Sholeh: Idaho ranks 29th for cops
Old joke aside, it isn’t just Californians who’ve come to North Idaho in droves, it’s retired California police officers.
That’s nothing new. Local articles covering the phenomenon date back to the mid-1990s. It seems half of our neighbors and friends are ex-cops. Hey, who wouldn’t want to retire here, right?
But what about the nation’s roughly 800,000 currently serving officers – is Idaho the bee’s knees for them, too? Room to improve, says personal-finance website WalletHub in its recent report 2021’s Best & Worst States to Be a Police Officer.
The report ranked 50 states and D.C. across 30 key indicators including salaries, training, number of patrol officers per population, crime rates, solve rates, police deaths per 1,000 officers, police-protection expenses and more.
Police officers have challenging jobs to be sure, but the $67,290 mean annual wage and typically generous benefits package with retirement contributions, without the necessity of a college degree, make it an attractive career choice.
The best state for serving police officers was (you guessed it) California, with the highest annual adjusted wage ($81,902), followed by an Eastern trio - Connecticut, Maryland, and D.C. – which has the most patrol officers per 100,000 residents.
In fifth place is Ohio, with Illinois, Colorado, Washington (ranked 8, but with the fewest patrol officers), Georgia and Minnesota rounding out the top 10.
Idaho falls below middle at 29 overall, which is the same rank for our average annual starting salary of about $44,000. But ours also boasts one of the highest homicide solve rates in the nation.
Idaho rankings, with lower numbers being better, include:
Homicide solve rate: 4
De-escalation training: 1
Officer training hours required: 25
Continuing education: 23
Education overall: 6
Mental health and substance abuse training: 33
Police misconduct confidentiality laws: 31
Body camera laws: 27
Degree of use-of-force allowed: 1 (its investigation and prosecution: 24)
Police deaths per 1,000 officers, rank: 26
Persons killed by police per capita, rank: 40
Assaults on officers, rank: 27
Pursuit-related fatalities: 19
Violent crime rate: 10
Officers per capita, 2028 projected: 46
Two more rankings bear explanation. Idaho ranked 16th for “red flag” laws and number one in “Blue Alerts.”
Red flag laws authorize courts to issue a kind of protection order, requested by concerned family members, friends, or police, which allow officers to temporarily confiscate firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.
A Blue Alert is an integrated warning system for law enforcement agencies, media and the public to help apprehend a suspect when death or serious injury to an officer has been threatened or occurred. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 35 states including Idaho have a Blue Alert plan in place.
The 10 worst states for police were Alabama (42), South Carolina, Mississippi (lowest wage ($41,789), Arkansas, Alaska (most lethal for officers), West Virginia, Louisiana, Kentucky and Nevada, with Hawaii dead last.
For the full report and analysis, click here
Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Email [email protected].