Purpose -The purpose of this research paper is to describe quantitative methods that assist police administrators with evaluating current staffing and justifying to local governing bodies the size of the patrol workforce required to meet performance benchmarks. Design/methodology/approach -A discrete-event simulation model is developed to analyze various staffing levels and alternative scheduling scenarios. Input distributions are based on computeraided dispatch (CAD) data from an urban police department. The results can be used to estimate the size of the patrol force needed to meet performance objectives. Findings -The simulation model produces an estimate of the number of officers required to staff the department in order to meet benchmark goals. The output also indicates when and where patrol officers need to be added and shows performance plateaus where staffing increases only marginally improve performance. Observations on the trade-offs between meeting budget (via staffing) and benchmark goals are also provided. Research limitations/implications -Assuming that the quality of CAD data is reliable, our model requires data for one year to generate the distributions needed for the simulation. The computation of staffing estimates requires a shift-relief factor, calculated by the department to account for times when officers cannot be scheduled. Practical implications -This study suggests that the department should hire additional patrol officers or increase overtime hours in order to meet performance benchmarks. Originality/value -In contrast to previous modeling approaches, our simulation does not rely on the assumption that the policing system is static or in a steady state.

Police departments in the United States strive to schedule officers so that a number of benchmarks are met. The police administration is often asked to justify to local governing bodies the size of the police force. To assess the effects of force size and scheduling strategies on the ability to meet the benchmark goals, we develop a discrete-event simulation for the calls for service (CFS). Using actual call data from an urban police department in the United States, we fit distributions for call rates and service times for input to the simulation. The output of the model includes statistics related to the response delay, cross-sector calls, and officer utilization. The simulation model verifies intuitive notions about policing and reveals interesting properties in the system.

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