One of the increases in the 2009 city budget is the authorization for 13 more police officers.

There's little disagreement on the need.

The additional 13 slots would raise the authorized force of the Anchorage Police Department to 431 officers. That's a number that Chief Rob Heun said would bring Anchorage in line with other West Coast cities (excepting Los Angeles) at about 1.6 officers per thousand population.

More important, that's a number that would allow police to continue improving sexual assault investigations, continue the domestic violence prevention project, speed response times and give officers a chance to do more preventive work.

Given enough officers, APD wouldn't have to choose between community policing and specialized units. Police could do some of both.

But police have a ways to go before 431 sworn officers are working for Anchorage.

Heun said the latest numbers show 389 officers assigned. That's a gain of 66 over July 2003. With graduates from two more police academies, the chief is confident APD can reach the goal of 93 more officers set in its 2004 strategic plan.

The department will be doing even better if it hits the 431 mark. That would be a net gain of 108 officers over 2003.

Don't bet on that in '09. The normal churn makes reaching the goal a constant work in progress -- two steps forward, one step back. Departures and retirements mean newly minted officers sometimes fill old slots rather than increasing the force.

Heun said APD won't cut corners on standards to meet the goal. "I think we're gonna make it," he said. "We're not gonna make it at all costs."

For example, he said in July APD tested 180 applicants. Only 16 remain in the vetting process for the police academy that starts Dec. 1. In August, 175 were tested. Six are still in the process.

APD also has gone Outside to recruit, investing time and money hoping to bring current officers north from other jurisdictions. That doesn't always work. A few years ago, Heun said, Anchorage recruited 21 officers from Cleveland after layoffs there. Not one of the 21 made it through field training.

Anchorage police are right to keep standards high, even if that means falling short of recruitment goals. A marginal officer is too high a price to make a magic number. The job demands the skill and care to deal with people on some of the worst days of their lives. They need some of the community's best people to do the job.

APD is always looking for a few dozen good men and women.