COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Two-thirds of Columbus police officers live outside the city, a newspaper analysis reported Sunday found, fueling concerns among those who believe officers should live in the communities they protect.
The Columbus Dispatch, matching voter-registration records with city employee databases, found that 606 of 1,840 police officers and employees lived in Columbus in 2009.
Columbus Police Officer Steven Kinsey said he hears a lot of complaints from people that police officers don't do anything and don't live where they live.
"I usually try to convince them that what they're thinking isn't true," said Kinsey, who is among the third of officers who reside within city limits.
Columbus police officers are required to live either in Franklin County or in the six surrounding counties.
But Columbus and other cities in Ohio can't require their employees to live within city limits, thanks to a June Ohio Supreme Court opinion that upheld a state law erasing local residency requirements.
Opinions about whether officers should live in the city whose residents they protect are conflicting.
Mitchell Brown, Columbus' public safety director, said neighbors in the Far East Side neighborhood where he lives often approach him with concerns and issues - a perk to living among Columbus residents.
"By the same token, though, you're an officer - you want to go to a grocery store, a coffee shop, and not be bothered. They have lives like everybody else," Brown said.
Danny Popp, who leads the North Linden Area Commission, said he'd like more officers to live in the city so they could always have an eye on what's going on in the neighborhood.
"They'd want to know what's going on in their own neighborhoods," Popp said.
The state Supreme Court's residency ruling has forced about 130 Ohio cities to move away from their residency requirements. Unions representing police officers have said cities are better off without the residency requirements, which they said forced some officers to switch to other departments.
"I think policemen are sworn to uphold the law," said Wally May, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 8 in Cleveland. "You're going to get good service. I don't see a decline in their work ethic."
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Police Officers' Residency Inspires Concerns
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Published: December 21, 2009
Published: December 21, 2009
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