Demand Profile

[deployment graph]

This graph displays the average 'deployment' rate per hour of the day per day of the week, based on 15 months of data taken from an actual UK Police Force covering a town with a population of 210,000.

A deployment is a call for service from the public that requires a police unit to be dispatched. That 'unit' could be a single officer, a double crewed vehicle or a van. In terms of Call Grading it relates to Grade 1 and 2 calls only (see below for Definitions).

It can be seen from the graph that the peak time for deployments on any day of the week occurs between 1800 and 2200 hours. However at weekends (Fridays and Saturdays) the peak is prolonged into the early hours of the following morning (ie. into Saturday and Sunday). This is attributed to people socialising later at the weekends than during the week and to licensed bars and clubs being open later at weekends than during the week.

It can also be seen that between midnight and 0400 hours there is a roughly twice as many calls for service on a Saturday and Sunday morning as there is on any other day of the week. This necessitates having additional resources on nightshift at the weekend to cope with the increase in deployments.

Although this graph relates to an urban/city environment, analysis of deployment rates in rural Divisions of the same Police Force produced exactly the same shape of graphs. The only difference was in the average number of call per hour, which was lower in the rural, less populated, Divisions.

The question is whether it is possible to design a shift system which varies the number of officers on duty throughout the day and in particular at weekends to match this demand profile?

And if such a shift system is possible, will it be acceptable to the workforce?

Call Grading System

Grade 1 - Immediate Response - Incidents where:

there is actual or potential injury or loss of life, or

a suspect may still be at the locus, or

evidence may be lost if the call is not attended immediately, or

any incident deemed by the call taker/supervisor to demand an immediate response, based on a common sense approach.

Grade 1 Response Times are 10 minutes within the City Division and 25 minutes in the rural Division

Grade 2 - Pressing Response - Reports of incidents where there is no immediate danger and circumstances do not demand an immediate response, but do nevertheless justify the deployment of a resource as soon as possible.

Grade 3 - Deferred Response - Incidents which justify the deployment of a Police Officer, but do not warrant a Grade 1 or Grade 2 response or incidents which will be referred to a local Officer or specialist Officer for attendance when available.

Grade 4 - No Action Required - Incidents which do not justify the deployment of a Police resource and which are noted for administrative, statistical or other purposes only.

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