11 Police Officer Allocation StudyCITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM BRIEFING SHEET
Submittal Date:
Originating Department:
Presented By:
Agenda Item No.:
3-4-2008
Council Date:
Police Department
Chief Karl Louis
11
3-24-2008
RECOMMENDED MOTION:
Not An Action Item
POLICY ISSUE(S):
Planning
BACKGROUND:
Mr. Marlon Price, Law Enforcement Management Services (LEMS), will present the Officer Allocation
Study prepared for the City of Paris Police Department.
He will also show a Power Point presentation of the study to the Council as part of his presentation.
BOARD/ COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION:
EXHIBITS:
The allocation report
ACTION:
BUDGET INFO:
❑ Financial Report ❑ Minute Order
Expense
$
❑ Departtnent Report ❑ Resolution
Budgeted Amt.
$
M Presentation ❑ Ordinance
YTD Actual
$
❑ Public Hearing ❑ Other
Acct. Name
Acct. Number
FiSCAL NoTES:
REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY:
Z Administration Z City Clerk Z Community Development ❑ EMS/IT ❑ Finance ❑ Fire
❑ Municipal Court ❑ Legal ❑ Library Z Police ❑ Eng./Public Works ❑ Utilities
City of Paris Revised 2/04/08
Police OfFicer Staffing Study
for the
Paris, Texasp Police Department
February 2008
Conducted by:
Law Enforcement Management Services
Keller, Texas
Law
Enforcement
Management
S'erviees
Acknowledgment
Law Enforcement Management Services wishes to acknowledge Chief
Karl Louis and the members of the Paris Police Department for their
encouragement and assistance in the completion of this review. Staffing level
reviews can often be seen as a threat to an organization or an accusation that
something is wrong. Law Enforcement Management Services did not perceive
any resistance or difficulty in conducting the review and were very pleased with
the candor and openness displayed by members of the department. We are
grateful for that cooperation and sincerely hope that our review will provide
valuable information that can assist the Paris Police Department and the Paris
City Council in making future decisions regarding the appropriate staffing levels
for the department.
Page 2
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................4
INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................................4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2 ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ....................11
CHAPTER 3 ANALYSIS OF CURRENT POLICE PERFORMANCE ...........................................14
CRIME COMPARISONS ..............................................................................................................................15
CLEARANCE RATES AND ARRESTS .........................................................................................................18
RESPONSE TIME .......................................................................................................................................19
ACCIDENTS AND TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT ..............................................................................................20
CITATIONS ................................................................................................................................................20
CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS OF PATROL OPERATIONS AND STAFFING ...............................21
PATROL WORKLOAD ...........................................................................................................................22
RECOMMENDED SHIFT STAFFING LEVEL ................................................................................................28
CURRENT PATROL STAFFING ..................................................................................................................29
CURRENT SECTION CONFIGURATION ......................................................................................................30
MUTUAL AID AND MINIMUM STAFFING ....................................................................................................31
SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS ...............................................................................................................32
CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OPERATIONS AND STAFFING.32
REACTIVE INVESTIGATIONS .....................................................................................................................33
CASE SCREENING AND WORKLOAD ........................................................................................................33
CASES ASSIGNED ....................................................................................................................................36
PROACTIVE INVESTIGATIONS ...................................................................................................................37
CRIME PREVENTION OFFICER ..................................................................................................................38
CHAPTER 6 ANALYSIS OF SERVICES DIVISION ........................................................................39
COMMUNICATIONS ...................................................................................................................................39
RECORDS .................................................................................................................................................40
WARRANT SERVICE .................................................................................................................................40
PROPERTY AND EVIDENCE ......................................................................................................................41
ANIMAL CONTROL ....................................................................................................................................41
CHAPTER 7 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CITIES .............................................42
CHAPTER 8 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................43
PATROL OPERATIONS ..............................................................................................................................44
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS ......................................................................................................................45
SERVICES OPERATIONS ...........................................................................................................................47
CHAPTER 9 IMPACT OF STAFFING DECISIONS ........................................................................48
IMPACT OF PATROL STAFFING ................................................................................................................48
IMPACT OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION STAFFING ....................................................................................49
APPENDIX A ..............................................................................................................................................51
APPENDIX B ..............................................................................................................................................56
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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This document is the final report of the Police Officer Staffing Study of the
Paris Police Department conducted by Law Enforcement Management Services
during January and February 2008. This chapter presents a summary of the
findings.
Introduction
Law Enforcement Management Services was retained by the City of Paris
to conduct a comprehensive staffing study of the Police Department
management and operations. The specific scope of work included:
• A review of the current departmental operations to include current
staffing levels, calls for service, arrests, citations issued, accidents
investigated, and administrative commitments including training,
court, and other administrative functions.
• Review departmental organization and use of non-sworn personnel.
• Interview members of department staff.
• Utilize computer assisted staffing analysis to develop
recommended staffing levels based on community expectations
and operational necessity. Such staffing levels will include staffing
levels for Patrol, Investigations, and Administrative functions.
• Develop an initial draft report for discussion with departmental
Command Staff.
• Meet with members of the Command Staff and designees as
needed to refine draft and develop a final draft.
The methodology for completing this review included:
• Review and analysis of departmental records, reports, files and
documentation.
• Interviews with city and departmental personnel
• Personal observations of operations and activities
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Executive Summary
The use of outside consultants in reviewing the staffing levels of an
agency does not necessarily indicate that an agency is improperly staffed or that
the city leadership lacks confidence in either the department or its leadership. An
independent review of departmental staffing and operations is very desirable
every five to ten years to ensure both elected and appointed leaders - and
members of the community - that the department is keeping up with state and
national standards and that the funding provided the department is appropriate.
It should be clearly remembered that the staffing level of a local police
agency is entirely discretionary. There is no state or federal law that prescribes
how many officers and employees must be provided. These decisions are made
locally and are often based on the city's economic condition, the crime rate, and
citizen's perception of safety and desire for specific levels of service. While there
are national and state "averages," these averages fail to take into consideration
the myriad of factors, including the citizen's expectations or the city's financial
condition. While staffing decisions are discretionary, they do have great impact
on an agency's ability to perform basic functions. It is the intent of this study to
identify these impacts so that city leadership can make the most appropriate
decision on staffing levels for the department.
In order to compare perFormance and operations we have selected three
cities in the northeast Texas area similar in size (Denison, Greenville, and
Marshall) and the two largest area cities (Dallas and Fort Worth) for comparison
purposes. Throughout this report you may see references to these comparison
cities. Data presented for these cities was obtained from the 2006 Crime in
Texas published by the Texas Department of Public Safety and from personal
contact with the Police Chief. It should be pointed out that there is no
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assumption that these other police agencies are better managed or operated, but
rather are presented to show comparative performance only.
The current overall Crime Rate (Reported Index Crimes per 1,000
population) in Paris is higher than in any of the comparison cities of similar size.
Violent crime is higher in Greenville but Paris has more property crimes. While
these statistics are always somewhat suspect, they are used frequently in
comparisons of cities and in the media. Police agencies are required to report
the crimes that are reported to them by the public. Failing to do so (or do so
accurately) will often cost a Chief his or her job and will bring discredit to the
department. However not all crime is reported by citizens. Often, the reporting
rate is often dependent on how the citizens perceive the results of reporting. If a
department is respected, provides support services for victims, and actually
investigates the offense, the more likely a person is to take the time to report an
offense. Citizens tend not to report minor offenses when a department is not
perceived to be responsive or caring.
Paris currently has 63 sworn police officers. This is ten more officers than
in any of the comparison cities reviewed. Ten of these officers however are fully
funded by outside agencies (school districts) or state grants. These additional
officers provide a great benefit to the City at little or no cost. Chief Louis has
been instrumental in locating and applying for these grants and should be
congratulated for his success. Of the comparison cities (of similar size),
Greenville has two School Resource Officers funded at 50 percent. Neither
Denison, Greenville, nor Marshall have any grant funded positions.
The overall performance of the department both from statistical sources
and observation appears excellent. Observation of a number of officer - citizen
interactions show both respect of the citizens and a very high level of service
expectation. Response time to Priority 1 calls, those with injury to a citizen or
potential injury to a citizen such as a robbery in progress, is six minutes. Most
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agencies strive for a response time to Priority 1 calls in under 5 minutes but a
myriad of factors influence those times. The current Computer Aided Dispatch
(CAD) system does not differentiate seconds but apparently rounds to the closest
minute.
Throughout this study, both in patrol operations and investigations, the
lack of accurate data from the current Computer Aided Dispatch and Records
Management system hindered detailed analysis and prevented clear and
definitive conclusions. The department has recognized this problem for several
years and has been working diligently to find a replacement system that will do
everything they need. This system has been found and the Council has wisely
funded its purchase. When the new system is installed and operational, not only
will the day to day operations improve because of a more responsive system, but
the ability of management to conduct clear and convincing analysis will be
improved. This will lead to more accurate data and more informed decisions for
both departmental operations and staffing.
The staffing analysis conducted for patrol operations utilized a simple time
required model to determine how much time is required to respond and handle
citizen generated calls for service. To that is added the time required for
proactive activities such as preventive patrol, traffic enforcement, arrests, case
processing, and the administrative time needed to manage daily requirements
such as jail checks, vehicle maintenance, meal breaks, and court appearances.
While much of this data is normally derived from the CAD, conservative
estimates were made in a number of areas where the data was unavailable. The
total time needed for all of patrol operations is then divided by the number of
hours each officer usually works a year to get the number of officers needed.
Analysis of the investigative function was done by both comparing Paris
deployment and usage of investigators to those of other agencies and comparing
their workload to that of national benchmarks. While all well known authorities
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now believe every agency should create their own workload benchmarks, the
data necessary to do so is currently not available in the current Records
Management system. Other areas of the department was reviewed based on
experience in reviewing and assessing police agencies nationwide for
compliance with law enforcement's best practices. While the findings are
summarized here, they are discussed in detail in the body of this report.
The results of the patrol analysis indicated the department is slightly
understaffed in patrol given the total citizen generated calls for service and the
desire to have 45 percent of an officer's time available for proactive operations.
Currently, the model shows day shift patrol with only 18 percent proactive time
and night shift with 41 percent. The model used indicated nine officers needed
on both day shifts and eight officers needed on both night shifts. Currently there
are seven police officers, one Corporal, and one Sergeant. The two supervisors
can only account for .5 of an officer for staffing purposes due to their time being
spent in necessary administrative functions. Minimum staffing should remain at
six in order to properly respond to citizen's calls for service and provide
appropriate back-up for field officers. No increase in staffing is recommended at
this time however because of the estimation for some data in the model.
Although conservative estimates were used which are in line with other agencies,
accurate agency specific data should be used before committing to permanently
increasing staffing.
School Resource Officers are included in the Patrol Division. All six of
these officers are paid for by the school districts. They are clearly beneficial to
both the department and the schools. No change in staff is recommended.
Should funding cease for any of these position, an evaluation of the position
should be conducted before commitment to fund the positions with city funds.
The Criminal Investigation Division is comprised of both reactive and
proactive investigations. Reactive investigators handle cases that have occurred
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and concentrate on trying to identify and arrest the person who did that one
crime. Proactive investigations concentrate on offenders. While they may be
assigned some cases for follow-up, their primary activity is identifying offenders,
and conducting operations to prevent offenses and arrest suspects. There are
currently six reactive investigators in CID who conduct follow-up on offenses.
Their workload appears to be slightly lower than most other agencies but this is
due to the Class B investigations being assigned to Patrol. In most cities, Class B
cases are assigned to reactive investigators in CID and receive very little
attention if any at all. The number of reactive investigators is consistent with
other cities given the city's crime rate. No change in staffing is currentfy
recommended unless a vacancy should occur. Should a vacancy occur, the
position should remain unfilled until the Division Commander has the opportunity
to develop agency specific workloads for all CID positions and evaluate the use
of a non-sworn investigator.
Proactive investigators include three sworn positions in Narcotics, two in
Felony Crimes Task Force, and two in an Auto Theft Task Force. All of these
positions handle some follow-up investigations but their proactive operations are
without question beneficial to the City. Three is the absolute minimum needed if
you are going to operate a proactive narcotics program. Narcotics investigations
are extremely dangerous and two officers should always be used in field
investigations. Three is the minimum number to ensure at least two are available
every day for field work. The two Auto Theft personnel are paid for entirely by
the State's Auto Theft Prevention Authority. While there is no question of their
benefit, should the funding for these positions cease, one investigator should be
sufficient to conduct follow-up on Paris offenses. The Felony Crimes Task Force
is similar in nature and likely even more beneficial due to the ability to assign
serial investigations to this unit. Both of these positions are grant funded. Again,
however, should grant funding cease, a serious evaluation should be conducted
to see if the positions should be continued or major investigations funded in an
overtime capacity.
Page 9
The Services Division has one sworn Lieutenant as Division Commander
and one Sergeant who supervises the daily operations of the Animal Control
function as well as manages the Property and Evidence function and provides
polygraph services for Criminal Investigations. One Police Officer serves as
Warrant Officer and serves municipal warrants as well as County and District
Court warrants. These positions are appropriate and no staffing changes are
recommended here.
In summary, the analysis has shown that the department is at present
staffed efficiently and may need additional staffing in the future if response time
and crime control is a priority for the city. The patrol function appears slightly
understaffed if the agency is seeking a community policing model and wanting
patrol officers to conduct credible follow-up investigations on minor (Class B)
crimes. Reactive investigators in CID appear to be appropriately staffed given
the current method of assigning cases for follow-up investigation. The new case
management system included as part of the newly purchased Records
Management system will make management of this function more efficient and
may lead to staffing efficiencies not currently identified. The Task Force Officers,
which are provided at little or no cost to the city, have assisted in handling cases
that would normally be assigned to reactive investigator and have allowed these
investigators more time on each of their assigned cases.
While the patrol staffing model shows a need for additional patrol officers,
no specific recommendations for staffing changes are made at this time because
of the lack of agency specific data in the staffing models and workload decisions.
Prior to beginning this project, it was believed that more definitive results would
be possible. Without accurate data however, definitive results cannot be
provided. This data will not be available until after the new CAD and RMS
software has been installed and operating for a period of time. It is easy to
underestimate the tremendous positive effect the new CAD and RMS soffinrare
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will have on the agency. The department is clearly looking forward to its
implementation. A working copy of the patrol staffing model is provided to the
department for future use as well as information on determining investigative
workloads. Law Enforcement Management Services will continue to provide
support in the use of these models as requested by the department.
Staffing decisions however, are still a matter of public concern and the
final decision is in the hands of the elected leadership of a city. In order to make
those decisions, the department must provide accurate data, explain the need,
and provide the logical outcomes of the different decisions. Chapter 8 of this
report outlines some of the possible impacts of staffing decisions within a police
agency. The department is very well organized and managed, and performs it
job remarkably well. During this study, a number of ideas were discussed with
the Command Staff that will allow the department to maximize it use of the new
CAD and Records Management System. Those ideas were well received and
are being acted on during training and implementation.
Chapter 2 CURRENT ORGANIZATION AND STAFFING
The Organization of a department can affect the operational
characteristics and performance of an agency. Functions which need to operate
closely should be grouped together under the same organizational component
and be supervised by the same commander.
The Paris Police Department is organized along traditional lines for cities
of similar size. The organization appears to be well designed with an Assistant
Chief who reports to the Chief and handles many of the daily operations and
three Lieutenants supervising the three major departmental functions of Patrol,
Investigations, and Services. The Patrol Division consists of four patrol shifts,
each supervised by a Sergeant and a Corporal. Each shift has seven patrol
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officer positions although seldom does any shift have more than six due to
vacancies and various administrative leaves.
Six School Resource Officers are also assigned to the Patrol Division.
The salary and benefits of each of these officers is paid in full by the respective
School Districts.
The Investigative Division consists of six Sergeants assigned to conduct
follow-up investigations on felony crimes and other assigned cases. One Police
Officer is assigned to conduct follow-up investigations on Class A misdemeanor
offenses. Class B and C Misdemeanor offenses are handled by Patrol unless it
exceeds their technical ability or develops into a long term investigation.
One Sergeant and one Police Officer are assigned to the Regional Auto
Theft Task Force. They currently are assigned all local auto theft cases as well
as Burglary of Motor Vehicle offenses. Both of these officers are paid for by an
Auto Theft Grant.
Also assigned to the Investigative Division is a proactive Felony Crimes
Unit. This is comprised of two officers which are paid for by a Felony Crimes Unit
Grant. One other Police Officer is assigned to Investigations and works as
CrimeStopper Coordinator, Public Information Officer, Crime Prevention Officer
and Coordinator for the Police Athletic League.
The Services Division, commanded by a Lieutenant, is comprised of one
Sergeant who supervises the Animal Control function and maintains the Property
Room, a Police Officer who serves as Warrant Officer serving Municipal, County,
and District Court warrants, thirteen dispatchers, three Records Clerks, two
Animal Control Officers and a Custodian.
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Operational information is currently handled through the department's A.
L. Roark Community Management System. It is a Computer Aided Dispatch and
Records Management software system that was installed in 1999. Immediately
after installation the owner went bankrupt and subsequently has died. The
system was never properly installed and the department never received
adequate training on the system. The Department worked with other vendors
and departments who had the system to manage as best they could but it does
not have all the analysis and management features that it was originally intended
to have. This lack of management information is critical to the proper analysis of
data and has hampered the department's efforts for several years. A new
Dispatch and Records Management systems by Computer Information Services
of Skokie, Illinois, has been purchased and now pending installation. This is a
well respected leader in the industry and the new system will allow the
department to develop state of the art management and operational information.
With both the current and proposed system, a unique service number is
created every time officers are dispatched on a call. When officers clear the call,
they indicate to the dispatcher if they will be writing an offense or incident report
on the call. When officers submit an offense report, it is reviewed by a
supervisor. If the supervisor discovers an error or omission, it is returned to the
officer for correction. This process assures that offenses are not lost and
ensures the integrity of the reporting system.
