Analysis: Impact of police being sent to Iraq felt on street

WASHINGTON — The deployment of thousands of police officers to Iraq, Afghanistan and other military reserve posts is costing local law enforcement agencies up to $1.2 billion per year, according to a new analysis of Justice Department data.

The review, prepared for a law enforcement trade journal by Justice Department statistician Matthew Hickman, found that the number of military call-ups is outstripping the pace of new hires at a time when agencies are struggling to find new recruits, and as crime is ticking upward after several years of historically low crime rates.

The problem is particularly acute in small police agencies, which often have struggled to fill gaps in patrol coverage left by cops who have been called to military duty, according to Hickman's analysis, just published in Police Chief magazine.

"This is a serious problem since (police executives) cannot place quotas on the number of reservists in their agencies," according to the analysis, which said that about 2.2% of the estimated 683,600 full-time police officers, sheriff's deputies and state troopers across the nation are in the military reserves.

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