Policing: You decide on the deployments.
Discussion
After reading this thread on how effective (or not) the Police were, I've written up something which may be of interest - I'll be copying and pasting it up in a few moments.
Basically, it gives an overview of what being a Police officer today can mean, and the pressures that front line operational officers can be under.
It's not meant as a "Oh, woe is me" type of post, but I do hope you find it interesting.
Basically, it gives an overview of what being a Police officer today can mean, and the pressures that front line operational officers can be under.
It's not meant as a "Oh, woe is me" type of post, but I do hope you find it interesting.
You work as a Police officer in a provincial county Police force. The county has a population of around 1 ½ million people, around 90% of whom are white, with the remaining 10% being ethnic minority groups. The majority of the county is rural, but with several large towns and cities. The county is bordered by some counties which are much more rural, and others which are much more urban.
For policing purposes, the county is divided into six divisions, which are then further divided into geographic areas, which are then further divided, based on political ward boundaries. The Police force employs about 6,500 people, with about 3,200 of these being Police officers, from the Chief Constable, the Deputy CC, several Assistant CCs, down through the rank structure to the PCS. Of these 3,200 officers, about 1,400 are operational patrol officers (“Panda” drivers). The remainder work in various headquarters roles and specialist departments (dogs, traffic, motorway, helicopter, underwater search, firearms, major crime, surveillance, hi-tech crime, public protection units, reactive CID, professional standards, HQ training).
You are the patrol sergeant in a market town in one of the six divisions. The division is split into three distinct policing areas, with a Police station in each. The population of the division as a whole is around 320,000, and the area you are responsible for has a population of around 40,000. The town has a mixture of housing and industry, and as well as the town itself, you and your team are also responsible for the neighbouring rural areas. Your patch borders another Police force area. Cross border criminality from the bordering force is common.
You are 34, and have 11 years’ service, all of it in uniformed operations. You have a team of 8 officers, from brand new probationers straight out of training, through officers with three or four years’ service, to one officer who has 20 years in. Two of your team are female, six are male. You all work a four week rota, covering earlies (0700-1700), lates (1200-2200) and nights (2100-0700), with one and a half weekends off every four weeks. There are divisional resources that also provide 24 hour cover, such as traffic. During the day, there are also the neighbourhood policing teams, CID, PCSOs, offender management teams and the like.
At night, there is you and your team of officers. There is one Inspector covering the whole of the division, who has responsibility for all operational incidents. Your shift inspector has 7 years’ service, and is a graduate in Japanese and business management. There is also a night cover detective inspector, responsible for incidents of major crime for the entire county. There is one armed response vehicle and one dog handler to cover the entire county. There is a divisional night detective on duty, but they could be sent anywhere in the county at the direction of the night DI.
You and your team of 8 PCs start your tour of duty at 2100 with a briefing. One officer has called in sick, one is training, and one has been warned for Court at a weeks’ notice, despite the night shifts being on the rota 12 to 18 months in advance. When you come on duty, there have already been about 1,800 incidents logged by the force control that day. Double crewing tonight is not an option. Awaiting deployment on your area are a shoplifting, a domestic abuse incident, a burglary from a garden shed, and a complaint about kids causing havoc on one of the local estates. By 0100, three of your team have arrested (one for assault, one for drink drive and one for drunk and disorderly) and are tied up at custody. The two officers from the lates team who stayed on until midnight to give a hand have gone off duty, as there’s no money left in the overtime budget.
You now have yourself and two officers left. One of these two officers only has a standard driving permit, and can only drive cars, not vans, and she has only just finished her training, and been signed off as fit for independent patrol. The calls are still coming in. You now have an allegation of sexual assault to deal with, a report of several intruders recently disturbed at a farm, an arson, a non payer in a taxi and several calls for juvenile nuisance. While you are trying to decide what job to send which officer to, you are advised by control of a possible suicide and a missing 14 year old girl, who has previously been the subject of child sexual exploitation on the 7 occasions in the last month she has previously gone missing. The computers have gone down (again), and the radios are playing up – coverage is erratic at best.