While Chief Louis has access to all departmental records, there are
currently no automated management reports which summarize activity such as
calls for service, response times, arrests, cases assigned, clearance rates, or
other departmental operational status reports. These critical monthly reports
must be compiled manually by Division Commanders. The new Records
Management software will also provide enhanced management reports useful to
the department.
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Chapter 3 ANALYSIS OF CURRENT POLICE PERFORMANCE
Measuring the performance of law enforcement agencies has always been
problematic. Crime prevention has always been one of the most sought after
goals of any police agency. But because we are unable to count what did not
occur, we end up measuring what we can and making inferences to actual
perFormance. Law Enforcement today performs a myriad of tasks which are
outside the traditional boundaries of law enforcement but have taken on these
duties because the police are frequently the only available governmental
representative when a citizen calls. The police today provide a variety of
services and are expected to act within legal and constitutional parameters. The
relative importance and mix of these services and how they are performed
changes with the political winds. As a city identifies new problems, the police
department must reshuffle priorities.
While police agencies perform many services, those commonly
recognized objectives are:
1. To prevent and control conduct widely recognized as threatening to
life and property.
2. To aid individuals who are in danger of physical harm, such as the
victim of a physical attack.
3. To protect the constitutional guarantees, such as the right of free
speech and assembly.
4. To facilitate the movement of people and vehicles.
5. To assist those who cannot care for themselves: the intoxicated,
the addicted, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, the old and
the young.
6. To resolve conflict, whether it be befinreen individuals, groups, or
between individuals and their government.
Page 14
7. To identify problems that have the potential for becoming more
serious problems for individual citizens, for the police, or the
government.
8. To create and maintain a feeling of security in the community.
Crime Comparisons
While not originally intended for the comparison of police department
operations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)
is frequently used to determine if an agency's operations are in line with other
similar cities. Because of variations in reporting methodology between agencies,
these statistics should only be used as a rough indicator of performance.
Uniform Crime Reports most often utilize "Index" crimes as the measure of
serious crime in a community. "Index" crimes include Murder, Rape, Robbery,
Aggravated Assault, Robbery, Burglary, Theft, and Auto Theft.
A review of UCR statistics submitted to the Texas Department of Public
Safety for 2006 shows that Paris has a higher overall crime rate than the
comparison cities. (2006 is the most recent published comparison of crime in
Texas. Paris returned to using standard UCR reporting in 2006. The
department had been using the National Incident Based Reporting System, a
newer reporting method, but use of NIBRs involved different definitions of some
sex crimes which tended to overstate the crime problem in the city.)
2006 Reported Crime by Jurisdiction
2006 Pop
City Name
24,318
Denison city
24,686
Marshall city
26,364
Greenville city
27,291
Paris city
641,752
Fort Worth
1,248,223
Dallas
Total
Violent
Property
Crime per
Crime per
Crime per
Total
1,000
Violent
1,000
Prop.
1,000
Crime
Residents
Crime
Residents
Crime
Residents
1221
50.21
93
3.82
1128
46.39
1233
49.95
141
5.71
1092
44.24
1655
62.77
230
8.72
1425
54.05
2001
73.32
220
8.06
1781
65.26
40755
63.51
4224
6.58
36531
56.92
100650
80.63
15058
12.06
85592
68.57
Page 15
Total Reported Index Crime per 1,000 Residents (2006)
Denison Marshall Greenvflle Paris Ft. Worth Dallas '
,400
1200
.10.00
8.00
6 00
4.00
2.00
0.00
Dentson Marshall Greenville Paris R. Worth Dallas
While the overall index crime rate per 1,000 population is higher in Paris
than the other similar size cities studied (73.32 per 1,000), Paris's violent crime
rate is less than Greenville with only 8.06 violent crimes per 1,000 residents.
Because these offenses occur so infrequently (only 220 in 2006), they are
difficult for officers to intercept and influence. Property crimes are more
susceptible to police prevention and intervention efforts if officers have the time
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Reported Violent Crime per 1,000 Residents (2006)
to conduct proactive efforts. As indicated earlier not all crimes reported and the
reporting rate is often influenced by the citizen's perception of the results of
reporting. If officers are available, if they are respected, if the department
provides support for victims and actually investigates the offense, the more likely
a person is to take time to report an offense. Citizens tend not to report minor
offenses when a department is not perceived to be responsive or caring.
Reported Property Crime per 1,000 Residents (2006)
ao 00
70.00
60,00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
Denlson Marshall Greenvlfle Paris Ft. Worth Dallas
Property crimes are always the highest category with theft and Burglary of
Motor Vehicle being the highest in every city. These crimes are frequently linked
with high drug activity as they are a ready source of both cash and trade goods
for drugs. The rural Northeast Texas area is a hotbed of inethamphetamine
production and is target by both Federal agencies as well as the efforts of the
Paris Police Department.
Page 17
Clearance Rates and Arrests
2006 Index Crime Clearances by Jurisdiction
Total
2006 Pop
City Name
Crime
Clearances
Clear %
24,318
Denison city
1221
67
5.5
24,686
Marshall city
1233
301
24.4
26,364
Greenville city
1655
261
15.8
27,291
Paris city
2001
419
20.9
641,752
Fort Worth
40755
5161
12.7
1,248,223
Dallas
100650
15712
15.6
The departmental clearance rate (cases solved) is second highest of the
comparison cities and matches the state average for cities of 25,000 to 50,000
population (21 % clearance).
2006 Reported Index Arrests
Index
Index
Arrests
Arrests
Total
Index
per
per
2006 Pop
City Name
Crime
Arrests
Offense
Officer
24,318
Denison city
1221
55
0.045
1.2
24,686
Marshall city
1233
252
0.204
4.8
26,364
Greenville city
1655
179
0.108
3.7
27,291
Paris city
2001
335
0.167
5.4
641,752
Fort Worth
40755
5053
0.124
3.7
1,248,223
Dallas
100650
8368
0.083
2.7
Arrests for index crimes can also be used to some extent as a
comparative measure of police performance. Arrests for Index crimes per officer
and Index crime arrests per Index crime is higher than in most of the comparison
cities reviewed. These arrests were not the only arrests made but only the
arrests for Index Crimes. During the study period (October 1, 2006 to September
30, 2007), Paris officers made a total of 2,882 arrests or almost eight custodial
arrests a day. This indicates that officers and detectives are strongly engaged in
crime control activities.
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Response Time
National studies have indicated that a quick response time to calls for
service has little bearing on whether an arrest is made immediately. Analysis of
these finding revealed that often times victims called other family members or
friends before calling police. There are significant other reasons however to
respond quickly to citizen's calls. Police can often render immediate aid to a
victim pending arrival of inedical personnel, they can prevent witnesses from
leaving the scene, they can protect physical evidence from destruction, and they
can prevent further injury. Most important however, they can meet citizen's
expectations. All citizens have the expectation that when they are in trouble,
when they are scared or have been assaulted or had their home invaded, that
the police care - and will come quickly to their aid. That expectation of a fast
response is there regardless of the type of call. Dispatchers can often modify a
citizen's expectation by telling them how long it will be, but if not addressed, the
citizen will start looking out the window when they hang up the phone.
Response Times to Priority One Calls by City
,
6
5
4
3
2
t
0
Paris Denlson Greenville Marshall
Page 19
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
which is the number of Moving Traffic Violations divided by the number of injury
accidents. For Paris that index is 28.4, (7,520/265). Research conducted at the
Northwest Traffic Institute shows that accident reduction is most effected with
Traffic Enforcement Indexes between 30 and 40. Paris is very close to the
numbers needed to effectively reduce traffic accidents. Given the staffing over
the study period, the current citation rate is approximately 1.9 per officer per shift.
In conversations with field officers and through personal observations when
riding patrol, officers could issue more citations if they had more proactive patrol
time.
Texas law prohibits police departments and chiefs from setting quotas for
traffic citations issued. While the department cannot set a quota, they can make
increased traffic enforcement a high priority for officers. If time permits, most
officers will do what is necessary to increase their traffic enforcement efforts
when clearly directed at reducing injuries to citizens.
Chapter 4 ANALYSIS OF PATROL OPERATIONS AND STAFFING
The department patrol function operates 24 hours a day on four
alternating twelve hour shifts. Two shifts are assigned to days from 6 AM to 6
PM and two shifts are assigned to nights from 6 PM to 6 AM. Several officers on
each shift are assigned to come in thirty minutes early (and leave thirty minutes
early) in order to provide overlapping coverage and provide field service during
the shift change. The finro shifts assigned to days and nights have alternating
days off allowing all officers to have a three day weekend every other week. This
schedule is very popular in policing today and is sought after by younger officers
who would have to wait many years to gain seniority enough for a weekend day
off under traditional eight hour shifting patterns. While twelve hour shifts do
require an additional shift supervisor, these twelve hour shifting patterns have
become a major incentive in recruiting and retaining personnel. Police agencies
throughout Texas have transitioned to the twelve hour shift programs to keep
Page 21
their experienced offices. Given the current call distribution by hour of day, the
current twelve hour shift is as effective in deploying available resources as an
eight hour shift pattern and twelve hour shifts typically reduce overtime
expenditures. Because of the current salary schedule and open opportunities for
employment within the state, no change from this shifting pattern is
recommended at this time.
The department currently operates in a service law enforcement policing
model. This model is characterized by providing whatever services are needed
by the city including answering calls for service, maintaining order, and enforcing
the law. What sets the department apart from many is its service attitude and
philosophy which stems from the department leadership. Officers, whether in
patrol or investigations, provide an extra level of care and follow-up that is not
often found in larger departments. Officers and supervisors work on community
problems and often check back with victims to ensure they have been cared for.
Much of an officers field activity is non-crime related but has become expected
by the residents of the city.
Patrol Workload
While citizen generated calls for service is generally manageable, the
Police Department prioritizes calls in order to make sure the most serious calls
are handled first. Most cities attempt to respond to the highest priority calls in
less than six minutes. For the study period of October 1, 2006, to September 30,
2007, the average response times are as follows:
Priority 1 6 Minutes
Priority 2 11 Minutes
Priority 3 12 Minutes
Priority 4 17 Minutes
Page 22
There is some question regarding the accuracy of these numbers due to
the current Computer Aided Dispatch system not being properly designed to
capture the data correctly, however, interviews with both officers and supervisors
agree that the Priority 1 response times appear to be close to their experience in
the field.
In order to determine the appropriate level of staffing for Patrol, a simple
and straightforward staffing model was used. More sophisticated staffing models
available tend to overstate needed resources when used in smaller departments
under 70-80 officers.
In using this model an analysis of the community generated workload was
conducted. This data was pulled from the current records system and cross-
checked against the incoming 911 calls. Community generated workload is the
dispatched 911 calls for service and arrests that result from those calls. Officer
initiated arrests are not included in this total but is accounted for in the proactive
patrol time. During the study period (a twelve month period from October 1, 2006
to September 30, 2007) the department responded to 25,156 citizen generated
calls for service.
Average Citizen Generated Calls for Service by Hour of Day
5.0
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
O.O
^s6 ~6 9,~6 os6 sF ^ QF` QF ryQF ~6 bQ6 ~F` 0QF
~Q`~ aQF ~F oQF ~F' ry°F ^sF eF 'A°F o-sF e'°F e°F
Page 23
It should be remembered that at least two officers are dispatched to over
half of these calls for service.
Citizen Generated Calls for Service by Day of Week - Day Shift
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
O
Citizen Generated Calls for Service by Day of Week - Night Shift
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
O
Monday Tuesdey Wednesdey Thursdey Fridey Saturdey Sunday
These calls arrive at random intervals but are summarized by showing the
average number of calls by hour of day and day of week. This distribution is not
Page 24
Monday Tuesday Wednasday Thursdey Fridey Seturdey Sundey
unlike other cities and shift change times are consistent with other cities as well.
Each shift has a low call period (early morning for day shift and late night - or
very early morning for the night shift). This low call period is common to all cities
and often needed to allow officers to perform necessary administrative tasks,
such as vehicle maintenance, jail and equipment cleaning, report writing, and to
conduct proactive patrol efforts such as neighborhood and building checks,
warrant service, and follow-up investigations. Differences in call load by day of
week are not significant enough on either shift to warrant alternative shift staffing
arrangements at this time.
There is, however, more to law enforcement than simply answering calls.
Citizens expect officers to patrol the city to prevent crime and maintain order, to
enforce the law when appropriate, to maintain traffic flow, and provide
emergency services. Officer initiated calls - calls and incidents which were
initiated by an officer's observation of a problem are part of the time committed to
preventive or proactive patrol operations. During the study period there were
19,083 officer generated calls, arrests, or traffic stops.
Officer Generated Calls for Service by Hour of Day
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
e0eF' ogc~ ^ c~ ^ Q.c ^QCC ryQP ~QF` bQF` ryQF ~QF`
^09~ n^^9~ ^ Q~ Q~, ryQ~, AQ~, p~, y~.
00e er,
^QC 9QC ~QF OQF' Qt~' ^ gF` ^gF ry9F ~gF` p~F ~F ~F`
6Q~ , ~QF n^ Qe /1 ~0~ ry~~• •
Page 25
Again, the pattern is not unlike those found in other cities previously
studied. Police departments who have less than 40 percent preventive patrol
time find it difficult to accomplish many of the proactive law enforcement
activities. Because of the random nature of calls for service, officers cannot
control their time and with less than 40 percent proactive time, the time they do
have available is broken up into such small increments that nothing can be
effectively accomplished. For example, if an officer is trying to work on a
neighborhood drug problem, he may be dispatched on a call, clear the call and
try to make it back to the drug area, only to be dispatched again on another call.
Departments with 50 percent proactive time are able to accomplish many of their
community policing efforts. For purposes of predicting how many officers are
needed on each shift, a 45 percent proactive time was used in the patrol staffing
model.
Total Field Activity by Hour of Day
ao
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
I.0
0.0
^9`c e~c e9c o~a~ ^~6 ^ Q~` ^QP ryQR ~QC~ >Q~' ~QC~ eQ~`
6gF, '1~~, 0P4,, 9'D'- p'~' "QI, 'QI, "I, bQ', yQ~,
eIf b°l* h°e eF
Q~c Q~c Q~c a0P y06
6 '1 9 p~Q~ pQ(~ ^ Ql~ n O ~2 ry0 'y0
Page 26
Total Activity by Shift
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
Day Shift
Night Shift
The workload between shifts is also very similar and indicates both shifts
should be evenly staffed at present given current resources. This may not
always be the case. As calls for service increases, this analysis should be done
routinely, at least annually, to ensure proper distribution of resources and
equality of workload.
Also involved in the patrol staffing formula is the administrative time that is
necessary to keep the police department running. Paris police officers must do a
number of chores daily that would likely be handled by other staff in larger cities.
These administrative chores include installing equipment in vehicles, cleaning the
jail, feeding prisoners, checking in property, transporting vehicles for
maintenance, conducting mail runs, etc. These activities are critical to the proper
functioning of a police department and must be performed. This is not unusual to
Paris; all small departments have officers wearing multiple hats. That time
however, does need to be accounted for in providing for proper staffing. In some
cases, if the job requires a significant amount of time, it may be less expensive
for the city to hire a non-sworn employee to perform those functions rather than
paying police officer wages for clerical or mechanical activity. This administrative
Page 27
time also includes time for meals, breaks, jail checks, vehicle maintenance, and
even on-duty court appearances. Since this data has not been collected
accurately by the current reporting system, it was determined by estimating the
administrative time per officer per shift. The estimate of two hours per day per
officer is consistent with the amount of administrative time used by other
agencies using the twelve hour shifts.
The staffing model used in this study is basic and reviews the number of
calls for service, how long those calls take, the arrests, the administrative time
needed and the proactive time desired by the city. One item of note is that the
model is only as accurate as the data used. Because of the suspect nature and
inability to obtain exact information from the current CAD system, estimates were
used to compute the results. The estimates used were Average Time on Call,
Jail Booking Time, and Report Writing Time. Accurate data for these inputs can
be obtained from any current generation CAD System once sufficient data has
been entered. The estimates used are very consistent with other agencies
studied and are made on the conservative side for purposes of this analysis.
This model can continue to be used indefinitely as long as the department
remains on twelve hour shifts. With accurate data from the new CAD system,
this model can provide a more accurate prediction of the officers needed. While
this model will continue to work well in smaller cities, when a city grows past the
30,000 population or 75 plus officer size, a more sophisticated model can yield
more accurate and beneficial results. The definitions and computations used in
the model are found in Appendix A. The results are summarized below.
Recommended Shift Staffing Level
Day Shift Patrol (both) 9 officers
Night Shift Patrol (both) 8 officers
Page 28
Current Patroi Staffing
As indicated earlier, the Patrol Division is staffed with seven police
officers, one Corporal and one Sergeant on each of the four shifts. It is
conventional thought in law enforcement operations that when a supervisor has
more than five officers assigned, they are unable to continue to work in the field
as a responding officer and supervise other officers as well. This stems from the
volume of administrative work that is created on a patrol shift. There is training to
plan and supervise, complaints that must be investigated, inspections that must
be completed, and staffing plans for the following week to establish, not to
mention having to respond to major field incidents to provide critical on-scene
supervision. As a result, the Sergeants assigned to each shift cannot be counted
in the required staffing. Corporals must fill in for Sergeants when they are on
leave and are often assigned many additional administrative duties. A Corporal
therefore, is usually counted as half of an officer for purposes of field patrol
response and operations. In Paris, because of the high level of officer self-
initiated activity, both the Corporal and Sergeant must often work the field while
other officers are booking in prisoners or handling extended follow-up
investigations.
Paris also assigns patrol officers follow-up investigations for lower level
offenses such as Class B misdemeanors. In many agencies these are assigned
to the Criminal Investigations Division where, due to workload and assignment of
more important crimes, they often are ignored. Patrol officers are required to
conduct follow-up investigations to the extent that they have the time and
expertise. This includes attempting to identify the suspect, get them positively
identified, collect and analyze and physical evidence or submit it for appropriate
testing, and prepare a case for filing as well as obtaining a warrant. These
activities are conducted in between calls for service and other self initiated
activities. Personal observation of patrol activities indicates this is a significant
function of patrol and is not taken lightly.
Page 29
Current Section Configuration
To distribute officers throughout the city, departments frequently assign
officers to specific patrol areas or "beats." Paris calls these areas "Sections."
The current Sections were drawn based on the department's experience and
history of calls for service and crime. Normally, agencies attempt to equalize
the workload in these areas so that no officer is overloaded with citizen
generated activity and unable to conduct any self-initiated efforts. Because the
department's current CAD system does not capture information geographically, it
is impossible to compare actual workload befinreen Sections. Patrol officers
believe that they are roughly equal in activity. They are currently configured
logically and are designed in accordance with generally accepted principles of
beat design and accepted practices. (Major thoroughfares are recommended as
boundaries because they are easy to remember, officers tend to patrol the
boundaries of their areas more frequently, and more calls for service are
generated on major thoroughfares than in residential areas.) With few exceptions
the boundaries are main thoroughfares, and are roughly equal in size which acts
to theoretically equalize response time. There are currently six Sections which is
an appropriate number given the present number of officers on each shift and
minimum staffing.
After a full year of data has been input into the new CAD system, the
current boundaries can be examined for equality of workload within each Section
and adjustments made if necessary. Judgment based on the knowledge of the
relative danger as well as future growth must also be considered in drawing new
Section boundaries. Officer input is often used in this process to identify problem
areas as well as natural or man-made obstacles to travel.
Page 30
Mutual Aid and Minimum Staffing
Mutual Aid is critically necessary in smaller cities both in police and fire
services. Even the largest cities rely on mutual aid in their outlying areas in order
to get assistance to a location quickly.
Paris is in a difficult position in this regard. Paris, unlike some of the
comparison cities, is the major population center for not only Lamar County but
surrounding counties as well. The City of Paris does have a mutual aid
agreement with Lamar County and the Sheriff's Department may be able to
provide some assistance in the event of an emergency, but due to their
responsibility to patrol the County, they may not be close at hand. Surrounding
police agencies are small and could not reasonably assist with more than a
single officer - even if they had one working. For immediate emergencies such
as high priority calls - where citizens have been injured or are in immediate
danger - or to backup local officers when confronting dangerous situations -
Paris must be able to stand on its own for at least a short period of time.
Understanding this and based on both the violent crime, distance and availability
of mutual aid assistance, and the need for immediate back up and protection,
there should be a minimum staffing level established on each shift.
Currently the department has a minimum staffing of six on days and
nights. Even with the current staffing of seven officers on each shift plus a
Supervisor, there are a number of times when field staffing drops to five including
the supervisor due to vacancies, approved leaves and unexpected absences due
to illnesses or family emergencies. This is not usually a problem on day shift, as
there are a number of Command Staff personnel, investigators and other officers
available in an emergency. On night shift however, fewer than six can create a
significant problem. One major accident on a highway, which can take hours to
clear and one additional two officer call can deplete the entire patrol staff for the
city. While this does not happen often, the danger faced by officers and citizens
Page 31
when insufficient staffing is available is significant and should be avoided if at all
possible. Minimum staffing should be maintained at six (including the supervisor)
for the present.
School Resource Officers
Also assigned to the Patrol Division are six School Resource Officers.
These officers provide protection and first response to any form of violence in the
schools. The salary and benefits for all six of these officers is paid in full by the
respective school districts and the department provides equipment, training, and
supervision. Due to the increasing violence in the schools nationwide, most
jurisdictions provide School Resource Officers in High Schools and in some
Junior Highs depending on the level of need. School districts often engage in
some form of cost sharing as is done here. Paris is extremely lucky to have the
multiple school districts participating at such a high level. This indicates a level
of trust and cooperation not usually found in many jurisdictions.
Chapter 5 ANALYSIS OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OPERATIONS AND
STAFFING
The staffing of an investigations unit is much more difficult to justify
empirically and is largely a matter of choice. Each investigation is different and
there has been little critical analysis and research done nationally on staffing the
criminal investigations function. While you can count calls for service and time
on call for patrol calls, it is much more difficult for detectives. Even when no field
"detective" work is done, cases where patrol officers have made "In the Act"
arrests must be prepared for filing. These are time consuming operations and
must be absolutely correct for prosecution. While every crime is important to the
citizen who reports it, conducting a detailed investigation on every case cannot
be accomplished with the resources given most police agencies. Most police
Page 32
agencies are provided resources to at least assign and do a minimal level of
investigation on all serious violent crimes (Murder, Rape, Robbery, and
Aggravated Assault), and property crimes (Burglary, Felony Theft, and Auto
Theft) as well as all missing persons, but there are many other crimes that are
committed that are very important to citizens and deserve as much investigation
as possible. Paris' Criminal Investigations Division is comprised of both
reactive and proactive investigative functions.
Reactive Investigations
Reactive investigations are those where a crime has been committed and
the case is assigned to an investigator for follow-up. In several well known
references, it is said that the reactive criminal investigations function (detectives
assigned to conduct follow-up work on criminal cases) should be befinreen 10 and
15 percent of the total number of sworn officers. Paris currently has six full-time
reactive investigators or 9.5 percent of the total.
Other well respected references believe these measures to be without
merit, saying instead that each agency must determine its own appropriate
staffing level. This is because different agencies use different criteria to screen,
assign, and monitor cases. Different agencies investigate different offenses to
different degrees. Some agencies assign follow-up investigations to patrol - as
does Paris - and others do not. Work practices, techniques, equipment and
clerical assistance impact the number of detectives needed. Community
expectations are also a factor.
Case Screening and Workload
The Criminal Investigations Division Commander currently reviews all new
cases and assigns them daily to investigators. All cases are usually assigned
Page 33
and no formal case screening process, such as the use of solvability factors to
determine whether a case should be assigned or not has been used. The new
Records Management System will have a robust Case Management system
which will allow the use of solvability factors, case tracking and investigator
status reporting.
When the investigators receive the cases, they review the case and make
a decision on how much work can be done on that case based on workable
leads, the seriousness of the crime and their own experience. Many cases
simply have no workable leads. In these cases, the investigator makes an
attempt to contact the complainant and get additional information which might
identify new avenues of investigation. If no additional information is obtained and
no workable leads are found, the case is suspended. It can be reopened later if
new leads develop. In more serious cases, such as murder, rape or aggravated
robbery, the investigators will continue to work on the case or hand it over to the
Felony Crimes Unit for continuing investigation. Unfortunately, the cases never
stop coming in and new cases usually have a higher probability of solution.
Investigating offenses that have no workable leads and little chance of
solution is beyond the means of most police agencies in this country. Training
programs such as Managing the Criminal Investigation Function and others
clearly recognizes this dilemma. Citizens expect the police to be concerned
about their crime and try to find the suspect and hold him accountable. To do so
in every case would require resources beyond the reach of any city. It is from
this understanding that formal case screening processes have developed. These
processes are built into most crime reporting software available today. While the
current reporting software has the feature, it was never set up by the vendor to
work as planned. As indicated earlier, the new software has a robust case
management package which will allow not only a formal case screening process
- customized to the department's need - but will also develop summary reports
Page 34
on investigator assignments, activity, and success. These are now computed
manually by the Division Commander.
For investigations to be effective, investigators must have the time to do
their job well. For Investigations to be efficient, investigators must not have more
time than needed to do their job well. The lack of accurate summary data over
time prevents an accurate comparison to existing national benchmarks for
investigator workload. After the new Report Management System is in place, the
Criminal Investigation Division Commander should be able to compare workload
changes with changes in unit effectiveness measures (such as case clearances,
case closures, unknown suspects identified and arrested, etc.). After charting
several months of these comparisons the Commander should be able to
determine the most appropriate workload formula for efficient perFormance.
The current reactive unit workload is provided below. Because the
number and type of cases assigned to each investigator varies, application of
nationally developed benchmarks is difficult. National benchmarks have been
developed for the number new cases assigned per month. These are provided in
Appendix B but cannot be applied to Paris at present because there is no
stringent case assignment screening process currently in pface (where only
workable cases meeting assignment criteria are given to investigators). While
these benchmarks can eventually be used to assist in development of reactive
investigative caseloads for Paris, they assume a properly operating case
screening system.
Cases per
Type Case Month
Felony Theft, Fraud and Felony Assaults
35.7
Burglary of Habitation
12.8
Crimes Against Children / Sexual
Offenses
14.8
Forgery, Fraud, Identity Theft
26.3
Burglary Business / Felony Theft
10.3
Class A Misdemeanors, State Jail Felony
30.8
Page 35
The figure below represerits the total number of investigators assigned to
the Criminal Investigations function in the comparison cities. This includes both
reactive and proactive investigators. Only Paris and Marshall have proactive
investigators working in special assignments and regional Task Forces. Paris
has seven investigators and Marshall has six investigators assigned to proactive
operations. In Paris, four of these are fully paid by grants and three are narcotics
investigators. All proactive investigators in Marshall are paid for by the city.
