2. 2 What This Module is All About Police executives make lots
of decisions, few are more critical than staffing. How many
officers do we need? How should I assign and schedule these
officers to maximize performance? How can we do this efficiently?
That is, getting the most output for our investment. PELW 2012
3. 3Deciding how many officers we need. Four widely-used
approaches Authorized Strength Population Rate Minimum Staffing
Workload-based PELW 2012
4. 4 Authorized Strength Many departments compare their actual
staff with their authorized strength. This is the level of staffing
that has been approved-typically as part of the budget process.
Largely incremental May not reflect actual needs (High or Low) Will
typically be below authorized because of separations, recruitment,
training. PELW 2012
5. 5 Population Rate Many communities rely heavily on
comparison by rate (number of officers per population). Driven in
the past by the FBI that often suggested appropriate levels. These
rates can be a good planning tool but are not well suited for
critical allocation decisions. PELW 2012
6. 6PELW 2012
7. 7 Whats Wrong With Rates? Says little about the nature of
the community being served or of the organization Institutionalizes
inefficiency Sends a message to the organization that we do not
have enough officers. PELW 2012
8. 8 Rates and Minimum Together "Our current staffing as it
relates to sworn personnel is not where it could be or should be
for a city this size," Police Chief Art Acevedo said the additional
officers are needed to maintain a ratio of two officers per 1,000
residents. That ratio is a kind of benchmark among many departments
across the country to determine staffing; having two officers per
1,000 is considered ideal and is also city policy. The city has
2.08 officers per 1,000 residents, according to the study by the
Police Executive Research Forum .But Assistant Police Chief David
Carter said that is only the ratio if the department is at its full
authorized strength of 1,740 officers, which it is not because of
vacancies, attrition and cadets waiting to become full-fledged
officers." Weve never been effectively ever at 2.0, PELW 2012
9. 9 Minimum Staffing Most police departments, particularly
small ones, use this approach. Increasingly popular with medium and
large agencies. Often tied to number of beats-but can be very
arbitrary. The real problem is the overtime cost associated with
filling vacant positions. PELW 2012
10. 10 Problem Areas Incremental Institutionalized Becomes the
optimal staffing level Often times the levels are set so high that
it is likely that a vacancy will occur. PELW 2012
11. 11 Some solutions Street Strength Minimum during overlap
times Reduce the hire-back time Using workload-based models to
identify staffing requirements Shared services PELW 2012
12. 12 Using Workload We will partition these activities into
two groups: community-generated and discretionary. If we know how
much time is consumed by community generated work we can build a
model that incorporates the discretionary activities. PELW
2012
13. 13Workload Based Allocation PELW 2012
14. 14Allocation of Time Ratio is Community-Based PELW
2012
15. 15 What is Citizen Generated? Delaware Ohio Police
Department :The City prides itself on being one of the safest, and
annually handles more than 60,000 calls for service. Can a city of
30,000 have 60,000 police calls for service? PELW 2012
16. 16 Not likely! CAD systems often record all kinds of
activities as calls for service. In Delaware they would record a
call every time an officer came into the station. Actual number of
citizen generated call per year is 16,000. If the average call
takes 30 minutes this represents about 8000 hours of community
generated work- not 30,000! PELW 2012
17. 17 CAD Data Example LOSTP 3D 13 LOSTP 1C 1 LOSTP 3B 1
LOSTPR 3D 16 LU 3D 17771 MEETB 4 616 MISION 4 746 PELW 2012
18. 18 Calls for Service (CFS) Best Indicator of Citizen
Generated Activity What is included Travel time On-scene time
Number of officers assigned*** Follow-up? PELW 2012
19. Example of CFS Computation Travel 6 min. 10.min. Domestic
Disturbance (Two- On-Scene 24 20 officers) Arrest 30 0 Sub 60 30
Total 90 PELW 2012 19
20. 20 CFS as Obligated Time Once we have this CFS time we can
begin the process of estimating the number of officers to handle
this demand. We can do it by shift or for the entire day. Lets do
it first by shift. PELW 2012
21. 21 Shift example Total CFS for one year for swing shift
(3-11pm) is 30,000 hours. If an officer worked every day in a year
they would work 2920 hours a year (8 X 385). So in order to handle
30,000 hours of CFS we would need 10.27 officers (30,000 / 2920).
PELW 2012
22. 22 Calculating Relief Factor Relief Factor = Tells us the
number of officers that we have to assign to a shift in order to
provide the appropriate staffing Will be different depending on
whether officers work 8, 10, or 12 hour shifts. May differ by shift
or work group. PELW 2012
23. 23 Relief Factor Example Regular days off 104 Vacation 15
Holidays 10 Training 2 Court 7 Sick 12 Total Benefit Days Off 150
PELW 2012
24. 24 Relief Factor 365/365-150 365/ 215 or 1.7 This means
that to staff on position you need 1.7 employees. PELW 2012
25. 25 Using Relief Factor Our RF was 1.7. We need 10.27
officers to handle CFS. Thus the total staffing required is 17.46
officers (1.7 X 10.27). PELW 2012
26. 26 But officers do more than handle CFS Based on what we
have done thus far our 17.5 officers would spend all day answering
calls for service. Lots of other stuff to do! The question now is
how we will spend our discretionary (unobligated) time. PELW
2012
27. 27 Performance Objectives Lets say we want our officers to
spend 50% of their time on CFS and 50% on other activities (officer
initiated, patrol, community policing, administrative). We could
simply multiply the number required for CFS times 2. Thus we would
need 34.92 or 35 officers (17.46 X 2) For 1/3 patrol, 1/3 admin,
and 1/3 CFS multiply X 3 ( 52 officers). PELW 2012
28. 28 Performance Objectives (2) Your assumptions are
important. You may not have enough staff to meet a performance
objective. That does not mean you do not have enough officers! PELW
2012
29. 29PELW 2012
30. 30PELW 2012
31. 31PELW 2012
32. 32 Work Schedules Work Schedules are an important component
of resource allocation. Tendency to separate them, but this can
have serious consequences for management. Lets talk first about
general scheduling properties. PELW 2012
33. 33 What is a good work schedule-depends where you sit!
