WS - E - Analysis of Police Department Staffing

V. Conclusion Communities need to consider many important issues when determining appropriate police staffing levels. The data presented here are rarely used in contemporary police management, but are far better than the staffing allocation and deployment approaches currently in use. City, town, and department officials need to use reliable data to make these important staffing decisions. Relying on antiquated and unreliable methods to make one of the most financially important and critical decisions with respect to the quality of life and safety of a community is ill-advised. Looking at other approaches is a good start. However, police departments must embrace the use of more sophisticated data analysis and must identify benchmarks to evaluate staffing decisions. The argument made here is that at least three benchmarks could be identified easily and then be used to evaluate staffing allocation and deployment. How many officers are assigned to patrol? What is the workload level of those officers on patrol? How much time is expended handling a CFS? Looking at these three measures will shed important light on how many officers a community needs and whether or not they are being deployed efficiently. 26