NCJ Number
93168
Date Published
1984
Length
61 pages
Annotation
This report describes the mathematical model used by the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement since 1982 to allocate uniformed State police officers throughout the State, along with computer programs written for the model.
Abstract
The model is divided into three sections: administrative support, responses to calls for service from accidents and criminal complaints, and general patrolling. It distinguishes between two types of values: parameters, i.e., values that control the model's operations as a whole, and variables or the data used to make computations. The report summarizes the parameters and variables used in the model and then details the mathematical treatment of each section. These mathematical formulas have been converted to a program that can be on the department's mainframe computer and allows the user to test different philosophies of allocation by changing the parameters. The program also permits users to compute the required number of officers before allocating staff. Although not as flexible or fast, a computer program for an Apple II Plus microcomputer also performs all these computations. Numerous changes have been made in the model during its 2 years of use to simplify the computations and improve the data's usefulness. The model has been a valuable tool in allocating new officers, reviewing current deployment, and examining the impact of cuts in strength of service. The report includes mathematical formulas, three footnotes, and sample output reports.