any region in the country. In cities with
populations of 100,000 to 250,000, the average number
of officers is 1.3; this is the lowest figure anywhere in
the country. In no region or population group in the
country is the average number of officers less than 1
per 1,000 inhabitants.
As I think you can tell, I am not recommending
here that we either cut or increase the size of our police
department in Vernonia. According to the averages, the
figures seem to indicate that we are staffed at probably
just the right numbers with a force of 4-5 full-time
sworn officers. What I am suggesting is that if we are
going to have a discussion about adjusting the size of
our police department, let’s talk about what we can
afford and sustain and use facts and figures to compare
us to other local police departments. Let’s not use some
made-up number that apparently no law enforcement
agency or official in Oregon seems to be using.
Vernonia’s Voice is
published on the
second and fourth
Tuesday of each month.
Our next issue will be
published on July 27th.
