Staff photo / Ed Runyan Youngstown Police officer Joe Moran unloads a cruiser full of winter coats onto a cart to be taken into Taft Elementary School in Youngstown. He and other officers helped distribute the coats to students at the school Dec. 18, 2019.

YOUNGSTOWN — The three-county Youngstown area was recently ranked 46th out of 374 regions in the country in an analysis of the best places for police officers and sheriff’s deputies to work.

The analysis by commercial insurance provider Advisor-Smith said its data suggests the Mahoning, Trumbull and Mercer counties area provides high job satisfaction and opportunities.

But overall, Youngstown police Chief Robin Lees said he suspects an analysis by an insurance company regarding the best places to work in law enforcement is slanted toward helping the insurance company “market its wares” — so he would be wary of putting too much stock in its results.

The data looked at the number of law enforcement jobs in each of the 374 communities, pay rates and cost of living. Much of