A STUDY OF POLICE EMPLOYEES PER RESIDENTS
by Bill Lynn, Fifth Ward Alderman

I am providing you with some early findings from the report I am doing on crime.  I wanted you to see some initial findings.  I believe they are eye opening.  All the data is provided by the FBI and the most recent data is 2005. 

The first table shows the crime rate for Davenport in several categories along with national averages.  The rates are per 100,000 population.

Based on this information, we are well above the national averages in every category other than vehicle theft.  Because the numbers are so small in the case of the city, murder is probably not useful for comparison.

The following table, Residents/Police Employee Comparison, includes some additional information.  I chose several Iowa cities and a few Illinois cities.  I obtained data from the federal government for number of police, civilian employees in the police department, and population.  I then calculated the ratio of residents to police officers, civilian employees in the police department, total employees in the police department, and the ratio of police officers to civilians in the police department.  At the bottom of the table you see the averages for each column.  Based on those numbers it appears that contrary to popular belief we do not have fewer police per capita than other cities.  In fact, we are exactly on the average for all cities (641 residents per police officer).  We have twice the number of civilian employees per capita as the average (2244 residents per civilian employee compared to an average of 4391 residents per civilian employee), and we have more total employees per capita than the average (486 residents per police employee compared to an average of 520 residents per police employee).  Our ratio of police to civilian employees is much lower than the average.  (We have 1 civilian position for each 3.6 officers while the average is 1 civilian for each 7.1 employees.)

I do not have an explanation for the numbers, but they need to be looked at carefully.  Given this information it could be concluded that having enough employees may not be the problem.  This suggests a problem indicating we need restructuring of the department.

If you look at the cities listed, only three cities have crime rates as high as ours.  The only one in Iowa is Council Bluffs.  The other two are Peoria and Rockford, Illinois.  Interestingly, these cities actually have more police per capita than Davenport.