DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF A RESPONSE SYSTEM MODEL BASED ON STUDY OF POLICE OPERATIONS RELATED TO THE PROCESSING OF CALLS FOR POLICE SERVICE.
THE POLICE RESPONSE SYSTEM IS DEFINED AS INCLUDING POLICE TELEPHONE OPERATORS, DISPATCHERS, PATROL PERSONNEL, AND RELATED EQUIPMENT. MATHEMATICAL MODELS ARE DERIVED FOR EACH RESPONSE SYSTEM ACTIVITY, THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE IN EACH CASE BEING THE MEAN TIME REQUIRED TO COMPLETE AN ACTIVITY. THE RESPONSE SYSTEM MODEL, COMPOSED OF THE SEPARATE ACTIVITY MODELS, IS ANALYZED IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF PERSONNEL REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN A GIVEN WEIGHTED SYSTEM MEAN RESPONSE TIME. A DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING RESOURCE ALLOCATION ALGORITHM IS DEVELOPED FOR THE ANALYSIS. DATA MEASURED AND APPROXIMATED FOR THE CITY OF BOSTON ARE SUPPLIED AS INPUT TO THE ALGORITHM. THE RESULTS ARE COMPARED TO ACTUAL BOSTON OPERATING PRACTICES. SPECIFIC OPERATING POLICY CHANGES ARE RECOMMENDED. EXTENSIONS OF THE METHOD AND AREAS OF FUTURE RESEARCH ARE OUTLINED. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED)