Waterloo Police (Cedar Falls: military, jobs, violent crime)

[Steve_W]

Curious, I have heard many times the Waterloo Police are absolutely brutal. I've heard many stories but one sticks out in my head. I guess there were riots in C.R. or Cedar Falls a while back and their local authorities couldn't seem to calm the situation? Well, I guess they called in Waterloo P.D. and they, for lack of a better phrase, kicked some ass.

Is there any truth to that or was it just a couple over hyped stories?

[El Rhino]

Does Waterloo have the highest crime rate in Iowa? I imagine they put up with quite a bit there.


A few years ago I was going to interview for the Waterloo PD, but they advised me not to as I had a charge for criminal mischief pending at the time. I'm glad I didn't, but it might've been kind of cool.

[metro223]

Look at the wcfcourier.com for today. This may help, the top story has to do with our crime rate "climbing." Interesting... as the pop. climbs down, the crime climbs up.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by Steve_W

Curious, I have heard many times the Waterloo Police are absolutely brutal. I've heard many stories but one sticks out in my head. I guess there were riots in C.R. or Cedar Falls a while back and their local authorities couldn't seem to calm the situation? Well, I guess they called in Waterloo P.D. and they, for lack of a better phrase, kicked some ass.

Is there any truth to that or was it just a couple over hyped stories?

Waterloo had a riot in the sixties. That's the only one I know of.

[Rez]

My experiences with the Waterloo PD have been very positive, for what it's worth. Once they apprehended a juvenile thief for me, and another time they came after kids vandalized my car. They were on the spot fast. You don't want to mess with them, though.

[dubuqueaskme]

Last Night KCRG TV-9, our ABC affiliate here in Eastern Iowa broadcasted the newly-released crime stats, crime was up 4% from 2006 in Waterloo, and Violent Crime up almost 5%.

[metro223]

And Cedar Falls crime was down 5.6% in '07. The 4th consistent year for crime in Cedar Falls to decrease.

[Steve_W]

What is triggering the loss of population and probably the result of higher crime? Loss of good paying jobs?

[Chicago60614]

Yeah, lots of jobs left in the 80's and Waterloo has been drifting through the past 2 decades without much change in the city. It had more people in 1980 than it does today.

In the 80's the city lost 12,500 in just two plant closings alone. The population dropped by 14% during that decade, and has remained at that level. The Waterloo area has gone from 137K to 126K since 1980.

[Steve_W]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Yeah, lots of jobs left in the 80's and Waterloo has been drifting through the past 2 decades without much change in the city. It had more people in 1980 than it does today.

In the 80's the city lost 12,500 in just two plant closings alone. The population dropped by 14% during that decade, and has remained at that level. The Waterloo area has gone from 137K to 126K since 1980.

Major corporations sure "bent over" the american public in the spirit of outsourcing, huh?

I was too young during the decline of the US manufacturing industry to fully understand it all but isn't it a huge crock of bullsh*t?

Manufacturing, telecommunications, tech/IT jobs... What's next, our military?

Oh, I forgot finance, China seems to have that figured out "for us".