A national study that looks at how efficiently police forces in the nation's 110 largest cities spend their budgets ranks the Chattanooga Police Department in the top third of all departments.
Chattanooga comes in 29th on the list, which uses per capita spending, crime rate and economic factors to determine which police forces are spending their budgets most efficiently.
Chattanooga has one of the highest crime rates on the list at 7.03 percent, but police spent just $349 per person in the 2011 fiscal year, according to the study created by WalletHub, an online finance company.
The most efficient police force on the list was Flint, Mich., with an 8.96 percent crime rate and $269 per capita spending. The least efficient was in Washington, D.C., where police spend $978 per person and the crime rate is 5.57 percent.
By the numbers
Top 5 best return on investment cities City -- Crime rate -- Per capita spending 1. Flint, Mich. -- 8.96 percent -- $269 2. Jackson, Miss. -- 8.28 percent -- $230 3. El Paso, Texas -- 2.86 percent -- $208 4. Springfield, Mass. -- 5.82 percent -- $246 5. Louisville, Ky. -- 5.95 percent -- $155 Worst 5 return on investment cities 110. Washington, D.C. -- 5.57 percent -- $978 109. Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- 6.89 percent -- $819 108. Orlando, Fla. -- 7.90 percent -- $685 107. Fremont, Calif. -- 1.96 percent -- $335 106. Huntington Beach, Calif. -- 2.56 percent -- $421 Return on investment rankings of nearby cities 28. Knoxville -- 8 percent -- $366 29. Chattanooga -- 7.03 percent -- $349 82. Atlanta -- 8.22 percent -- $467 Source: WalletHub
WalletHub's ranking adjusts for each city's unemployment rate, poverty rate and median household income and normalizes the data -- so the ranking assumes that each city has an average of all three factors.
That helps boost the rankings for cities such as Chattanooga and Flint, where the poverty and unemployment rates are high and the median household income is low.
Without adjusting the rankings for those economic factors, Flint drops to 24th on the list and Chattanooga drops to 57th. Washington, D.C., remains last.
WalletHub spokeswoman Jill Gonzalez said that the adjusted ranking puts cities on a level playing field so that each city can be compared accurately.
"The ranking shows that these police departments in these cities [high on the list] are making do with what they have and coming up with ways to train police officers and understand the problems they have in a specific way that works for their city," she said.
Police Chief Fred Fletcher said he was glad to see Chattanooga near the top of the list, and suggested that the department's location in the South may be a factor affecting the ranking. In general, police salaries are lower in the South than any other region in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"And salaries are 85 to 90 percent of any police department's budget," he said.
Of the 11 states where officers' mean pay falls between $29,960 and $42,030, all but one are located in the South, BLS data shows. All other states pay officers more -- and mean wages in the top-paying states fall between $60,130 and $88,220.
In the Chattanooga and North Georgia areas, the mean wage for police officers was $38,970 in May 2013, according to BLS.
The city of Chattanooga and the police department just completed a major overhaul of the police pay scale. Under the new plan launched in July, an officer starts at $35,913 and can earn as much as $45,494 after 16 years of service.
Higher ranking members of the police department can earn more: a captain tops out at $77,450 after 30 years with the department.
Fletcher said the police department's salaries are competitive for the area.
"What [the difference in regional salaries] means to me is that police officers in places like Chattanooga do it because they care deeply about the mission and they care deeply about the community," he said. "Because they're certainly not doing it for the money."
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.
Police Chief Fred Fletcher, left, and Lt. Eddy Chamberlin, right, talk with homeowner Tiwiona Jackson, center, and resident Kelcey Patillo on their porch during a CommUNITY Walk of community members, firefighters, and police officers through the Ridgedale neighborhood on Dec. 18 , in Chattanooga. These walks, organized by Fletcher, will be held each month in a different neighborhood to bring the community into contact with officers and build relationships.