Des Moines police seek 80 more officers amid budget crisis
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Des Moines Police Chief Mike McTaggart. Photo: Courtesy of the city of Des Moines
Des Moines police say they need 80 more officers to keep calls from piling up.
Why it matters: A police shortage is straining emergency response, but fixing it would require millions of dollars the cash-strapped city does not have.
Driving the news: The department gave the City Council two workload reviews last week, which found that patrol officers spend about 80% of their available time answering calls, above the 60% benchmark used by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).
- The department exceeded that threshold during 16 of 24 hours and averaged about 14 fewer working officers per hour than recommended.
Zoom in: DMPD was authorized for 375 sworn officers as of December, including patrol officers, supervisors, investigators and those assigned to specialized units.
- Of those, 193 were primarily responsible for answering patrol calls. Patrol would receive most of the additional positions the department is seeking.
The fine print: Police employees applied two national workload models to the department's 2025 data.
- A U.S. Department of Justice and Michigan State University model found that DSM needs at least 36 additional patrol officers to leave 40% of their time for duties beyond responding to calls.
- The ICMA model examined the patrol's share of total staffing, hourly workload and total service time.
State of play: Police favored the ICMA-based recommendation of 80 additional officers, including 48 for patrol, because adding only patrol officers would still leave the department short of ICMA's recommended staffing balance, Sgt. Paul Parizek tells Axios.
By the numbers: A starting officer earns around $85,000 a year before overtime and benefits.
- The department's current operating budget is about $92.2 million, up from $89.3 million the previous year.
Reality check: Parizek said it is unrealistic to expect the department to receive approval for 80 more officers under current financial conditions — or even 30 at once.
- But the city should begin "chipping away" at the shortage and moving toward increasing staffing rather than reducing it, he said.
What they're saying: City Manager Scott Sanders tells Axios his office does not believe the staffing studies fairly account for technology and evolving police practices, but the city has no plans for a separate review.
- A joint statement from three DSM police organizations says authorized staffing has remained virtually unchanged since the 1970s despite population growth, warning that proposed cuts would increase overtime and worsen officer fatigue and burnout.
What we're watching: Whether the staffing findings influence Sanders' recommended budget cuts, which he is scheduled to present to the City Council on Aug. 26.
- The city's citizen budget survey closes on Friday, with results expected in early August.