Who do you deploy to which incident, and why?
For policing purposes, the county is divided into six divisions, which are then further divided into geographic areas, which are then further divided, based on political ward boundaries. The Police force employs about 6,500 people, with about 3,200 of these being Police officers, from the Chief Constable, the Deputy CC, several Assistant CCs, down through the rank structure to the PCS. Of these 3,200 officers, about 1,400 are operational patrol officers (“Panda” drivers). The remainder work in various headquarters roles and specialist departments (dogs, traffic, motorway, helicopter, underwater search, firearms, major crime, surveillance, hi-tech crime, public protection units, reactive CID, professional standards, HQ training).
You are the patrol sergeant in a market town in one of the six divisions. The division is split into three distinct policing areas, with a Police station in each. The population of the division as a whole is around 320,000, and the area you are responsible for has a population of around 40,000. The town has a mixture of housing and industry, and as well as the town itself, you and your team are also responsible for the neighbouring rural areas. Your patch borders another Police force area. Cross border criminality from the bordering force is common.
You are 34, and have 11 years’ service, all of it in uniformed operations. You have a team of 8 officers, from brand new probationers straight out of training, through officers with three or four years’ service, to one officer who has 20 years in. Two of your team are female, six are male. You all work a four week rota, covering earlies (0700-1700), lates (1200-2200) and nights (2100-0700), with one and a half weekends off every four weeks. There are divisional resources that also provide 24 hour cover, such as traffic. During the day, there are also the neighbourhood policing teams, CID, PCSOs, offender management teams and the like.
At night, there is you and your team of officers. There is one Inspector covering the whole of the division, who has responsibility for all operational incidents. Your shift inspector has 7 years’ service, and is a graduate in Japanese and business management. There is also a night cover detective inspector, responsible for incidents of major crime for the entire county. There is one armed response vehicle and one dog handler to cover the entire county. There is a divisional night detective on duty, but they could be sent anywhere in the county at the direction of the night DI.
You and your team of 8 PCs start your tour of duty at 2100 with a briefing. One officer has called in sick, one is training, and one has been warned for Court at a weeks’ notice, despite the night shifts being on the rota 12 to 18 months in advance. When you come on duty, there have already been about 1,800 incidents logged by the force control that day. Double crewing tonight is not an option. Awaiting deployment on your area are a shoplifting, a domestic abuse incident, a burglary from a garden shed, and a complaint about kids causing havoc on one of the local estates. By 0100, three of your team have arrested (one for assault, one for drink drive and one for drunk and disorderly) and are tied up at custody. The two officers from the lates team who stayed on until midnight to give a hand have gone off duty, as there’s no money left in the overtime budget.
You now have yourself and two officers left. One of these two officers only has a standard driving permit, and can only drive cars, not vans, and she has only just finished her training, and been signed off as fit for independent patrol. The calls are still coming in. You now have an allegation of sexual assault to deal with, a report of several intruders recently disturbed at a farm, an arson, a non payer in a taxi and several calls for juvenile nuisance. While you are trying to decide what job to send which officer to, you are advised by control of a possible suicide and a missing 14 year old girl, who has previously been the subject of child sexual exploitation on the 7 occasions in the last month she has previously gone missing. The computers have gone down (again), and the radios are playing up – coverage is erratic at best.
Who do you deploy to which incident, and why?
k knows.. but they / me clearly need more man powerDibble said:
You work as a Police officer in a provincial county Police force. The county has a population of around 1 ½ million people, around 90% of whom are white, with the remaining 10% being ethnic minority groups. The majority of the county is rural, but with several large towns and cities. The county is bordered by some counties which are much more rural, and others which are much more urban.
For policing purposes, the county is divided into six divisions, which are then further divided into geographic areas, which are then further divided, based on political ward boundaries. The Police force employs about 6,500 people, with about 3,200 of these being Police officers, from the Chief Constable, the Deputy CC, several Assistant CCs, down through the rank structure to the PCS. Of these 3,200 officers, about 1,400 are operational patrol officers (“Panda” drivers). The remainder work in various headquarters roles and specialist departments (dogs, traffic, motorway, helicopter, underwater search, firearms, major crime, surveillance, hi-tech crime, public protection units, reactive CID, professional standards, HQ training).
