NCJ Number
201973
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 51 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2003 Pages: 116-120
Date Published
July 2003
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Twenty-four police agencies responded to a survey to determine their policies for dealing with military call-ups of personnel who are military reservists.
Abstract
Eighty-three percent of the responding agencies reported that the number of military call-ups that have impacted their agencies has increased. The same percentage reported that they have recently lost employees to military call-ups. The difference between dealing with reservists' regular military training commitments and call-ups is the unpredictability of the timing and the length of the call-up. These uncertainties can compound scheduling problems for some agencies, regardless of size. Only 13 percent of the responding departments indicated they had written policies to help them deal with military call-ups. The most commonly used method for filling personnel gaps due to call-ups is shift juggling. Other methods include overtime, reassignments, cutting back on non-emergency services, eliminating or transferring service slots, hiring replacement officers, and cross-training officers to fill specialists' roles. Thirty-eight percent of the responding agencies paid reservists the difference between military pay and their regular salaries. Seventeen percent of the respondents reported that the problem with military call-ups of officers was less related to the number of officers called-up than to the nature of the jobs involved. It is clear that although the specific problems associated with military call-ups differed among the agencies involved, there is no doubt that the increasing number of military call-ups of police officers has become a matter of concern for many police agencies.