11 Police Officer Allocation Study

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Because of the problems with the current Computer Aided Dispatch software, the figures for response times are somewhat suspect. Current printouts show the department responding to Priority 1 calls in 6 minutes. The program does not indicate portions of a minute. The comparison cities are slightly faster responding to Priority 1 calls. Response time is a function of speed and distance. The farther you have to go, the longer it takes to respond. Most cities in Texas strive for response times of less than 6 minutes for high priority catfs. Response time can also be affected by the size of the city and the presence of natural barriers which prevent ease of travel. Adding personnel to Patrol, and increasing the number of officers in the field, reduces the average distance they must travel to any particular call and thus reduces response time. This incremental reduction in response time however diminishes significantly as more officers are deployed. Accidents and Traffic Enforcement During the study period, the department responded to 1,577 accident calls within the city. Of these, 265 were injury accidents and several were fatality accidents. At least annually the department identifies high accident locations and officers are provided this information for enforcement efforts. The entire purpose of traffic enforcement is accident and injury prevention. If the accident locations and causes are not captured and utilized, the impact of any enforcement effort may be wasted. Citations During the same study period Paris Police Officers issued a total of 7,520 citations. Traffic enforcement research has shown that citations are an effective method of reducing injury accidents. They are most effective when targeted at the locations and types of violations which are causing the accidents. Traffic safety and research organizations have developed a Traffic Enforcement Index Page 20