You are the patrol sergeant in a market town in one of the six divisions. The division is split into three distinct policing areas, with a Police station in each. The population of the division as a whole is around 320,000, and the area you are responsible for has a population of around 40,000. The town has a mixture of housing and industry, and as well as the town itself, you and your team are also responsible for the neighbouring rural areas. Your patch borders another Police force area. Cross border criminality from the bordering force is common.
You are 34, and have 11 years’ service, all of it in uniformed operations. You have a team of 8 officers, from brand new probationers straight out of training, through officers with three or four years’ service, to one officer who has 20 years in. Two of your team are female, six are male. You all work a four week rota, covering earlies (0700-1700), lates (1200-2200) and nights (2100-0700), with one and a half weekends off every four weeks. There are divisional resources that also provide 24 hour cover, such as traffic. During the day, there are also the neighbourhood policing teams, CID, PCSOs, offender management teams and the like.
At night, there is you and your team of officers. There is one Inspector covering the whole of the division, who has responsibility for all operational incidents. Your shift inspector has 7 years’ service, and is a graduate in Japanese and business management. There is also a night cover detective inspector, responsible for incidents of major crime for the entire county. There is one armed response vehicle and one dog handler to cover the entire county. There is a divisional night detective on duty, but they could be sent anywhere in the county at the direction of the night DI.
You and your team of 8 PCs start your tour of duty at 2100 with a briefing. One officer has called in sick, one is training, and one has been warned for Court at a weeks’ notice, despite the night shifts being on the rota 12 to 18 months in advance. When you come on duty, there have already been about 1,800 incidents logged by the force control that day. Double crewing tonight is not an option. Awaiting deployment on your area are a shoplifting, a domestic abuse incident, a burglary from a garden shed, and a complaint about kids causing havoc on one of the local estates. By 0100, three of your team have arrested (one for assault, one for drink drive and one for drunk and disorderly) and are tied up at custody. The two officers from the lates team who stayed on until midnight to give a hand have gone off duty, as there’s no money left in the overtime budget.
You now have yourself and two officers left. One of these two officers only has a standard driving permit, and can only drive cars, not vans, and she has only just finished her training, and been signed off as fit for independent patrol. The calls are still coming in. You now have an allegation of sexual assault to deal with, a report of several intruders recently disturbed at a farm, an arson, a non payer in a taxi and several calls for juvenile nuisance. While you are trying to decide what job to send which officer to, you are advised by control of a possible suicide and a missing 14 year old girl, who has previously been the subject of child sexual exploitation on the 7 occasions in the last month she has previously gone missing. The computers have gone down (again), and the radios are playing up – coverage is erratic at best.
Who do you deploy to which incident, and why?
Here's my guess.For policing purposes, the county is divided into six divisions, which are then further divided into geographic areas, which are then further divided, based on political ward boundaries. The Police force employs about 6,500 people, with about 3,200 of these being Police officers, from the Chief Constable, the Deputy CC, several Assistant CCs, down through the rank structure to the PCS. Of these 3,200 officers, about 1,400 are operational patrol officers (“Panda” drivers). The remainder work in various headquarters roles and specialist departments (dogs, traffic, motorway, helicopter, underwater search, firearms, major crime, surveillance, hi-tech crime, public protection units, reactive CID, professional standards, HQ training).
You are the patrol sergeant in a market town in one of the six divisions. The division is split into three distinct policing areas, with a Police station in each. The population of the division as a whole is around 320,000, and the area you are responsible for has a population of around 40,000. The town has a mixture of housing and industry, and as well as the town itself, you and your team are also responsible for the neighbouring rural areas. Your patch borders another Police force area. Cross border criminality from the bordering force is common.
