WS - C - Law Enforcement Assessment - Final Report

Summary of Work: Workforce Solutions was contacted by the City of Tiffin to evaluate the law enforcement services currently being provided by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and to further research if the City of Tiffin should consider forming its own police department and if so, what expenses would be incurred and what a reasonable timeframe to implement such a plan would be. Historical Perspective: In 1990, Tiffin was a rural Iowa community of 460 residents are easily serviced by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and certainly not large enough nor busy enough to justify having a police department. Fast forward 10 years to 2000, Tiffin is now a community of 1,000 residents and while certainly growing, still isn’t large enough nor busy enough to justify creating a police department. Growth is now clearly on the horizon and the City’s departments will need to grow as well in order to accommodate the current and future growth. By 2010, the City’s population has now almost doubled again and by 2020, the City is in full swing of business and residential growth with infrastructure and capital improvements becoming necessary to accommodate the growth. Census Year Population % of Growth 1990 460 2000 1,010 119.57% 2010 1,947 92.77% 2020 4,512 131.74% 2030* 12,000 165.96% * Anticipated population However, from a public safety perspective, Tiffin continues to hold onto the quiet bedroom community which at face value does not appear to have serious public safety related issues. The increase in homes and residents naturally increases traffic related complaints and the close proximity to the Interstate 80 corridor creates potential for a wide variety of unknown criminal activity to occur. The population and economic growth between 2010 and 2020 have certainly pushed Tiffin to a place where the community is large enough to create a police department. With only a few exceptions, most cities in Iowa with populations in excess of 4,000 residents administer their police services with a few obvious exceptions being the cities of Grimes and Bonudrant; which will be revisited later in the report. Whether or not the calls for service in Tiffin justify a police department is something which will be reviewed in this report. Preparing the next 10 years and the next projected population boom over nearly 8,000 residents, the time to consider this transition to an independent police department is certainly timely in preparation for increased calls for service and potentially more serious crime. 1|Page