Federal Grant Funds Two More Urbandale Police Officers

The Urbandale Police Department has received a $509,508 U.S. Department of Justice grant to hire two new patrol officers for the city, the department said Monday afternoon.

Urbandale was one of only four Iowa police departments to get the federal COPS Hiring Grant, said Police Chief Ross McCarty.

McCarty said his department applied for the grant two years previously, but the third year was a charm.

"We figured we had about a 9 percent chance at getting it," he said. "I'm very excited about this. We have been asking for four more officers since I started."

Officer Randy Peterson, the department's public information officer, said the grant will pay salaries and benefits for two new officers for three years.

Two candidates have been identified and if they pass all the hiring tests, they will start work at the end of this month, he said.

McCarty said although Urbandale may have a low crime rate, the city has not had enough patrol officers to meet the generally accepted national standard of 1.5 officers for every 1,000 residents.

Urbandale has 47 officers, which translates to about 1.19 officers per 1,000 residents. Adding two more patrol officers will bring that ratio up to 1.24, he said. 

He said having too few oficers has two impacts: first, response times on non-critical calls - someone reporting vandalism or a found dog - are slower; and, second, it increases the amount of overtime current officers have to work.

Adding two extra officers to patrol duty means that fewer officers will have to work overtime and extra days, McCarty said. He noted that when police, or any employees, are overworked they're not as effective as they could be.

The city has 27 patrol officers, he said. So generally, there are four officers for each of three daily shifts. That number is the mandatory minimum, but when officers need to get training, are sick or need to take other leave, other officers have to work overtime to fill their spot. 

Ankeny, Muscatine and Carter Lake were the other Iowa cities to get the grants.

McCarty said the grants previously were awarded based on a department's financial need. He believes that this year they were awarded based on staffing ratios, which is why Urbandale got the grant.

"I think they realized that you shouldn't punish a city for being prudent with its monies," said McCarty.