Management Objectives Maintain staffing levels Proper supervision
Effective policing Officer Objectives Should help them do their job
Compatible with personal life Equity PELW 2012
34. 34Why are work schedules problematic? Appear to be complex
and difficult to analyze! Work schedules are viewed as traditional
or at least idiosyncratic to the agency. Change is always tough-
work schedule changes can be paralyzing. Most agencies build a work
schedule around the number officers they have-not what they need!
PELW 2012
35. 35 Scheduling Issues Length of work periods Shift Rotation
Time-off Periods Staffing levels Holidays and Vacation time
Overtime PELW 2012
36. 36 Shift Analysis Duty Cycle: Repeating of On and Off days.
Four Properties Duty cycle length Number of on and off duty
patterns in the cycle Staffing level by day of week Average work
week PELW 2012
37. Analysis 5-2 with uniform staffing M T W T F S S Number of
days off in1 X X each weekly cycle are1 X X same1 X X Equal
staffing by day of1 X X week (71 %)1 X X Fixed days off1 X X1 X X
71 71 71 71 71 71 71 % PELW 2012 37
38. 6 on / 3 off repeated 7 times over a 9 week period M T W T
F S S1 X2 X X3 X X X4 X X X5 X X6 X7 X X X8 X X X9 X X X% 67 67 67
67 67 67 67 PELW 2012 38
39. 10 Hour Shift (Equal staffing by day of week) M T W T F S
S1 X X X2 X X X3 X X X4 X X X5 X X X6 X X X7 X X XX% 57 57 57 57 57
57 57 PELW 2012 39
40. 10 Hour Shift: Holland Michigan M T W T F S S1 X X X2 X X
X% 50 50 50 100 50 50 50 PELW 2012 40
41. 10 hours unequal by day of week M T W T F S S1 X X X2 X X
X3 X X X4 X X X5 X X X% 60 60 60 60 60 60 40 PELW 2012 41
42. 424/11 PlanTwo Teams M T W T F S SSeveral Start Times and 1
X X X XOverlap 2 X X X X38.5 AWW 3 X X X XTraining Days 4 X X X X 5
X X X 6 X X X 7 X X X 8 X X X % 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 PELW 2012
43. 12 Hour Schedule M T W T F S S1 D D X X D D D2 X X D D X X
X3 N N X X N N N4 X X N N X X X% 50** 50 50 50 50 50 50 PELW 2012
43
44. 8 vs. 10 vs. 12 12 10 8Work days 182 218 273Days Off 182
146 91Potential 26 21 13weekends off% holidays 50% 60% 75%worked
PELW 2012 44
45. 45 How about staffing. 10 hour shifts result in overlaps in
24 hour coverage. You are providing 30 hours of coverage a day! May
be inefficient Will be costly 8 and 12 hour shifts are nominally
the same for coverage Three shifts of 30 officer- 2/3 on each day=
60 Two Shifts of forty five- on each day 45 for 12 hours is the
same 60 Each officer works 1.5 days PELW 2012
46. PELW 2012 46
47. Minimum Staffing and Ten Hour Shifts Of particular concern
is the combination of ten hour shifts and minimum staffing.
Consider the more traditional eight hour shift. 71% of personnel
are assigned to work each day. PELW 2012 47
48. 48 From 8 to 10 Hours There are three squads-each with
seven officers. Minimum staffing is four per shift In the 5-2 (8
hour schedule) each day 5 are assigned, so it is likely that at
least 4 will be there. The department switches to 10 hour days but
maintains the same minimum staffing level. In the 4-10 plan only 4
of the 7 are assigned each day-any absence will require a
hire-back, and that may be a 10 hour hire back. PELW 2012
49. 49PELW 2012
50. 50RPD Overtime Costs 2004-2009 PELW 2012
51. 51 Attributes of 12 hour shifts Average work week is 42
hours Longest workweek 48 hours Fewer shift changes HR policies
must be changed Absence management can be tough Fatigue PELW
2012
52. 52 Schedules and Fatigue Lots of concern about fatigue
among shift workers and others Fatigue can lead to officer injury,
accidents, and citizen complaints. It may impair judgment. It is
still hard to make strong, reliable statements about schedule and
fatigue. PELW 2012
53. 53 Here is what we know! Officers on 10 and 12 hour shifts
report less fatigue. Fatigue is worse for older officers Officers
with small children reported more fatigue Long commutes contribute
to fatigue Officers with regular hours (limited overtime and
special assignments) reported less fatigue. PELW 2012
54. 54 What does this all mean? Fatigue is more related to what
officers do on their off-duty time than their work schedule! What
to do: Look at policy and work schedule focusing on off duty time.
Let officers participate in work schedule process Integrate
discussion of fatigue with other wellness and safety discussions.
PELW 2012
55. 55 Police Foundation Study Compared 8, 10, and 12 hour
shifts No difference in performance No impact on health 10 hour
shift=more sleep and higher quality of life No examination of
deployment PELW 2012
56. 56 Some Concluding Thoughts Policing is a labor-intensive
activity Budget cuts will almost always result in fewer people
Watch overtime and other structural costs Pay attention to benefits
Dont insist that fewer people will lead to Armageddon! PELW
2012
