Performance objectives better than per capita rates when determining size of police force

Police departments serving cities throughout the country with populations exceeding 25,000, employed an average of 16.8 officers for every 10,000 residents in 2016. The Anchorage Police Department employed 11.9 officers per 10,000 residents, according to the 2016 FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program. However, police association groups and research published by the U.S. Department of Justice support using performance objectives that include workload measures, among other criteria, as a better guide to staffing decisions than officers per capita. In fact, there are no national standards for how many officers a department should have per capita, according to Police Employment, Officers Per Capita Rates for U.S. Cities, Governing, The States and Localities. The article in Governing provides an overview of police staffing throughout the country and links to recommendations for determining staffing levels.

Read about police staffing in the Fall 2017 Alaska Justice Forum:
"How do you determine the right size of a police department? Don't look to crime rates," by Troy C. Payne