Police Allocation Manual User's Guide

Book excerpt: Intended for the use of municipal police departments, this manual presents methods of determining the number and allocation of personnel for patrol and traffic services for municipal police agencies. The procedures are based on an analysis of officer workload with respect to the amount of time required to complete various tasks in four categories: reactive; proactive, self-initiated and community policing; proactive, uncommitted patrol; and administrative. The procedures rely on historical data and user- supplied performance objectives. Individual chapters present an overview of the methodology, guidelines regarding general implementation strategies and issues of data definition and collection, a recommended data collection and implementation procedure, data requirements.