NCJ Number
130534
Date Published
1991
Length
86 pages
Annotation
This study focused on factors of police staffing for unscheduled events such as homicides, SWAT call outs, and fatal traffic collisions which may involve calling employees at their homes to come to the incident scene; the study featured police agencies in the greater Los Angeles and Orange County region with between 40 and 400 sworn personnel.
Abstract
A nominal group process was used to identify and prioritize trends and events and to complete a cross-impact analysis. The two most important trends were identified as travel times/delay factors and housing costs/density issues. The combination of these two trends determine the distance employees live from their work sites, a factor that determines the response time to a callback. The nominal group determined that a residency requirement (officers required to live within the department's jurisdiction) had the greatest impact on agencies' ability to staff employee callbacks. Using the trends and events as well as the results of a literature search, three scenarios were written. A "desirable and attainable" scenario was then used to develop a strategic plan and transition-management plan. The Torrance Police Department was used as the setting to evaluate and implement the plan. The study concluded that staffing unscheduled events by use of employee callbacks will not be a viable option by the year 2000 and that residency requirements will be strongly resisted. Appended supplementary material and a 21-item bibliography