You are 34, and have 11 years’ service, all of it in uniformed operations. You have a team of 8 officers, from brand new probationers straight out of training, through officers with three or four years’ service, to one officer who has 20 years in. Two of your team are female, six are male. You all work a four week rota, covering earlies (0700-1700), lates (1200-2200) and nights (2100-0700), with one and a half weekends off every four weeks. There are divisional resources that also provide 24 hour cover, such as traffic. During the day, there are also the neighbourhood policing teams, CID, PCSOs, offender management teams and the like.
At night, there is you and your team of officers. There is one Inspector covering the whole of the division, who has responsibility for all operational incidents. Your shift inspector has 7 years’ service, and is a graduate in Japanese and business management. There is also a night cover detective inspector, responsible for incidents of major crime for the entire county. There is one armed response vehicle and one dog handler to cover the entire county. There is a divisional night detective on duty, but they could be sent anywhere in the county at the direction of the night DI.
You and your team of 8 PCs start your tour of duty at 2100 with a briefing. One officer has called in sick, one is training, and one has been warned for Court at a weeks’ notice, despite the night shifts being on the rota 12 to 18 months in advance. When you come on duty, there have already been about 1,800 incidents logged by the force control that day. Double crewing tonight is not an option. Awaiting deployment on your area are a shoplifting, a domestic abuse incident, a burglary from a garden shed, and a complaint about kids causing havoc on one of the local estates. By 0100, three of your team have arrested (one for assault, one for drink drive and one for drunk and disorderly) and are tied up at custody. The two officers from the lates team who stayed on until midnight to give a hand have gone off duty, as there’s no money left in the overtime budget.
You now have yourself and two officers left. One of these two officers only has a standard driving permit, and can only drive cars, not vans, and she has only just finished her training, and been signed off as fit for independent patrol. The calls are still coming in. You now have an allegation of sexual assault to deal with, a report of several intruders recently disturbed at a farm, an arson, a non payer in a taxi and several calls for juvenile nuisance. While you are trying to decide what job to send which officer to, you are advised by control of a possible suicide and a missing 14 year old girl, who has previously been the subject of child sexual exploitation on the 7 occasions in the last month she has previously gone missing. The computers have gone down (again), and the radios are playing up – coverage is erratic at best.
Who do you deploy to which incident, and why?
Call out Mountain Rescue or SAR team and task them with seraching of the suicide and missing girl.
Contact the farm and ask whether the intruders are still there. If they are, attend with Senior and Junior, if not advise them of delay.
Re the nuisance and taxi. Get the qualified BiB to attend the taxi first if they're holding the chap, if not go to the nuisance first, and advise the taxi of the delay.
Once the senior is finished, get him to support the qualified BiB, and then get the junior to liase with the SAR / MR team.
Yup, I agree that tetra is rubbish. Re computers - that's the same for everyone.
ETA Perhaps I should add I am playing devils advocate.
Edited by rhinochopig on Thursday 15th October 13:40
Mark Benson said:
Until you do something about this;
RubbishDibble said:
The Police force employs about 6,500 people, ... about 1,400 are operational patrol officers
Then the rest is always going to be impossible IMO, you'll always have to spread yourselves thinly and prioritise some over others.Stick more cameras up
MartG said:
"The Police force employs about 6,500 people, with about 3,200 of these being Police officers"
So what the hell are the other 3,300 employees, and what value are they adding to the role of the Police force ?
Nuts isnt it, more than 1:1 ratio of officer to support staff. So what the hell are the other 3,300 employees, and what value are they adding to the role of the Police force ?
Same goes for the MOD for 99,000 ish soldiery types, there are 85,000 civilian support at the MOD. nice work if you can get it...
Edited by davido140 on Thursday 15th October 13:54
MartG said:
"The Police force employs about 6,500 people, with about 3,200 of these being Police officers"
So what the hell are the other 3,300 employees, and what value are they adding to the role of the Police force ?
Crime Scene Investigators, solicitors, HR people, accountants, handypersons, audio typists, civilian transport drivers, admin people, property officers, front desk staff, scientific support...So what the hell are the other 3,300 employees, and what value are they adding to the role of the Police force ?
All on considerably less salary than Police officers who used to do many of these roles (particularly CSI type stuff).
