Police Staffing Standards

[firefighter36 52]

I know in the Fire Service, we have NFPA 1710, 1720, etc. in regards to staffing of fire departments and fire apparatus.

I was wondering if any of the law enforcement people out here could show me any standards or formulas for police staffing. Is there an officer to resident ratio? is it based on call volume? I was wondering how departments determine what an acceptable level of staffing per shift is?

[ONEEYEDMIC 68]

Let me see if I can explain how we work it. We need at least 4 PO's on the road and 1 PO or SGT on the desk. Ideally, we would like to have 4 PO's and 1 SGT on the road and another PO on the desk. In the case of somebody on light duty, we could have 3 PO's and 1 SGT on the road with the injured person on the desk. We have 4 main posts that cover the whole town. As manpower goes up, so does coverage. We also try to have a "Selective Enforcement" unit on the road if we can. Of course there are times where Det's or Lt's have to take calls as well. This is all based on the time of year. In the summer, it seems that we always have 4 on the road and a SGT on the desk for all 3 tours! It works for us. Could it be better, hell yeah it could. We are answering more calls and doing more cases and arrests with less PO's.

[helicopper 1,050]

I'm not aware of any "standard" for law enforcement on the subject of minimum staffing. That's how local departments are able to dictate their own staffing levels. In some places it is contractual; i.e. how many officers are required per shift.

[Bnechis 3,961]

I'm not aware of any "standard" for law enforcement on the subject of minimum staffing. That's how local departments are able to dictate their own staffing levels. In some places it is contractual; i.e. how many officers are required per shift.

So if it is not contractual, how does the police chief/commissioner convince the city manager, mayor, and/or council what is needed? There has to be some way of justifying minimum service levels otherwise it would be very easy for cuts to occur.