Eighty-three full-time police departments returned surveys. The 83 departments employ a total of 599 full-time, sworn personnel. Salaries range from under $12,000 to over $29,999. A total of 205 civilians work in the 83 departments. Over one-third of full-time sworn personnel have been employed by the same department for 10 or more years. Most police officers have at least a high school diploma and about 35 percent have completed 2 to 4 years of college. Officers are scheduled to work an average of 44.3 hours per week. About 24 percent of the departments provide some form of educational benefits for employees, and most departments offer a wide variety of insurance plans to officers and their families. More than two-thirds of the departments have a retirement program for sworn officers. Most departments do not offer compensatory time, but paid overtime is provided to at least some officers by over half of the departments. Very few departments have been or are organized under a collective bargaining unit or union. The 83 departments have 313 owned and/or leased vehicles, and a few departments have automatic weapons. The number of calls for service made to each department in cities with a population greater than 10,000 ranged from 5,856 to 50,026. In cities with a population between 3,000 and 10,000, the number of calls for service varied from 1,200 to 4,647. Less than half of the departments have an active crime prevention program, 17 have at least one function computerized, most are familiar with incident-based reporting, and officers spend an average of 8 years with the police department. Data on part-time police departments and on salaries in neighboring States are provided. Tables and figures
Profile of South Dakota Police Departments
NCJ Number
133134
Date Published
1991
Length
93 pages
Annotation
A survey of all South Dakota police departments in 1991 found that 116 departments currently exist.
Abstract