WS - E - Analysis of Police Department Staffing

created by modeling or manipulating various combinations of officers and 12-hour blocks to reduce the variance between supply and demand to its lowest possible level. Table 4 shows the culmination of these factors working together. The far-left column, labeled “Time,” is the hour of the day. The “Needed” columns represent the number of police officers needed in that given hour as defined in Table 3. The “Sample Schedule” column represents the optimal shift and personnel combination based upon the shift/demand modeling. The figures in the “Current” column show the current staffing on patrol in the VPD. Finally, the numbers in the “Deviation” columns represent the difference between the number of officers needed and the number of officers required. Where the deviation is negative, there are fewer officers assigned than needed to meet the 60 percent threshold; where the number is positive there are more officers assigned than required. 21