Just how thin IS that blue line?

K

Karanas

New member
Maybe some of our LEO members or others knowledgeable in such matters can help answer something I've been wondering about recently.
In terms of actual police "presence", I've seen the figure of 1 LEO per 100,000 citizens used many times. I'm not certain of its accuracy, but I guess that this figure was arrived at by the simple arithmetic of dividing the known population of the U.S. by the number of police on active duty nationwide. As it is, this figure is virtually meaningless as it lumps high crime and low crime areas together and makes no allowance for local population density or any other factors.
One thing that is for certain though is that not all the police on active duty are street cops. A certain percentage are clerical or administrative or have other duties that do not put them on the front lines.
In addition, despite what we often see on popular TV crime dramas, they're also not on duty 24/7.
So between the obvious division of resources that is inherent in shift work, when you factor in vacations, sick leave, court appearances, training days, etc., and subtract the clerical or administrative officers from the equation, just what percentage of a typical police force would actually be on the street at any given time?
People who take comfort in the fact that their community has a police force of 1000 officers to protect them might feel differently if they realize that there may actually only be 250 cops spread out over a couple of hundred square miles of territory. Suddenly, that expected 911 response time of 5 minutes might seem just a little unrealistic.
So if anybody could shed some light on this I would appreciate it.
 
The formula we used was: to have one officer per 8 hour shift, seven days a week, required having five officers on the payroll.

Two officers per 8 hour shift, requires having 10 men on the payroll.

This generally covered days off, training, sick time, etc. Court time ate into this figure big time, though. If someone was pulling court duty, you could bet that some poor schmuck was pulling overtime. OT, in my experience, is given as 'comp time' not time-and-a-half pay. Sounded good, but there was never time to take your comp time. I left my first LE job after three years with 1,600 comp hours that I never got to use.

In the smaller cities and counties, I believe that the figure *may* be closer to 1 officer per 1,000 people. That's been my experience in the Texas panhandle.

Hope that helps.

LawDog
 
No disparaging remarks towards the LEOs ever intended - ever - used to do it, but, too, consider that very seldom, if ever, an LEO stops a crime in progress. The job is to observe & report. If an LEO gets to prevent a crime in progress, all the better. But, for the most part, they are a "fact-finding"/reporting agency which investigates the "facts" of a criminal post-activity - reports it to the next higher authority & will testify as to those "facts" in court so "justice may be served."

A main motto of LEOs is that "we all go home tonight." That means the LEOs, not necessarily any of the public.

I was & at times, & still am, an LEO, in spirit. One of the toughest jobs for those that are dedicated to the primary principal of the job - protection of life.

But & still, there's a schism which exists; there's "us," (LEOs), the good civis (good citizens) & scum (the rest of the world). Very easily can one fall into the "us vs them" mentality & who can blame them?

Low pay, lousy hours, crappy homelife (especially for the best & dedicated), spit on by even the good citizens & worse by the scum. Need I say more?

I did it for quite a while because I wanted to be there when people needed a good, competent RIGHT NOW! Too political & bailed after a few years because the "powers that be" really didn't see it that way. You might catch my drift & if not will gladly fill you in with a personal e-mail ... do contact me, if you want for some insights.

Cops, like firefighters, if their heart is in the right place, have my utmost admiration. If their heart isn't there, they have my utmost distain.

A tough, thankless job & Sempre Fi to all the good ones!
 
Your 25% figure is kind of high. Take my department for example. 711 sworn officers, 4 rotating shifts. 4 days on, three off, divided between 5 sectors, which are then subdivided into patrol zones. Last night we had 62 officers on duty. A number we consider pretty good. Usually it's less. Only about half of those are actual vehicle patrol. We have foot and bike officers downtown, and they're pretty much stuck there, and you have to figure departments such as traffic, plainclothes, training academy, etc. which do not take radio calls. this means that your sector will have 9 patrol zones, but you'll only have 5 officers. the one bright thing is that we won a lawsuit over comptime a few years back, and now we get overtime. I average about 20 hours extra a paycheck. court is doubletime.
 
Karanas,
Before I retire for the night, I hope I can help a little with your figures. The actual average number of Officers in most agency are 1.7 to 2.5 per 1000 residence. ( not 100,000) Now thats the national average. Obviously some have more and some have less.( mines alot less) The trick for admin. is to best utilize all the officers they get from the city Officails. As far as where i work, we have about 50% "street cops" and 40% in specialty units. 10% admin. Now , as far as i know, most agencies don't include thier support services, such as records clerks and clerical help, in those numbers.
During a typical day, we will have a minimum of 9 officers, and sometimes as many as 22 officers on "street" patrol, 24 hours a day. this does not include the gang units and narcs; which typically come out at night.
I think the man power problem realy exists out in more rural county areas. 911 response can very slow.
My dept. is below the national average so I believe these numbers are higher in most other cities.
My 2 cents! Ek
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top