NCJ Number
76504
Date Published
1980
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This paper presents an analysis of citizen calls for services to the San Francisco police department for a 6-week period in 1977. It focuses on management of the volume and variety of incoming calls for service and of the patrol field operations.
Abstract
With few exceptions, police in San Francisco respond to all citizen calls for service. Both dispatch time (the time between when a call is received and when a car is dispatched to handle the incident) and service time (the amount of time a patrol units spends on a call for service, including dispatch time and travel) are affected by the priority designations assigned by complaint clerks, by the availability of patrol units, by the volume of calls for service, and by the length of time patrol units spend investigating incidents. In addition, the use of civilian employees as dispatchers and the lack of any automated monitoring device to check the status of patrol units in service or of waiting calls may also affect dispatch or service time. There is considerable delay in internal processing time and in dispatching patrol units to respond to calls for service. Potentially serious incidents generate the most rapid response, but even in those cases, dispatch times are not very prompt. Adaptive responses to the problem of stacked calls (calls awaiting the availability of patrol units) include reducing per-incident service time and assigning calls to available patrol units from different districts. Reallocation of patrol resources along revised district boundaries, a possible long-term solution to unequal demand for services, faces both internal and political obstacles, as well as practical considerations regarding the amount of resources. Still another possible approach to alleviating the excess demand on patrol operations is to reduce the types of calls to which patrol units are dispatched through the use of referrals and deferred response. Three tables and 21 references are included.