Total Investigators Assigned to Criminal Investigations
,4
12
10
8
e
4
2
0
Paris Denison Greenvllle Marshall
Cases Assigned
There were a total of 1,923 cases assigned for follow-up to investigators
assigned to CID during the study period. This equates to 320 per reactive
investigator which is slightly lower than the averages in most agencies. This is
clearly a result of the Class B cases being assigned to Patrol rather than to CID.
If the Class B cases were included in the CID case totals, the average caseload
would be significantly higher than in most cities. The practice of assigning Class
B cases to Patrol has the effect of reducing CID caseload and maximizing the
Page 36
possibility of follow-up on these cases. In addition, some of the more serious
cases were assigned to proactive investigators which makes the average
caseload for reactive investigators even lower. This lower caseload does not
indicate inefficiency however. This lower caseload allows the investigators to
spend more time on investigations, increasing the likelihood of solution and
eventual prosecution. The clearance rate - which is the only outcome measure
we have at present - indicates the unit is working well and maintaining the
average clearance rate for similar size cities. As stated earlier, the department
needs to develop specific outcome measures and conduct agency specific
workload analysis after the new Records Management software program is
operational
Proactive Investigations
Paris has seven proactive investigators who are assigned follow-up cases
from time to time depending on the type of case, workload of the reactive
investigators and the relationship of the cases to the current proactive efforts.
These proactive investigators include:
Narcotics Investigations
Felony Crimes Task Force
Auto Theft Task Force
1 Sergeant
2 Police Officers
2 Police Officers (Fully Grant Funded)
1 Sergeant (Fully Grant Funded)
1 Police Officer (Fully Grant Funded)
The narcotics investigation function is critical to the department's success
in crime reduction. The rural northeast Texas area has an extremely high level of
illegal drug manufacturing and usage, especially methamphetamine. A
significant portion of the property crime occurring in the city is related to the drug
trade. Property crimes are sources for quick cash which will provide the next
Page 37
purchase. Patrol officers may happen across and arrest users every so often but
they rarely have time to work informants or develop cases on upper level dealers
and manufacturers. Three officers assigned to narcotics enforcement is a
minimum in an area where there are no other task force enforcement efforts
occurring.
The Felony Crimes Officers work major cases in cooperation with a multi-
jurisdictional Task Force. Many of these major cases may also be drug related
but they also have the ability to be assigned major cases by the department.
These officers represent the only resources available to the department to assign
to major ongoing serial offenses unless patrol officers are used on overtime.
The Auto Theft officers are assigned to a regional Auto Theft Task Force
and are assigned follow-up on all auto thefts occurring in the city. These officers
are fully funded by a grant from the Auto Theft Prevention Authority.
It is impressive that Chief Louis has been so successful in obtaining grant
funded positions. None of the other comparison cities have any grant funded
positions or fully paid School Resource Officers. The proactive investigative
operations are an extremely beneficial arrangement for the department because
it allows for more flexibility in case assignment when workload increases. It is
especially beneficial because four of these positions are funded by grants and
cost the department very little for the resulting return.
Crime Prevention OfFicer
One additional Officer is assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division
and is responsible for crime prevention efforts as well as Crimestoppers
coordination and supervision of the Police Athletic League. This officer also
serves as the department Public Information Officer. All of these functions are
Page 38
extremely beneficial to the department and additional crime prevention efforts are
planned in the future.
Chapter 6 ANALYSIS OF SERVICES DIVISION
The Services function of the department is Commanded by a Lieutenant
which reports directly to the Assistant Chief. This Lieutenant commands the
Emergency Communications operation, Records, Warrant Service, Property and
Evidence as well as the Animal Control function.
Communications
The Emergency Communications or Dispatch operation is staffed with 13
non-sworn dispatchers. This is a sufficient number to operate a 24 hour, seven
day a week facility. The busiest periods are staffed with three to four dispatchers
but there are times when only two dispatchers are on-duty. This is not unusual
for smaller cities and the field supervisor on-duty during these periods is aware
they may need to assist if unusual incidents occur.
The communications function is responsible for answering all 911
emergency calls originating in Lamar County and dispatching police, fire,
emergency medical and Animal Control units. The operation is managed by the
Police Department but is also responsible for the dispatching of Fire Departments
and Emergency Medical Services throughout the County. The communications
officers are also responsible for ensuring the safety of officers and fire fighters by
maintaining open communications with them in the field. Other duties include
answering the non-emergency telephone number for the police department and
forwarding the caller to the appropriate person as well as serving as the
answering point for all city services after normal work hours. They also monitor
prisoners in the jail and respond to individuals who come to the station for
assistance. It is a very busy and responsible position.
Page 39
The Police Department uses a prioritization system for calls for service to
allow officers to respond to the most important or most critical calls first. It is not
infrequent that multiple calls are received at the same time. Although completefy
random in nature, criminal events or even weather related events can cause a
significant spike in calls for service. A city cannot afford to staff to cover these
occurrences, instead calls are prioritized and handled as time permits. If multiple
high priority calls come in at the same time and the department is unable to
answer all of them immediately, mutual aid may be requested for assistance from
surrounding cities or Lamar County Sheriff. The Paris call prioritization system is
similar to other cities of this size and is an appropriate call management device.
Records
The Records Unit is responsible for the processing and storage of all
departmental records including offense, accident and arrest reports. The security
and integrity of these records is critical to the department and may only be
released outside the department in limited circumstances. This release process
is strictly controlled by law. The Records Unit is also responsible for reporting
the crime statistics to the State.
The Records function also appears to be staffed appropriately and the utilization
of part-time records clerks shows efforts to manage the function in the most cost
effective manner.
Warrant Service
The department has one sworn officer assigned as a Warrant Officer.
This officer is responsible for the service of all warrants issued by the Paris
Municipal Court as well as other jurisdictions where the person named in the
warrant resides in Paris. Investigators in the department who file cases on
individuals will usually execute the warrant as soon as it is obtained. In some
cases, the suspect may not be located, and the investigator must move on to
other cases. While most of the warrants served by the Warrant Officer are local
Page 40
municipal warrants, some are felony and misdemeanor warrants for more serious
crimes. Research is frequently needed to locate individuals wanted on warrants.
While most warrants are for minor offenses, the Warrant Officer will call for patrol
and even SWAT assistance if necessary in executing hazardous warrants.
The staffing of a Warrant Officer position assists in keeping the number of
outstanding warrants low and the fine collection up. Once a suspect is located,
many times a simple phone call is all #hat is needed to encourage an individual to
come in a pay their fine. Patrol officers clearly do not have the time to do this
research or warrant service. Continued staffing of the Warrant Officer position is
highly recommended.
Property and Evidence
The Property and Evidence function is currently staffed with one Police
Sergeant. This Sergeant, in addition to managing the Property and evidence,
supervises the Animal Control function, and also provides polygraph services to
CID. The property room is often one of the most problematic for police agencies.
It must be maintained in a safe and secure manner with safeguards in place to
ensure the integrity of evidence. Various state laws prescribe the disposal of
property that comes into police custody and compliance is significantly
burdensome for most agencies. Regular disposal of unneeded property and
evidence is required to ensure compliance with the law.
Animal Control
The Animal Control function is currently staffed with two Animal Control
Officers and two part-time Kennel Technicians. These officers respond to all
animal related calls and must sometimes be called in off-duty to handle unusual
incidents. These members require specialized training and provide a variety of
services to the citizens. Staffing of this function is appropriate and again, the use
of part-time staff shows innovative efforts to keep costs down and staff to the
needs of the unit.
Page 41
Chapter 7 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CITIES
At first glance, the total number of sworn officers in the comparison cities
may seem to indicate that Paris may be overstaffed. This is not the case when
you consider that ten officers on the department are fully paid for by outside
entities and the city gets the benefit of these officers at little or no cost. If funding
for these positions were to stop, the department would be faced with either
cutting these services or adding staff to continue to function in these areas. The
outside funded positions are job specific and they receive funding only for the job
they are currently doing. They cannot be transferred to patrol or CID and used to
reduce city expenditures.
Total Officers by City
70
eo
50
40
30
20
10
0
Paris Denison Greenville Marshall
Marshall is the only other city with any officers assigned to task forces.
Denison and Marshall do not have School Resource officers. Greenville has two
School Resource Officers, but only receives 50 percent of their salary from the
school district. Denison, Greenville and Marshall Police Chiefs are currently
asking their Councils for at least two additional sworn officer positions. In many
Page 42
cases, it is better to review the total cost per capita of law enforcement
operations than to compare the number of officers.
$250.00
$200.00
$150.00
$100.00
$60.00
Parls Denison Greenville Marshall
$192 $136 $196 $166
This figure is an analysis of the 2006/07 actual expenditures divided by
the estimated 2006 population of the city as presented in the Department of
Public Safety's Crime in Texas 2006. These total expenditures are also open to
some interpretation as one city may be low due to vacancies during the year or
council imposed financial restrictions, where other cities may be high due to
having to use overtime to maintain minimum staffing or respond to more calls
due to citizen expectations.
