FINAL EXAM QUESTION

You are now the Police Chief in a city with 30,000 residents and you  are responsible for providing 24 hour a day police coverage. You have a  total of 45 sworn officers that it is your responsibility to deploy  based on the needs of your community. Based on your readings in Iannone,  provide  me with an organizational description of how you will deploy  and assign your officers. Include how many supervisory personnel you  will have, patrol officers, specialized assignments such as Detectives,  Traffic Bureau, School Resource Officers, Narcotics Investigators,  etc… You can have some, all or none – You’re the Chief of Police.

As  a point of interest your town has 1 High School, 2 Middle schools and 5  Elementary schools. It also has two state highways with substantial  commuter traffic and four distinct neighborhoods with one large central  business district. To make it easier for you we’ll assume that your  agency uses a centralized dispatch center that is shared with other  local agencies so you don’t have to staff dispatch. You do have to  assign a Court Officer as liaison to the courthouse and that officer  will be unavailable for any other assignment except court duties.
Per  the officers collective bargaining agreement they all work 4 days on  then have 2 days off. They work 8 hour days starting at Midnight each  day, then 8am then 4pm, etc…
They each  work 4 days on then have 2 days off…that means each you take the total  number of officers you have to work with (45) and divide them into  three groups. This may explain better:
Group A – Work Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs then Off Fri & Sat then work Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed then Off Fri & Sat and so on
Group B would work Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat then Off on Sun & Mon and so on
Group C would work Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon and then Off on Tues & Wed
The officers days off each week are not the same days…they rotate backwards one day each week.

In  other words, Group A & B work together for two days, then Group A  is Off. Then Group B & C work two days together and then Group B is  Off. Then Group A & C works two days together and then Group C is  Off and so on…
This means that if two groups are working (30  officers or 2/3 of the department total of 45 officers), then one third  are off (One group or 15 officers) each day. Knowing that you have 30  officers working each day and you have three eight hour shifts you  simply decide how many officers to deploy per shift. Think of it as  assignments rather than individual officers. In other words, if you need  5 patrol officers on the 1600-2400 shift you don’t care which officers  fill the posts as long as they are filled.
My goal is to  have you understand how having 45 officers at your disposal may seem  like a lot, but you will quickly learn that your resources disappear  fast.
My suggestion is that the first thing you do is determine  how many officers will be assigned to each shift…don’t forget that  with a 4&2 day off schedule, one out of three officers you assign  will always be on a day off. Use the organizational charts in  Chapter 2  as examples to go by or use the internet to assist you…many police  departments have web sites with a variation of their organizational  structure..
Lastly, the mayor has just informed you that due to  these hard economic times your overtime budget has been zeroed out and  you have no reserve or auxiliary officers at your disposal due to  liability concerns

As a chief you have wide discretion on  deploying your officers and at the same time you will be held  accountable if it is not done properly. 
I almost forgot…in the  time it’s taken you to read this question, one of your young rookie cops  was in a cruiser accident and he’ll be out injured for approximately 6  months. You are now down to 44 officers.

Hint: Remember basic principles from the text such as the Span of Control, etc…

I NEED THIS RESPONSE IN 20 MINS! BIG MONEY FOR FAST RESPONSE