4 ms·

There's lots of towns very well-known for being speed traps in my part of the Midwest. My hometown in particular has a police force of approximately 8 full-time

There's lots of towns very well-known for being speed traps in my part of the Midwest. My hometown in particular has a police force of approximately 8 full-time officers for a population of 5,000. There's absolutely no good reason to have so many cops for a population of that size, especially when the crime statistics are very low for non-traffic infractions. The only traffic ticket I've gotten in 30+ years was at 12:30 AM coming home from a concert in a larger city, going 5 MPH over the speed limit there. I'm sure he was pissed off that he couldn't also write me up for a DUI.

Excel_Wizard 7y ago
The U.S. has 284 police officers per 100,000 people.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...) That would translate to ~14 police officers for a town of your size.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  The police force doesn’t need to be spread evenly, especially in areas with little crime.
- deadmetheny 7y ago
  Ok, sure, but that's not really a useful metric for a low population density area. Crime in my area is very low, violent crime especially, there's simply no need for that many police - they'd be doing nothing most of the time, if not for running speed traps and harassing bored teenagers.
- LanceH 7y ago
  A lot of rural towns are at least as dependent on highway patrol and sheriffs.
Ensorceled 7y ago
8 officers is barely enough for 24-hour police coverage, so that's a good reason.
SkyBelow 7y ago
>8 full-time officers for a population of 5,000. There's absolutely no good reason to have so many cops for a population of that size Doesn't that mean 2 officers on duty at any one time? There is ~160 hours in a week, so that is 4 40 hour blocks. Having two police active at any time seems reasonable (probably with them staggered so that when one swaps the other is only half way through their shift).

Excel_Wizard 7y ago

The U.S. has 284 police officers per 100,000 people.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...) That would translate to ~14 police officers for a town of your size.

saagarjha 7y ago
The police force doesn’t need to be spread evenly, especially in areas with little crime.
deadmetheny 7y ago
Ok, sure, but that's not really a useful metric for a low population density area. Crime in my area is very low, violent crime especially, there's simply no need for that many police - they'd be doing nothing most of the time, if not for running speed traps and harassing bored teenagers.
LanceH 7y ago
A lot of rural towns are at least as dependent on highway patrol and sheriffs.

Ensorceled 7y ago

8 officers is barely enough for 24-hour police coverage, so that's a good reason.

SkyBelow 7y ago

>8 full-time officers for a population of 5,000. There's absolutely no good reason to have so many cops for a population of that size Doesn't that mean 2 officers on duty at any one time? There is ~160 hours in a week, so that is 4 40 hour blocks. Having two police active at any time seems reasonable (probably with them staggered so that when one swaps the other is only half way through their shift).