Chapter 8 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Previous City Council decisions have staffed the department at the
present level and appear to have done so with both accurate and convincing
information. As we have seen in both the analysis of operations and review of
the selected cities, each city is very different, with different needs and citizen
expectations.
Page 43
Per Capita Expenses for Law Enforcement
The investment in a new Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management
system will be of great benefit to the department and city. Not only will it better
manage day to day operations and make the department more efficient, it will
also provide more accurate data in summary formats that will assist future City
Councils in making decisions on the levels of service both desired and expected
from their department. This same data will allow Council Members to make more
informed decisions regarding the level of service they can afford.
Patrol Operations
By using the staffing model based on time needed to perform the functions
currently required of patrol, and the current number of citizen generated calls, the
Patrol Division appears slightly understaffed for the recommended level of 45
percent proactive patrol time. The model predicts a need of nine officers on days
and eight on nights. In reality at present both shifts have the equivalent of 7.5
officers assigned however several of these officers are in field training and not
yet capable of working alone. Minimum staffing on both shifts should remain at
the current six officers although on night shift, after 2 A.M., the on-duty
supervisor should have the authority to drop to five officers due to the lower call
load. This current staffing level is providing a proactive patrol time of only 18
percent on days and 41 percent on nights. On day shift the proactive patrol time
percentage is much lower than needed to perform many proactive community
policing activities and officers find it difficult to maintain high levels of self initiated
activity and follow-up investigations. In order to complete many of these
activities, officers are forced to rush call handling as well as other activities and
frequent use of overtime should be expected.
No recommendation for additional staffing is made at this time, however,
due to the predictive computer model not having accurate data. As noted earlier,
the staffing model was run with several estimated times due to the current CAD
Page 44
system not being able to provide agency specific data. The estimates made
were conservative compared to the times actually encountered in other agencies
but these may be different in Paris. When the new CAD system has been
operational for six months or more, the data should be sufficient to glean more
accurate times for use in the model and an updated analysis can be done. The
model is provided on disk for future use by the department and Law Enforcement
Management Services will assist as needed or requested by the department.
With three high schools and three middle schools in the city, there is no
change recommended for the number of School Resource Officers.
Criminal Investigations
The number of reactive investigators in Criminal Investigations Division
(six), is not unreasonable. The current caseload per detective is slightly lower
than national benchmarks but this is because Class B misdemeanors are
assigned to Patrol instead of CID for follow-up. This appears to be a very
workable system and is in use in a number of smaller cities and the only national
benchmarks are for cities where cases are only assigned to CID. It is also
difficult to argue with the unit's success. Both of the cities studied which dedicate
the most resources to CID have the highest clearance rates for Index crimes.
Agency specific benchmarks should be developed internally. The lack of
automated on-going case management information which measures both
workload and success by month for each investigator makes it difficult to
establish a local benchmark for the various investigators. Because each
investigator works different types of crimes, and different crimes require different
amounts of work, each will have their own benchmark. All respected sources in
the industry today believe that each agency must develop their own investigative
workload based on the experience and expectations within that agency. This will
be greatly facilitated by the case management system in the new Records
Management system. Until those target workloads are established, no change
Page 45
should be made in the current staffing unless a position is vacated for other
reasons. In that event, the position should remain open until workload targets
are determined and an analysis of need conducted.
The Auto Theft Task Force officers are paid for by a grant from the Texas
Auto Theft Prevention Authority. All auto theft cases as well as Burglary of Motor
Vehicle cases are currently assigned to these officers for follow-up. They work
throughout the region as auto theft is seldom just a local problem. The officers
also conduct proactive investigations and surveillance activities as do similar task
forces around the state. No change in staffing is recommended unless the grant
funding fails. Should this occur, one reactive investigator should be sufficient for
follow-up of all auto thefts and Burglary of Motor Vehicle offenses in Paris.
There is currently one Sergeant and two officers assigned to narcotics
enforcement. In prior years the State funded numerous regional narcotics task
forces. Due to the elimination of funding for these task forces, narcotics
enforcement in smaller Texas cities has reverted to the local agencies. Since
most of the other agencies in Lamar and adjacent counties are too small to have
dedicated narcotics officers, the department must be able to address problems
throughout the area which will manifest themselves most prominently in the city
of Paris. Three officers is a minimum to ensure that officers have a partner
working with them every day they work the field. No change in this staffing is
recommended.
The Felony Crimes Task Force officers are also fully funded by state grant
funds and work with other agency officers as well as the department's narcotics
officers on major felony offenses. While reactive detectives are typically "case
oriented," Felony Crimes officers are often "offender oriented." Tracking and
monitoring known offenders as well as investigating cases can have a
tremendous impact on the crime rate. No change is recommended in this
staffing as long as the positions remain grant funded. Should these funds be
Page 46
lost, serious analysis should be done before absorbing these positions into the
departmental budget. These officers currently stay quite busy with proactive
activities and also act as a safety valve for periods of high caseload for the
reactive investigators. They are the only unit that can be deployed on special
enforcement or special investigative activities (such as a series of robberies or
rapes) without having to put other officers on overtime. This clearly benefits the
citizens of Paris both financially and in crime prevention and reduction. If funding
is lost however, consideration should be given to the judicious use of overtime for
these special needs. Overtime is often a better financial solution to personnel
needs because it can be used in smaller increments (2-3 hours at a time as
opposed to having to work a 12 hour or 8 hour shift) and in smaller time periods
(1-2 months instead of an entire year if an employee is hired full time).
The job responsibilities of the Crime Prevention Officer make one wonder
how he is able to accomplish all he has assigned. Crime prevention activities are
a key element in all crime reduction strategies and cannot be neglected. Crime
Prevention Officers must have specific training in order to conduct home and
business security surveys which allow discounts off of insurance premiums.
Training in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design concepts and
participation in the construction permit design process can impact crime
occurrence for years to come. No change in staffing in this position is
recommended.
Service Operations
The Services Division has only the one Sergeant, who supervises the
Animal Control unit, and manages the Property and Evidence function, and one
Police Officer assigned as Warrant Officer. The Communications, Records, and
Animal Control functions appear to be adequately staffed and no
recommendations for change are made. No change is recommended for the
Warrant Officer position.
Page 47
Chapter 9 IMPACT OF STAFFING DECISIONS
This Staffing Study has resulted in no recommendations for significant
changes in the current staffing levels of the Paris Police Department. Part of that
is due to the current CAD and Records Management system not being able to
provide specific data. But analysis has determined that the department's
operations and staffing is not out of line with other well managed police agencies.
In fact, the number of grant and fully funded positions is uncommon and has not
been seen in any other jurisdiction of this size. The current staffing levels have
apparently been arrived at through detailed study, analysis, and consideration by
prior elected officiafs.
Even with the current staffing appearing to be appropriate, the City may
stilf choose to make both funding and staffing changes. The impact of those
changes is addressed here. Typically, in most jurisdictions, when financial
difficulties beset a city and budget cuts must be made, it is left to the department
heads, who best know their operation, to decide where those cuts must be made.
Priorities, technology, along with personnel strengths and weaknesses, and
relative impact on the agency performance must all be taken into account when
making the decision of where to cut staff.
Impact of Patrol Staffing
A reduction in the current Patrol staffing can result in the following effects:
• An increasing delay in response to calls
• Fewer officer initiated arrests and citations over time
• Less follow-up activities on minor cases
• Less preventive patrol and community policing activities
• Increased overtime expenditures
Page 48
In this report, the computer model used for patrol allocation is a very
straightforward and easy to understand model. Its use here showed a need for
additional officers in patrol /F the proactive patrol target of 45 percent is used.
The department and city may choose to use a different target. As more refined
data is used in the model, it may show a clear indication that more patrol officers
are needed in order to keep up current proactive activities. If these additional
officers are not added, the department and the citizens are likely to see the
above effects continue to develop over time. In some cities that have been
unable to staff their police departments adequately, officers no longer have any
proactive time and are sent from one call to the next. Some cities have stopped
routine response to minor accidents and residential burglaries in order to manage
their calls for service. Elected members of Council must make the critical
balance between citizen and community expectations and available funding.
New data may also show less of a need than discussed in this report.
However, It should be remembered that cities with less than 40 percent proactive
patrol time are seldom able to perForm sufficient community policing activities and
eventually, police and community relationships begins to deteriorate.
Impact of Criminal Investigation StafFing
Decreases in the reactive investigative staff will result in decreased time
available for follow-up investigations. This reduction will like result in:
• Decrease in clearance
• Decrease in property recovery
• Decrease in "Customer Care" to crime victims
The initial decrease in staffing will result in the inability of investigators to
do many of the ancillary activities related to investigations such as searching for
stolen property, making follow-up calls to inform victims of case status, and
Page 49
providing support to victims. As workload continues to increase, investigators
become simple paper pushers, processing the cases on patrol arrests. Only
cursory examination is made of most felony cases and only the most serious of
crimes are investigated in depth.
