Law enforcement manpower analysis: an enhanced calculation model

• Date: 08 May 2020
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-02-2020-0026
• Published date: 08 May 2020
• Pages: 511-523
• Author: Brenda Vose,J. Mitchell Miller,Stephanie Koskinen
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice,Juvenile/youth crime,Police studies,Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Criminology & criminal justice

Law enforcement manpower

analysis: an enhanced

calculation model

Brenda Vose, J. Mitchell Miller and Stephanie Koskinen

Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of North Florida,

Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Abstract

Purpose –This study aims to advance the existing analytic model to include staff allocation information at the

district level. Maintaining adequate size of staff is essential to law enforcement agencies’ability to ensure social

order, fight crime and, increasingly, deliver a widening range of social services. Review of the scientific

literature on police size of force and staffing calculation models indicates that this line of inquiry (i.e. manpower

analysis) is attentive to population size and workload demands but generally inattentive to how service

demands are affected by community-level variables. Current staffing calculation models specify number of

staff needed for a jurisdiction but do not inform the allocation of personnel across districts within the

jurisdiction.

Design/methodology/approach –To address this problem, the current study illustrates an enhanced

analytic model to provide law enforcement staffing recommendations for a southern coastal county. An

integrated per capita-workload manpower analysis model first factors the minimum number of law

enforcement deputies needed per population size served and recent history workload demands and then

executes the six-step workload model process. This study enhances staffing analysis by adding an additional

seventh arithmetical step indicating the staffing needs by districts across a jurisdiction.

Findings –The results from the integrated per capita-workload analysis indicate the need to hire additional

deputies to meet current and future demands.

Originality/value –Discussion centers on the need to include drivers of police services identified but not

measured in this study’s application of the hybrid manpower analysis model and its replication potential.

Keywords Manpower analysis, Strength of force, Law enforcement staffing

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

A democratic society based on rule of law depends upon law enforcement for public safety

and social order maintenance. As the face of government, police presence is vital to both the

perception and reality of safe and orderly communities, so ensuring a sufficient police force is

an essential sociopolitical issue. Historically, the number of officers or deputies needed has

been viewed in terms of crime fighting and law enforcement functions (Carriaga and Worrall,

2015;Kleck and Barnes, 2014). Law enforcement across the country, however, has been

required to deliver a steadily increasing range of services in addition to traditional crime

fighting objectives –to such an extent that many agencies are hard-pressed to maintain

quality performance indicators such as response times and number of dispatch calls

answered. Timely response is further challenged by spiraling contemporary social problems,

especially mental health, substance abuse and recent justice system developments. National

criminal justice system trends of offender declassification and prison overcrowding, for

example, have relocated the responsibility for housing lower-level felony offenders and their

treatment programming from state to community corrections (i.e. county jails and probation

offices), necessitating additional detention officers often at the expense of patrol slots (Miller

et al., 2019). Per the large number of dynamic variables that collectively inform adequate size

Law

enforcement

511

This study was sponsored by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Leadership Institute. Points of view are

those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positions or policies of the sponsor agency.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1363-951X.htm

Received 20 February 2020

Revised 18 March 2020

Accepted 18 March 2020

Policing: An International Journal

Vol. 43 No. 3, 2020

pp. 511-523

© Emerald Publishing Limited

1363-951X

DOI 10.1108/PIJPSM-02-2020-0026