Yak - Chapter 13 Distribution and Deployment of Field Forces

If a burglary report indicated only that the offense was committed within a two-day period, how would you establish a time element for the crime for statistical purpose?

*****Discussion question***** Conduct a thorough investigation.

Name at least 5 fixed post positions.

1. Jailor 2. Desk Officer 3. Supervisor of shift or watch 4. 5 aren't listed in the text, page 394.

List 20 factors that might be considered in developing a distribution formula, and describe which of these would be most valid as measure of police need.

1. Part 1 offenses (except crimes against persons) 2. Part 2 offenses 3. Selected major offenses (which respond most readily to police patrol) 4. Misdemeanor arrests by patrol officers 5. Felony arrests by patrol officers 6. Juvenile offenses known to the police 7. Street mileage 8. Number of calls for service 9. Time spent handling calls for service 10. Population (in residence) 11. Population density (including transient and work population) 12. Property loss from crime 13. Autos stolen 14. Autos recovered 15. Number of attractive police hazards 16. Number of public gatherings 17. Number of traffic accidents (with injuries and fatalities) investigated by patrol units 18. Traffic accidents (total including property damage) 19. Number of ex-felons in residence 20. Citations issued by patrol officers

How is the average hourly need for a shift determined?

Adding the hourly need for each shift period being considered then dividing this total by the number of hours in the shift gives the Average Hourly Need.

Discuss the pros and cons of overlapping shifts.

It allows the needs to be met for certain hours of high workloads and police peak activity. It can cause adverse effects on efficiency and morale if assignments are not made with care. Generally, to maintain beat responsibility, to avoid problems that arise from dividing this responsibility between two or more units assigned to a beat is permitted to "jump" the most interesting calls, it is desirable to use a larger car plan, that is, to reduce the size of beats and utilize more units to cover the larger number of smaller beats.

Enumerate and discuss some of the physical factors affecting beat arrangements.

Natural or man-made barriers such as mountains, rivers, storm drains without ample crossovers, freeways, and other obstacles must be considered in addition to purely statistical information. Primary streets such as major thoroughfares, which form reporting district or census tract boundaries, should ordinarily be given preference for beat boundaries over secondary streets, which often do not provide area-wide access. Extreme distances between boundaries of a beat should be avoided. Dead-end or short streets obstruct access to the total area of a beat and usually do not present sufficient exposed police hazards to justify using them as boundaries where considerable overlapping of patrol takes place from contiguous beats.

Should car plans be the same on all watches? Explain how they might differ.

No, separate car plans must be established for each shift to equalize workloads for all field officers assigned to the shift. Shifting police problems at various times of the day might be cause for different plans. IE - A congested industrial area might present quite a different police problem on the day shift when plants are open than on the night shift when they are closed.

What are car plans? How are they established?

Once field personnel have been distributed to various shifts, usually by the commanding officer of the patrol division, the shift commander and field supervisors must deploy them to beats or patrol car districts. Data collected for each shift from reporting districts may be utilized by the supervisor to establish a variety of car plans so that a given area may be covered according to its proportionate need on any day of the week or at any time of day.

What is a relief factor, and how is it computed?

Since the area covered by patrol beats must be policed every hour of the day and every day of the week throughout the year, provision must be made for the relief of officers who have days off, vacation, sick leave, training assignments, or military leave of absence or who are off duty for some other reason. This relief factor will vary from agency to agency, depending on local policies and practices. It may be simply be determined by computing the actual number of days the average officer assigned to the patrol force is available for duty. By dividing the number of days per year that the average officer is available for his field duties into the number of officers needed to cover a beat for one full shift for one year can be readily determined.

Why should reporting districts generally be coextensive with federal census tracts?

Statistical data are collected from routine record keeping of crime data and from the federal government, which periodically gathers socioeconomic information in its census and tabulates it by federal census tracts. Thus, the administrator and supervisor not only can utilize local crime and police problem data but can correlate them with federal census tract information, but to do so, reporting districts that coincide with these census tracts must be established.

What is the adjusted total shift deviation? Why is this adjustment made?

The adjusted total shift deviation is the product of the total percentage deviation from the average hourly need multiplied by the total percentage of need per shift. In order to distribute the available field personnel in the most desirable shift arrangements, the supervisor can calculate the ATSD. These calculations allow the police manager to select, on purely statistical basis, the department's most beneficial shift arrangements-those with the lowest ATSD values.

How is the overall average percentage of the police problem determined from the formula?

The formula can be used to compute the overall average percent of the police problem (which represents the proportionate need for police service with certain statistical adjustments to increase accuracy) by hour of the day, day of the week, and area of the community.

What is meant by proportionate distribution of the patrol forces?

The most effective service will not be afforded a community if patrol personnel are assigned in equal numbers to shifts, to days of the week, or to beats of equal geographic size on a "flat" basis. For example, if most police incidents occur during the night, then obviously most of the patrol force should be assigned to nighttime duty to meet the need for police service during that time if the scientific principle of proportionate need is to be followed; likewise, the assignment of patrol personnel to days of the week according to the proportionate need for their services would be indicated, as would their assignment to area according to this principle.

Why should some of these factors be weighted when they are used in the formula?

The use of certain factors and their relative weights should be reassessed periodically for the purpose of determining the current nature of the police problem that must be met.