WS - E - Analysis of Police Department Staffing

As these figures indicate, the SI in the VPD exceeds the 60 percent threshold several times during the day. The SI ranges from a low of approximately 18 percent at 6:00 a.m. to a high of 61 percent at 7:30 p.m., with a daily average of 43 percent. Figures 1 and 2 indicate that patrol resources in the VPD during winter weekdays are under stress. From about 7:00 a.m. until after midnight, the patrol saturation index hovers just below the 60 percent threshold. This demonstrates that patrol resources in Victory are largely reactive. While there is a large body of traffic enforcement taking place, the overall saturation of patrol resources is very close to unacceptable levels. The 60 percent threshold is considered the point at which discretionary patrol time changes from potentially productive time that can be directed at community conditions, to unproductive time where patrol units wait for the next CFS to be dispatched. Essentially, for the bulk of the day in Victory, patrol resources operate very close to this “unproductive” threshold, and measures should be taken to support patrol staffing. Reaching this level during any period under observation also has the adverse impact of tainting all other periods under observation. In other words, once officers experience high, and sustained, levels of patrol saturation, they are likely to conclude that patrol saturation is high always, or that they always need to be prepared to respond to high CFS demands. This effectively ends proactive police response. In the context of high violent and property crime rates in the community, this is a situation that needs to be reexamined. Victory’s best defense against high crime is an active and productive patrol force. The data from Figures 1 and 2 indicate that the VPD patrol staffing is almost entirely reactive and not positioned well to respond to crime occurrences in the community. Additional resources committed to patrol, in conjunction with focused and directed patrol aimed at crime, disorder, and quality-of-life issues, would be strongly recommended. In our studies, this process is repeated for the other three time periods (winter weekends, summer weekdays and weekends) in order to fully explore workload, manpower, and the saturation index. The goal for a police department is to keep the saturation index below the 60 percent threshold, which we believe is the optimal deployment for patrol staffing. Looking at the comparisons of the green, red, and black lines in the SI figures, and comparing workload to available staffing, the data indicate that more officers are required to properly staff the patrol function in Victory. Workload and Staffing Example Drawing on the information from the data analysis it is possible to construct a patrol work schedule in Victory that meets the demand for police services. Table 3 shows the peak demand for police services in terms of total workload during weekends and weekdays in February and 17