How does police spending impact crime in Longmont?

An analysis by the Longmont Leader found that while police spending per person in Longmont has gone up about $20 per person over the past five years, crime rates have remained fairly stagnant.

According to a criminologist and Longmont public safety officials, this is because spending alone isn’t the only determining factor when it comes to crime.

“I don’t think there’s a very strong relationship between spending, per se, and crime rate for a couple reasons,” explained Rick Rosenfeld, professor emeritus in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. “Police have some influence on the crime rate, but other factors are quite a bit more important.”

Using the total number of offenses as reported by the FBI Crime Data Explorer and Longmont population as estimated by the US Census Bureau, there has been an average of about 31 crimes per 1,000 people in the city from 2018 to 2022.

Longmont’s police services spending has increased every year for the last decade except for 2020, when it was down from the previous year by about $300,000. This reflects the spending cuts implemented by Longmont in response to the COVID-19 pandemic across city services. The police budget has since recovered.

To get a sense of police spending in proportion to Longmont’s growth, the budget can also be broken down by population. Per capita, Longmont police services spending has increased almost every year over the past decade, from $161 per person in 2012 to $225 per person last year.

It is important to note that police spending in this analysis is limited to what Longmont designates as the Police Services Budget. As the police department is one arm of Longmont Public Safety, some of its supporting services — think administration and collaborative services — aren’t included in these numbers.

Officers

When it comes to crime rates, Rosenfeld said the research has found only weak links between more police and less crime. What those officers are doing is a more important factor — are they sitting behind a desk, being deployed randomly across a city or is there a strategy?

“If the additional officers are used to confront or combat crime in those areas of the city where crime rates tend to be high, where crimes tend to be concentrated, or where recent increases in crime tend to be concentrated, then that police hiring can influence crime,” Rosenfeld said.

Longmont Police Chief Jeff Satur explained that pay and benefits are some of the biggest costs for police services. The police are budgeted for 167 sworn law enforcement positions, of which 151 were filled as of the end of April, according to Public Safety Chief Zach Ardis.

“When we talk about our police budget, we’re not just throwing people at the problem as much as we're looking at technology and how it can add to and help alleviate (needs),” Ardis said.

The example Ardis used were the recently deployed speed monitors on Main Street and Airport Road, which allows the department to see in real time if and when speeding violations occur.

“Typically what law enforcement has done has been, ‘Well, people are speeding down my road,’” he explained. “If we just sat there for eight hours, maybe we would catch a few people but it’s a waste of time and resources because there’s so many other needs and priority calls.”

Using this type of technology means the police department can determine if something like speeding is an actual issue or a perception of the public. Ardis pointed to cameras in public parks — which help save time in investigating cases — and the car tag reader network the police department shares across jurisdictions to help find suspects more quickly.

“You’re always going to have certain types of crimes that occur within your community, but I think for us it’s trying to use technology to help curb or help solve or hold people accountable for those incidents when they occur,” Ardis said.

Preventative work is another part of the Longmont police’s efforts that might not necessarily be reflected in budgets. Whether it's educating the public on preventing car thefts as crimes of opportunity or the crime-free multi housing group, Arids emphasized the importance of the work Longmont is conducting behind the scenes.

Systemic issues

Rosenfeld explained there are three important factors that contribute to high levels of crime no matter where one looks: persistent and high levels of poverty, joblessness and racial segregation. Addressing these issues is, of course, much more complex.

“For long term reductions, those more structural changes have to be made,” he said.

He said that research has found one of the most effective ways to deter crime is by identifying the individuals in the population who are at high risk to commit an act of violence or to become the victim of a serious crime themselves. By offering them extensive resources — things like education, addiction counseling, employment training, service providers and more — the individual’s likelihood of committing a crime can be measurably reduced.

Longmont’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD program, uses this type of harm-reduction approach for those suspected of crimes associated with substance use. Instead of jail, an individual can receive intensive case management services and coordinated care.

The program has led to a 50% reduction in rearrests for participants, according to an interim evaluation.

Longmont’s unhoused population is another big strain on emergency services. Ardis said work is underway to streamline the share of information across agencies and jurisdictions to help better serve this population and build connections with them.

“What we’ve done is we've tried to take a humanistic approach to identifying, what are their needs and how can we help them?” he said. “Because there’s a tremendous amount of resources not only in the city of Longmont but also within Boulder County.”

Longmont offers the REWiND Program to divert youth away from the traditional court system, providing services ranging from school support to restorative justice, crisis intervention, mental health counseling and relationship building for the youth. Ardis said that the program has been successful, but seeing the results of this type of work takes time.

Growing population

As Longmont passes the 100,000 population mark and sees increased density across the city, some people have expressed concerns that this could be contributing to an increase in crime. Rosenfeld explained that abrupt population growth can do that.

“Often services don’t keep pace with a growing population and those services can include public safety services such as policing,” he said. “… It simply outstrips the capacity of the community to deal with crime at least, in the short run, until the community begins to catch up.”

However, Ardis and Satur agreed that the Longmont police department has always budgeted for what they believe is needed to address the issues of the Longmont community.

“I think we’ve been funded well our whole career,” Satur said, noting that legislative changes also have had an impact on crime in Longmont.

Rosenfeld explained that just like funding isn’t the only factor when it comes to crime, neither is population.

“I have to say, we see crime increases in cities that are losing population, and we see increases in cities that are gaining population,” he said. “So simply because Longmont is growing is not necessarily cause for alarm or the reason why crime rates may be going up.”