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10/31/2006
Does the 5th safest area in the country need more officers?
Based on FBI crime statistics, Appleton is the 5th safest metro area in the country, topped only by Fond du Lac, Eau Claire, State College, PA and Bangor, ME. In revealing the 13th annual “America’s Safest” designations yesterday, Morgan Quitno named Fond du Lac America’s Safest Metro Area and Brick, New Jersey, the Safest City – both for the first time ever. The most dangerous metro area was Detroit and the city with the highest crime score was St. Louis.
The release of the “Safest” rankings is timely, as the Appleton Common Council is considering adding officers – always an issue fought and fraught with emotions. So as we often do in these pages, let’s look at the numbers.
Appleton sworn officers numbered 111 as recently as 2003. In 2005, that number was cut to 105, where it remains, as proposed by Mayor Hanna in his 2007 Executive Budget.
One way to ferret out the adequacy of police protection is by comparing law enforcement staffing. At 1.83 total employees per 1,000 residents, the City of Appleton has relatively more employees than Oshkosh, Janesville and Fond du Lac – and is at about the same staffing level as Wausau, Neenah and Kaukauna. Appleton police staffing is scantier than Green Bay (2.23 emp./1,000), Eau Claire (2.03), La Crosse (2.22), Manitowoc (2.13) and the City of Menasha (2.10).
If you’re really interested, you can wander through crime statistics similar to those used by Morgan Quitno in their three-step formula.
In an attempt to form an impression about whether crime rates may have been affected by the decrease in staff from 2003 to 2005, decision makers can look at some of the extensive crime statistics available via Wisconsin’s Office of Justice Assistance.
Relative to similar geographic and/or demographic communities, Appleton’s offense rate (offenses per 100,000 residents) increased between 2003 and 2005 at a rate greater than most peer communities (a 19.7% increase in Appleton, vs. a 7.5% decrease for peer communities).
Adult and Juvenile arrests and arrest rates tell a more mixed story. Adult arrests increased at a lesser rate than the average change (2.5% increase in Appleton, 8.6% average increase for peer communities). Juvenile arrests decreased for most of the sampled communities, with Appleton decreasing at a rate greater than the average.
While adult arrests increased, Appleton’s 2005 arrest rate for serious (Part I) crimes (7.3 per 1,000 adult residents) is lower than all but two of the peer communities. The Appleton 2005 arrest rate for Part II crimes (73.8 arrests per 1,000 adult residents) is lower than all but three of the peer communities.
As the Morgan Quitno study states, “To be sure, crime-ranking information must be considered carefully. However the rankings tell not only an interesting, but also very important story regarding the incidence of crime in the United States. [A]nnual rankings not only allow for comparisons among different states and cities, but also enable leaders to track their communities’ crime trends from one year to the next.”
In this era of belt-tightening, it’s critical that decision makers insist on seeing good solid data that support (or not) a significant budget request – especially a request that adds the year after year expenses of added bodies. Lots of numbers to review and interpret. Yes. But budget arguments simply must be based on actual statistics – and not on general, stereotypical emotional appeals.
Cities compared to Appleton, listed by decreasing populations, were:
Green Bay, Oshkosh, Eau Claire, Janesville, La Crosse, Fond du Lac, Wausau, Manitowoc, Neenah, Grand Chute, Menasha and Kaukauna.
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• AASD Retirement Costs Burdensome
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