ALLOCATING POLICE RESOURCES FOR
RESULTS
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As fiscal pressures on local governments increase, cuts to core
services are being made without an adequate understanding of the
consequences
 The fiscal conditions facing many local governments are dire
 Many local governments have had to resort to hiring freezes and across the
board cuts to balance their budgets
 In some cases, public safety services - which may historically have been
exempted from significant budget scrutiny - have been subjected to the
budget axe
 Even local governments that have been able to avoid significant budget
reductions until now face an uncertain future
 When making decisions about how to reduce expenditures it is important that
decision-makers clearly understand the implications of potential budget cuts on
the services citizens receive
 Cuts in some areas may result in modest reductions in the level and quality of
services that citizens receive and may be deemed acceptable by decision
makers
 Cuts in other areas, by contrast, may result in an unacceptable reduction in
service levels
 Without a clear understanding of how budget reductions will affect service quality,
decision makers may unwittingly make decisions that adversely affect citizen
service in ways that are neither desired nor intended
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Police departments, in particular, often lack the ability to articulate the
impact potential budget reductions will have on the law enforcement
services citizens receive
 Despite the fact that police departments comprise the largest part of most local
government budgets, most departments lack the ability to link expenditures with
service levels
 On one level this cannot be avoided because the overall level of crime and incidents
requiring police intervention in a community are affected by a broad range of factors of
which expenditures on law enforcement services is but one
 However, even for dimensions of police services for which expenditures and service
levels can reasonably be linked (for example, the time required to respond to an
incident requiring police intervention) most police departments are unable to articulate
the relationship between resource allocation and service levels
 For some departments, this results because resource assignments have evolved
incrementally over time and no systematic resource deployment strategy has
been developed
 Even departments that have undertaken resource allocation studies, however,
are typically not able to articulate the relationship between resource expenditures
and the level of service provided
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Resource allocation methodologies that are employed by most police
departments do not link service levels and expenditures
 Most patrol resource allocation methodologies establish an expectation for the
percentage of a patrol officer’s shift that should be devoted to responding to
calls-for-service and the percentage of time that should be available for
“proactive” activities
 For example, a typical patrol staffing methodology might assume that patrol
officers should spend 65 percent of their shift responding to calls-for-service
and the remaining 35 percent on proactive activities
 Another methodology might assume that 55 percent of patrol officers time
should be devoted to responding to calls-for-service with 45 percent devoted
to proactive activities
 Such an approach does not consider what community expectations are with
regard to how quickly patrol officers should respond to incidents requiring police
intervention
 Allocation of resources to investigative activities tends to be even less results
oriented and is typically based on comparisons with other jurisdictions or the
“experience” of the consultant performing the analysis
 For proactive and specialized activities (e.g., narcotics, vice, horse, park and bike
units) analysis of staffing needs is typically subjective
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In addition to not linking resource allocation with results some of
these resource allocation methodologies are flawed for other reasons
as well
 Patrol staffing methodologies that base staffing needs on the percent of time
officers should spend responding to calls-for service assume that the level of
proactive patrol activity in a community should be directly related to the level of
reactive patrol activity
 Moreover, these methodologies typically assume that the same percentage of
time should be spent on proactive activities on all patrol shifts despite the fact that
during the night shift less proactive policing which involves interacting with the
community can be performed
 In addition, these patrol staffing methodologies typically assume that the same
amount of time is devoted to each call for service on all shifts when, in fact, the
distribution of calls by type (and consequently the time required to respond) can
vary significantly over the course of a day
 Furthermore, while most patrol staffing methodologies consider what types of
calls can be handled over the phone or by sending a civilian rather than a sworn
officer to the incident scene, all too often these methodologies do not
systematically compare the costs of these alternative response approaches with
the cost of patrol officer response
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A more effective way to allocate police resources is to link staffing
requirements with service expectations
 The number of patrol officers that are deployed on each shift should be based, in
part, on the desired response time to citizen initiated calls-for-service
 The number of patrol officers that are needed to perform proactive activities
should be based on explicit expectations with regard to the proactive activities
officers are expected to perform on each shift and the specific results the
department expects to achieve from performing these activities
 In many cases, the number of officers needed to ensure response time
expectations are met will be sufficient to handle these proactive requirements
but this will not always be the case
 Moreover, if the proactive activities expected of patrol officers require them to
perform duties that cannot be interrupted additional officers will need to be
deployed to ensure sufficient capacity exists to perform these activities
 While it is more difficult to precisely link resource allocation with service
expectations for investigative activities. a productivity expectation for detectives
conducting follow-up investigations should be established
 Defining expected results for proactive and specialized units (e.g., narcotics,
vice, horse, park and bike units) while sometimes difficult is important to ensuring
resources are allocated appropriately
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In addition to considering how resources should be allocated to
achieve desired results, a number of other factors should be
considered when allocating police resources
 Policing strategies. The policing strategies employed by a department will
significantly affect a department’s success in achieving its objectives
 Management and supervision. Effective management practices must be
in place if police resources are to be effectively deployed
 Scheduling and deployment. Police resources must be scheduled and
deployed where they are most needed if they are to be effective
 Mix of skills. Police departments should generally not employ sworn
officers to perform jobs that could be assumed by less costly civilians
 Dispatch strategies. Cost-effective operations also require dispatching the
correct number of patrol officers to each call-for-service
 Flexible use of resources. Unnecessary specialization can also reduce a
police department’s operational effectiveness
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A number of benefits can be achieved from taking a results based
approach to allocating police resources
 Decision-makers are able to make informed decisions about the level of
service that can be provided for a given level of resources
 Decision makers will also understand the impact budget cuts will have
on the quality of services citizens receive
 The methodology can be used to articulate for taxpayers the relationship
between resources and service levels
 Establishing expectations for results achieved and for employee productivity
strengthens management and accountability
 The resource allocation methodology can be used to develop a framework
for systematically assessing the impact alternative policing strategies have
on achieving desired results
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