Reductions in the Narcotics unit should only be considered if elimination of
the unit is considered. Narcotics investigation is dangerous enough to require at
least two officers involved in every field activity. Three officers currently assigned
is the minimum number to ensure at least two officers are available at all times
for field activity.
Reductions in the grant funded positions will see a reduction in the current
benefits of their use and will likely result in a higher crime rate as the individuals
who would have been intercepted by these officers and arrested will continue to
commit violations without being caught. Efforts of the other units of the
department will have an impact on these suspects but agencies that have
proactive deployment groups that can work on self-initiated investigations enjoy a
lower crime rate.
Elimination of the Warrant Officer position can be done by moving the
responsibility for that function to patrol. However, as indicated earlier, the patrol
officers have very little time available or expertise in conducting warrant
research. Elimination of this position in other cities has resulted in increasing
numbers of outstanding warrants which deprives the City of revenue and make
the issuance of citations somewhat meaningless.
Page 50
APPENDIX A
PARIS PATROL STAFFING MODEL
This model is a simple time needed model which uses historical data gathered from
existing departmental and city sources and computes the time necessary to accomplish
the required tasks and divides that time by the average work time available per officer.
With twelve hour shifts - alternating as they do - the model will tell you the number of
officers needed on each of the day shifts and each of the night shifts. If you enter 365 in
line 11, it will tell you how many officers you need to split between the two shifts. Data
entry items are discussed below.
Definitions
Data Entry Items
Number of Work Days in Period (line 11)
Days in period under study. Model can be used for less than one year but all
data must be gathered for just that period. Since the 12 hour shifts altemate regularly, each day
shift will have 182.5 work days in a year.
Shift Length in Hours (line 12)
Self-explanatory.
Average Citizen Generated Calls for Service on Shift per day (line 13)
This is an average of the count of Citizen Generated calls only. Officer initiated calls and arrests
are conducted during the Proactive/Preventive Time designated for officers (line 37). Most CAD
applications can produce the total number of calls per shift in any time period. This information can
be divided evenly between the two day or two nigh shifts as calls occur randomly.
Total Citizen Generated CFS per shift per Year (line 14)
This number is automatically generated by multiplying line 11 and line 12.
Percentage of Citizen CFS Requiring Multiple Unit Dispatch (line 15)
This percentage is derived from dividing the number of actual two unit dispatches by the total
number of Citizen CFS received. It usually will not change significantly from year to year unless
policy decisions change the types of multi-unit dispatch criteria. If CAD system is able to produce
this more accurately, use the more accurate figures. If the CAD is able to track total time on call for
all units combined either per call or in total for a specific time period, that data should be entered
manually and not computed by this model. Average Time on Call (line 16)
Average time on call is obtained from accurate CAD data. Absent reliable data from the CAD
system, use between .66 and .75. Most agency's actual data ranges between 40 and 45 minutes
per call on average.
Total Time Required for all Citizen Generated Activity (line 17)
This number is generated by adding the total number of Citizen Calls and the number of multiple
unit dispatches, which are second officers on the calls, and multiplying by the average time on call.
Page 51
APPENDIX A Continued
Total Arrest on Shift in Year (line 18)
Self Explanatory. From CAD data or derived by dividing all arrests on the Day shift by 2. This is
used to calculate booking time.
Jail Booking and Report Time (line 19)
Average time to book a prisoner, write report and leave jail expressed in percentage of 1 Hour.
Total Time for Jail Book-in (line 20)
Computed by multiplying line 18 and 19.
Total Offense Reports Written (line 21)
Can be actual figure for shift or computed by muitipiying percentage of total reports to calls for
service times the number of calls on the shift.
Accident Reports Written (line 22)
Actual number of accident reports submitted during period on that shift.
Report Writing Time (line 23)
Average time to prepare and submit reports, averages 45 minutes in most agencies or.75 hour.
Total Report Writing Time (line 24)
Computed by adding line 21 and 22 and multiplying by line 23.
Gross Hours Scheduled (line 29)
This is total number of hours that an officer is designed to work during a year.
Average of Vacation, Holidays, and Compensatory Time Used (line 30)
Average number of hours from personnel time records.
Average Sick Hours Utilized (line 31)
Self Expianatory, actual data from personnel time records.
Average Administrative Hours Utilized (line 32)
From personnel time records and includes injury and suspension time.
Training Hours per Year (line 33)
Hours scheduled for in-service training for the year for each officer, either average or
actual data.
Administrative Time On Shift (line 34)
This is the estimate of the average amount of time per shift an officer may utilize for meals, breaks,
court, vehicle maintenance, and other individual administrative activities.
Page 52
APPENDIX A Continued
Total Hours on shift Administrative Time per Officer per year (line 34)
This is computed by multiplying the hours per shift by the approximate number of shifts the officer
will work during the year. The approximate number of shifts is computed by taking the total shift
hours, subtracting all leave and training time and dividing by the number of hours per shift.
Total Hours Available per Officer (line 36)
This is computed by subtracting all unavailable time from the gross hours available.
Percent Proactive Time Desired (line 39)
Expressed as a percent, this is the amount of proactive or preventive patrol time desired for the
shift. Most cities fall between 40 to 50 percent. Those falling below 40 percent have great difficulty
with proactive community policing or enforcement activities.
Output Items
Community Generated Workload (line 42)
The total number of hours consumed in responding to calls for service and making
necessary arrests.
Proactive Time (line 44)
The amount of time necessary for proactive activities. This is computed by multiplying the total
Community Generated Workload requirements by the percentage of Proactive time desired (line 42
x line 39)
Total Shift Workload Requirement (line 46)
The total number of staff hours needed to adequately cover the shift with the stated desired amount
of proactive time allowed. Lines 42 and 44 added.
Number of Officers Needed (line 48)
The number of total officers needed needing to be assigned to a shift given their availability.
Page 53
Patrol Shift Workload Analysis
Day Shift 1
Field Workload
Number of Work Days in Period 182•5
ShiftLength (Hours) 12
Avera,e C~tizen Generated Calls for Service o~n Sh~ft per da~y~ # ~ 36.6
Percentage of Citizen CFS Requiring Multiple Unit Dispatch (%o) 0.54
Average Time On Call °/a of 1 Hour) 0.66
t~~~~~~
Total Arrests On Shift in Year 787
Jail Bookinq and Report Time of 1 Hr) ,m11
Total Offense Reports ~Written (.5 x%oday shift Activity x Total reports) 16
Accident Reports (.5 x%day shift Activity x Total reports) 4
Renort Writinp Time of 1 Hr.) 4
~",w~~~~~
Officer Availability Data Entry
Gross Hours Scheduled (80 houcs per 2 week pay period, 26 periods) 2080
Average Voluntary Hours Off Taken (Vacation + Holidays + Gomp) 257.5
Average Sick Hours Taken Per Year 4$•39
Average Admin Hours per Year 12•74
Training Hours per Year 40
Administrative Time per Shift (Est. Hours of officer activity per Shift) 2
Proactive Time Decision Input
Percent Proactive / Preventative Patrol Time Desired 0.45
Page 54
Green = Actual Historical Data Entry
Patrol Shift Workload Analysis
Night Shift 1
Field Workload
Number of Work Days in Period 182•5
Shift Length (Hours) 12 '
*
Average Citizen Generated Calls #or Service on Shift per day 32.3
Percentage of Citizen CFS Requiring Multiple Unit Dispatch 0.54
AveraUe i"ime On Call of 9 Hour) 0.66
Total Arrests On 5hift in Year 654
Jail Bookina and ReDort Time (°!o of 1 Hr) 1
Total 0ffense Reports Written (.5 x°loday shi#t Activity x Total. reports) 9528
Accident Reports (.5 x%day shiffiActivity x Total reports) 410
ReDort Writina Time of 1 Hr.) 0.75
Officer Availability Data Entry
Gross Hours Scheduled (80 hours per 2 week pay period, 26 periods) 2080
Average Voluntary Hours Off Taken (Vacation + Holidays + Comp) 257.5
Average Sick Hours Taken Per Year 48•39
Average Admin Hours per Year 12.74
Training Hours per Year 40
Administrative Time per Shift (Est. Hours of officer activity per Shift) 2
Proactive Time Decision Input
Percent Proactive / Preventative Patrol Time Desired 0.45
Page 55
Green = Actual Historical Data Entry '
APPENDIX B
Investigative Benchmarking
Study # 1
Type Offense
Homicide
Murder
Robbery
Sex Crimes
Burglary and Felony Theft
Auto Theft
Fraud and Financial Crimes
Domestic Violence
Child Abuse / Child Sex Offense
Case assignments per month
10 - 12
.5 - .8
10 - 12
10 - 12
15-20
25-40
10 - 15
10 - 12
8-12
Study # 2
Type Offense
Property Crimes
Persons Crimes
Generalist Investigators
Case assignments per month
15-25
8-10
12 - 15
Study # 3
Type Offense
Burglary
Robbery
Property crime
Persons crime
Aggravated assault/battery
Average time to Conduct Investigation
Page 56
5.48 hours
8.90 hours
3.24 hours
6.99 hours
3.55 hours