T-R PHOTO BY JOE FISHER During Monday night’s regular meeting, Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper told the city council that recruitment and retention are the biggest public safety issues facing all police departments around the country.

Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper shared the department’s annual report summarizing what he called another “busy year” during Monday’s city council meeting.

A heavy workload is not out of the ordinary for Marshalltown’s police officers, but Tupper worries a lack of staffing and resources is making the job of public safety even more difficult. The department is budgeted for 42 people, but Tupper often says he has enough work for 50.

“Recruitment and retention of police officers is the number one public safety concern,” Tupper said. “Not just in our community, (but) in every community in the United States.”

Every department is struggling to fill its staffing needs, according to the chief, but Marshalltown’s challenge is still somewhat unique. While it is often compared to similarly-sized cities such as Ottumwa or Burlington, the real competition for employees comes from the Des Moines metropolitan area and Ames. According to the City of Des Moines’ website, the starting salary for a police officer is $73,050 on the first day of appointment and increases up to $92,955 over four years. Senior officers start even higher.

“We are falling behind in the wage battle,” Tupper said. “When I see our neighboring agencies who need police inching ahead of us, I’m concerned.”

When looking at the types of crime the department deals with the most in Marshalltown, substance abuse, which often has a direct relationship to violent crime and property crime, is the biggest culprit. Tupper said violent crimes are rare and are rarely random as the victim and perpetrator most often know each other. Domestic violence cases are the most prevalent of all violent crimes in Marshalltown.

As for property crimes, many of these are committed by a person with substance abuse issues.

“Oftentimes, people will turn to crime and commit property crimes to support their drug habit,” Tupper said. “Virtually every crime we investigate on a daily basis has some nexus with substance abuse.”

Fentanyl use or exposure and opioids as a whole are something Tupper often thinks about, but the drug of choice in Marshalltown is still methamphetamine as officers are seeing it on a daily basis. The department has one officer devoted specifically to drug related cases, and Tupper told the council he would like another if he could get one.

According to Tupper, there is not an outright solution to the drug problem, but more community resources could help the department and people in the cycle of substance abuse. Marshalltown boasts several service providers who target mental health and substance abuse problems, but the greatest time of need comes outside of regular business hours.

“We have a lot of great service providers in our community,” Tupper said. “It’s just that their resources are stretched thin as well. We need more of those resources. We need more during non-traditional service hours… We have to find a way as a society to value mental health and substance abuse treatment and have a higher regard for that stuff.”

POLICE DEPARTMENT ANNUAL REPORT

Of the 23,179 calls for service the department received in 2021, there were:

• 140 drug related

• 221 assault

• 897 welfare checks

• 134 mental health related

• 241 for harassment

• 775 suspicious activity

• 557 for theft

• 236 for burglary

• 290 vandalism

• 152 missing person

EVIDENCE PROCESSED

By crime scene technicians (by type)

• Physical: 8,358

• Drugs: 278

• Firearms: 25

• Money: 16

• Vehicles: 33