COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In one week, Columbus voters will decide whether to pay higher taxes or get fewer services.
The city wants to raise the income tax rate from 2 percent to 2.5 percent for Columbus workers.
Mayor Michael Coleman and other Columbus city leaders have said without the tax hike, the city would make massive cuts to all departments, including laying off hundreds of police officers and firefighters.
But can the city afford the cuts?
When discussing the impact if voters reject the income tax hike, Columbus Police Chief Walter Distelzweig said in May, "You're probably not going to get much service on a minor crime."
The cuts would include the possibility of laying off nearly 300 police officers. Combined with retirements, the hypothetical cuts would bring the police force down from 1,892 to 1,568, which would represent the smallest police division since 1993 when the city had just 1,537 sworn officers.
"Will this department ever recover if this happens?" NBC 4 Patrick Preston asked Distelzweig.
"I don't know. It won't be in my lifetime," Distelzweig said.
NBC 4 wanted to know how Columbus in 2009 compares to Columbus from 1993. The first difference? Population.
Since 1993, Columbus has added nearly 130,000 additional residents for a total of 776,463 people -- not counting those who work in the city, but live outside.
The city has also grown to 227 square miles of land, which is 28 more square miles for police to cover than in 1993 -- more new land than the city of Dublin (24.5 square miles).
More people, more land and more police officers. Is there more crime?
NBC 4 compared FBI crime statistics for Columbus from 1993 to the most recent statistics from 2007 and found that crime has decreased in five of eight major crime categories: murder, robberies, aggravated assaults, motor vehicle thefts and arsons.
So can the city afford to lose officers? It's a question only time will tell, but www.policepay.net, a police compensation consulting company based in Oklahoma, points out that with 1,892 sworn officers, Columbus has more than 2.4 police officers per 1,000 residents.
That number is larger than the national average of two officers per 1,000 residents.
If the city was forced to cut sworn officers as Distelzweig discussed, Columbus would have two officers per 1,000 residents.
For additional information, stay with nbc4i.com and NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com -- Where Accuracy Matters.
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