City of Detroit Can Save $200 Million Per Year

[Packman41]

And what might you suggest as better peers? They seem pretty good to me.

St. Louis and Milwaukee are both pretty good peers for today's Detroit is many ways.

The comparison cities seem appropriate to me too.

By the way, in an earlier post you mentioned that they only had costs per officer/fireman and not per capita. I would remind you take a look again at the complete article. It specifically said:

“Detroit spends more per capita on police and fire protection than Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Atlanta….”

And

“Harris's analysis attempts to render relative comparison by focusing on costs per capita, per resident and per officer.”

And

“…only Milwaukee fields fewer firefighters per capita [[1.60) than Detroit's 1.68, and only Atlanta carries fewer firefighters per square mile [[7.46) than Detroit's 8.56.

Meanwhile, Detroit takes in more revenue per capita

“[Detroit’s]…revenue per [capita] resident is $1,560, or 60 percent higher than Milwaukee, 37 percent higher than Atlanta, 29 percent higher than Cleveland and 15 percent higher than St. Louis. Only Pittsburgh's revenue per [capita] resident exceeds Detroit — by one dollar.”

And in conclusion

“If Detroit's costs per capita for police and fire attained the average of the other five cities he studied, Harris estimates the city could save more than $200 million annually….”

Folks, that is a lot of cheddar.