Community Corner

Letter to the Editor: We Need Correct Statistics

Has police department really not grown since 1960s?

Dear Editor:

In his 4/7/10 letter to the editor of SummitPatch, retired Summit Chief of Police William Schneller writes at some length on his experience on the Summit police force.  He states at the outset, "there seems to be people in this community that think the Department has grown since the 1960's when it has not."

I am a Summit citizen interested in correct statistics.  In reviewing Census data and what appears to be a well researched report by the League of Women Voters, I find that Summit's population has declined by about 3.1% since 1960 from 23,610 to an estimated 22,884 today.  Meanwhile, the size of the Summit police force appears to have grown substantially since 1960 (see table below).

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                               1960          2010

   Chief                          1             1

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   Lieutenants                    3             ?

   Detectives                     3             ?

   Sergeants                      6             ?

   Traffic Sergeants              1             ?

   Patrolmen                     25             ?

     Total Uniformed             39            48?

   Dog Warden                     1

   Meter Supervisors              4

   Meter Upkeep                   2

   School Crossing Guards        28

   Volunteers              Variable

   Source: 1960 from League of Women Voters Fall 1961 Survey

           2010 from Summit Council members

Summit Councilman Mike Vernotico calls the League of Women Voters data "inaccurate".  Current Summit Police Chief Lucid calls the League of Women Voters data "entirely incorrect".  Now Police Chief Schneller's long reminiscence piles on – verbally, he suggests Summit today "is effectively being policed by 4 fewer officers than you had in 1964". 

Council and the police have had the neatly tabulated data from the Women's League of Voters for a couple of weeks.  Without specifically listing uniformed and other officers by rank and responsibility for each period, it is easy to end up comparing apples to oranges.  Wouldn't it be simplest for the police chief and Council just to provide the correct comparative headcount numbers so we all would know the answer to whether or not the police force has expanded since 1960 while Summit's population has shrunk?  A few simple statistics would end the confusion.  The cost of the force is, of course, another matter for another day. 

Michael Gumport


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