Fleegle said:
Mark Benson said:
Until you do something about this;
RubbishDibble said:
The Police force employs about 6,500 people, ... about 1,400 are operational patrol officers
Then the rest is always going to be impossible IMO, you'll always have to spread yourselves thinly and prioritise some over others.Stick more cameras up
(no, I'm not making this up, there really is a game being launched in which the public will get paid for spotting crimes via CCTV cameras installed in shops and shopping centres)
rhinochopig said:
Here's my guess.
Call out Mountain Rescue or SAR team and task them with seraching of the suicide and missing girl.
MR/SAR have no powers of entry or detention. They would need to be at least co-ordinated, if not accompanied, by Police.Call out Mountain Rescue or SAR team and task them with seraching of the suicide and missing girl.
rhinochopig said:
Contact the farm and ask whether the intruders are still there. If they are, attend with Senior and Junior, if not advise them of delay.
They don't know. They're an elderly infirm couple and too frightened to look. They think they can hear "something" outside... Don't attend? What about potential loss of forensic evidence...?rhinochopig said:
Re the nuisance and taxi. Get the qualified BiB to attend the taxi first if they're holding the chap, if not go to the nuisance first, and advise the taxi of the delay.
All the officers are "qualified"; some just have more experience than others. The non-payer won't pay, he gets arrested for bilking... Leaves one sergeant and one PC...The calls are still coming in, thicker and faster, for the juvenile nuisance. Two of them are named, and are breaching Court imposed bail conditions - a 7pm to 7am curfew...
rhinochopig said:
Once the senior is finished, get him to support the qualified BiB, and then get the junior to liase with the SAR / MR team.
See above.rhinochopig said:
Yup, I agree that tetra is rubbish. Re computers - that's the same for everyone.
ETA Perhaps I should add I am playing devils advocate.
Me too... a bit...ETA Perhaps I should add I am playing devils advocate.
Just out of interest.
How do the police prioritise when they simply dont have enough staff to cover the amount of shouts coming in?
Do they have some kind of 'Seriousness Scale' that dictates where they go first?
For example:
1. Murder scene
2. Sexual Attack
3. Violence act / Threatening behaviour
4. Theft / breaking entering / Taxi incident as detailed above
5. Drunk and Disorderly
There are obviously so many different variations of each crime - How is it split?
If you witnessed/were involved in an RTA you wouldnt expect to have to wait 3 hours in a queue of other incidents for a traffic cop to show up and sort it out.
Interesting.
How do the police prioritise when they simply dont have enough staff to cover the amount of shouts coming in?
Do they have some kind of 'Seriousness Scale' that dictates where they go first?
For example:
1. Murder scene
2. Sexual Attack
3. Violence act / Threatening behaviour
4. Theft / breaking entering / Taxi incident as detailed above
5. Drunk and Disorderly
There are obviously so many different variations of each crime - How is it split?
If you witnessed/were involved in an RTA you wouldnt expect to have to wait 3 hours in a queue of other incidents for a traffic cop to show up and sort it out.
Interesting.
Simple. Catagorise all offences into two lots:-
1. Offences witnessed by a Police Officer
2. Offences not witnessed by a Police Officer.
Focus on #1 as there's more chance of getting a bust, and boosting the arrest figures.
The ones in #2 never happened anyway.
I'm sure that's how it happens round our way anyhoo
1. Offences witnessed by a Police Officer
2. Offences not witnessed by a Police Officer.
Focus on #1 as there's more chance of getting a bust, and boosting the arrest figures.
The ones in #2 never happened anyway.
I'm sure that's how it happens round our way anyhoo
fatboy b said:
Simple. Catagorise all offences into two lots:-
1. Offences witnessed by a Police Officer
2. Offences not witnessed by a Police Officer.
Focus on #1 as there's more chance of getting a bust, and boosting the arrest figures.
The ones in #2 never happened anyway.
I realise (hope?) that's probably meant as tongue in cheek, but it actually makes a bit of sense.1. Offences witnessed by a Police Officer
2. Offences not witnessed by a Police Officer.
Focus on #1 as there's more chance of getting a bust, and boosting the arrest figures.
