Gilbert Reaches Goal of 1.1 Police Officers Per 1,000 Residents
Posted on: Friday, 13 January 2006, 15:00 CST
By Beth Lucas, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.
Jan. 13--After years of struggling with budget constraints, Gilbert has met its goal of hiring 1.1 police officers per 1,000 residents.
Though not all the officers have completed training, they're all on the payroll. An additional 25 hired this past year, including 15 still in training, brings the town of at least 176,000 residents to 195 police officers, including two who graduate this week.
Last year, the town had about 0.9 police officers per 1,000 residents.
Accomplishing the goal met high praise from Mayor Steve Berman, who called the town "the safest community in Arizona.""We're going to stay that way," Berman said. "This is the first time in four years time we've been able to get to our goal." The police-resident ratio, while difficult to meet due to road and park construction among other growth costs, is not as high as other towns such as Tempe, which hires about two police officers per 1,000 residents, Town Manager George Pettit said.
However, it's a major accomplishment for the booming town, he said.
"I think it's something to definitely celebrate when we have 1.1 on the streets," Pettit said. "We're clearly making progress to be able to do that." To maintain the current ratio, the town must hire an average of one police officer per month to keep up with growth of about 1,000 residents every month, Pettit said. That could be possible if millions of dollars from estimated sales tax revenue from incoming retail and office development comes to fruition, he said.
Gilbert police Lt. Joe Ruet said the department recently began improving its recruiting and screening of applicants in an effort that cut down on police academy dropouts.
All the new officers will be on the street within six months, Pettit said.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.
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Source: The Tribune
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