Evanston had the second highest police presence in 2012 in Illinois, behind the city of Chicago, according to data from the FBI.

The city reported a total of 223 full-time law enforcement staff, or 29.8 per 10,000 residents. Chicago had 47.1 employees per 10,000 residents.

The FBI’s police employment data was collected from agencies that serve populations of more than 50,000. Employees included sworn law enforcement officers and civilian employees, such as clerks, correctional officers and radio dispatchers.

The city’s close proximity to Chicago and position as an urban community led to its numbers being higher than those of other cities, Evanston Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott said.

“Other suburbs that are beyond the borders of the city of Chicago farther out, their geographic areas are much more spread out,” he said.

Parrott said many different factors go into determining the ratio of police to residents in Evanston. The city is unique with a dense population that lives in an area of 7.8 square miles, he said.

Evanston is also home to around 10,000 part-time and full-time Northwestern students who live in the city for the majority of the year. EPD has to account for these residents when determining appropriate staffing levels, he said.

“Yes, Northwestern does have their own police department, but those (students) are temporary residents,” he said. “They’re not counted in the population poll for Evanston.”

Parrott said the police department is not solely focused on hiring staff to make arrests and write tickets.

More than a quarter of EPD employees are assigned to service-oriented programs, which range from addressing quality of life issues and school safety to running the city’s 311 service, Parrott said.

Despite Evanston’s spot at number two in the state, Parrott said he thinks the level of staff is not too high and doesn’t think it will change anytime soon.

“They’re consistent with the need of this community,” he said. “That allows us to be effective in those areas by having the amount of officers that we do have.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of students on Northwestern’s Evanston campus due to an editing error. There are about 10,000 part-time and full-time NU students on the Evanston campus. The article also misrepresented Evanston Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott’s comments about service oriented programs.More than a quarter of EPD employees are assigned to those programs. The Daily regrets the errors.

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