The ones in #2 never happened anyway.
The number of incidents I deal with where witnesses refuse to give statements or get involved is probably higher than those where they do.
Without witnesses, you've no case. Not such a problem if you've overwhelming CCTV/forensic evidence, but witnesses are what make or break a case.
Calls are generally graded the more serious they are, the quicker the response should be. A less "serious" crime that's actually in progress will normally get a quicker response than a more "serious" historic crime.
And I realise that whatever the crime is it's serious to the victim of that particular crime.
Dibble said:
rhinochopig said:
Here's my guess.
Call out Mountain Rescue or SAR team and task them with seraching of the suicide and missing girl.
MR/SAR have no powers of entry or detention. They would need to be at least co-ordinated, if not accompanied, by Police.Call out Mountain Rescue or SAR team and task them with seraching of the suicide and missing girl.
rhinochopig said:
Contact the farm and ask whether the intruders are still there. If they are, attend with Senior and Junior, if not advise them of delay.
They don't know. They're an elderly infirm couple and too frightened to look. They think they can hear "something" outside... Don't attend? What about potential loss of forensic evidence...?rhinochopig said:
Re the nuisance and taxi. Get the qualified BiB to attend the taxi first if they're holding the chap, if not go to the nuisance first, and advise the taxi of the delay.
All the officers are "qualified"; some just have more experience than others. The non-payer won't pay, he gets arrested for bilking... Leaves one sergeant and one PC...The calls are still coming in, thicker and faster, for the juvenile nuisance. Two of them are named, and are breaching Court imposed bail conditions - a 7pm to 7am curfew...
rhinochopig said:
Once the senior is finished, get him to support the qualified BiB, and then get the junior to liase with the SAR / MR team.
See above.rhinochopig said:
Yup, I agree that tetra is rubbish. Re computers - that's the same for everyone.
ETA Perhaps I should add I am playing devils advocate.
Me too... a bit...ETA Perhaps I should add I am playing devils advocate.
Dibble said:
fatboy b said:
Simple. Catagorise all offences into two lots:-
1. Offences witnessed by a Police Officer
2. Offences not witnessed by a Police Officer.
Focus on #1 as there's more chance of getting a bust, and boosting the arrest figures.
The ones in #2 never happened anyway.
I realise (hope?) that's probably meant as tongue in cheek, but it actually makes a bit of sense.1. Offences witnessed by a Police Officer
2. Offences not witnessed by a Police Officer.
Focus on #1 as there's more chance of getting a bust, and boosting the arrest figures.
The ones in #2 never happened anyway.
The number of incidents I deal with where witnesses refuse to give statements or get involved is probably higher than those where they do.
Without witnesses, you've no case. Not such a problem if you've overwhelming CCTV/forensic evidence, but witnesses are what make or break a case.
Calls are generally graded the more serious they are, the quicker the response should be. A less "serious" crime that's actually in progress will normally get a quicker response than a more "serious" historic crime.
And I realise that whatever the crime is it's serious to the victim of that particular crime.
Im genuinely interested - there must be some kind of 'status' applied to each call - so what order do they fall in?
Try to free up one officer from custody on the D+D charge - presume the offender won't be in a fit state to be interviewed/charged.
Arson - bounce the job to the duty night DI/Forensics
Farm - deploy one PC (not the newbie)
Youths - leave unassigned for now
Suicide - send the new girl (only unconfirmed report at this stage)
Missing 14 y/o - Sgt, and request assistance from the Dog unit - worth a few officers in reality and much better at finding missing people
Assault - further info required. May be that reporter could attend police station with friend to report. If in the higher seriousness category, might need a resource.
Arson - bounce the job to the duty night DI/Forensics
Farm - deploy one PC (not the newbie)
Youths - leave unassigned for now
Suicide - send the new girl (only unconfirmed report at this stage)
Missing 14 y/o - Sgt, and request assistance from the Dog unit - worth a few officers in reality and much better at finding missing people
Assault - further info required. May be that reporter could attend police station with friend to report. If in the higher seriousness category, might need a resource.
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