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Explanation of police staffing
The Caln Police Department will not fill two positions in 2011, meaning its 20-person staff will be reduced by 10 percent as of July.
According to Police Chief Brian Byerly, the Caln Police Department responded to 17,965 events in 2010. With that number of calls for service, a formula used by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to recommend staffing levels shows that the Caln Police Department should have about 25 patrol officers.
The formula is based on the fact that it takes 2,920 hours to continuously staff one eight-hour post, but it takes more than one officer to fill a post. It also accounts for the number of calls for service in a given area.
According to one study by the Center for Governmental Research, based in New York, in most police departments that work an eight-hour schedule, it takes between 1.7 and 1.9 – effectively, two – full-time patrol officers to fill one post after sick, comp, vacation, personal, training and court time. The study, done for Westhampton Beach in August 2005, is available at www.cgr.org.
Figuring out the number of posts to cover is based on calls received. With an average response time range of about 30 to 50 minutes per call for service, according to the center’s study, Caln’s 17,965 calls add up to about 12,000 patrol hours.
The association recommends multiplying that time by three. This “buffer time” accounts for time spent on preventive patrol, directed patrol, inspection, report writing, vehicle servicing, agency meetings, and other time demands.
That 36,000 hours of patrol time divided by 2,920 hours to continuously staff one post equals about 12.3 posts. Because it takes two officers to fill a post, that means about 25 patrol officers.
What do you think about Caln's police staffing?
posted by Katrina at
5:25 PM
9 Comments:
The down sizeing of the Police Dept not only hurts Caln Township residents but it also hurts the surrounding Police Depts. and the safety of the Officers. When Downingtown, W Brandywine, E Fallowfield, W Caln and Coatesville Officers are in need of assistance for Officer saftey it put them and their residents in harms way. Police Depts need to continue to grow and improve. If year after year Coatesville can find the way to keep officers in the city maybe its time to start looking a litte deeper into other options. I just hope the next time someones son decides to stab their father there is enough Officers working to handle call as timely and professional as they did yesterday.
What alot of folks fail to realize is, especially in this tough economy, the MAIN and one of the ONLY responsibilities of municipalities per PA Code is to provide public safety to its citizens - not much else. Check it out and see it for yourself! Funding libraries and the like (not to pick strictly on them of course, but merely an example) aren't even codified responsibilities. Elected and appointed officials need to understand that their own politically-motivated "perk programs" need to get bumped in the grand overall scheme of things for the safety of the people they serve.
In the end, public safety must come first and everything else secondary. Without citizens' safety, any other programs will fail eventually.
Everyone needs to understand that Police, Fire and EMS departments must continue to survive for our society to survive. Relying on one's neighboring municipality for public safety services (key concept: regionalization of services) may indeed work at times, but it has to be agreed on by all parties and the responsible department still needs to be funded appropriately.
Brian, I wish you and the members of the Caln PD the best and the safest moving forward with the hand you've been dealt. We can only hope that Mr. Prowant and the BOC have done "all" they can for you and had no other choice(s), but personally I highly doubt it. If other programs outside of public safety continue to exist in the budget, then they have failed you and the citizens of Caln Township miserably.
When Caln and other townships in the area need help, they call the Coatesville police. Much of the Coatesville police overtime goes to townships like Caln.
One of the benefits of an understaffed police force is that they will not be able to enforce nusiance laws. Coatesville has a law similar to the one recently instituted in Upper Darby. If you don't have your sidewalks shoveled within 24 hours after a snow, there is a stiff fine. There is also a fine for trying to guard parking places you shovel clean. Upper Darby is just catching up to Coatesville.
What these comments have claimed are just dead wrong. There are very few times that Coatesville officers need to assist in Caln, most of the time it is just the reverse that the Caln police must assist in Coatesville. The PA first class township code does not just talk about police and public safety. Townships own roads, stormwater facilities and many other "public" items that it must maintain. Over next few years the state and federal government will continue to cut to local governments or in some cases push down unfunded mandates to townships, cities, and boroughs. We must all face this new reality that money is tight and we must all tighten our belts.
Get rid of a few desk jobs and codes jobs to clear payroll for police. Not sure what they are doing anyway in this slow economy with no construction or building permits. Out source all township billing to third parties.
Katrina, I could not find contact information for you, so I'm trying this: Would you start a post for The Coatesville Sports Hall of Fame? I will provide you current information if you can do that
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dear Coatesville Roundtable,
We need your help! The City of Coatesville, via Econsult, are asking if you, as a leading blog in the City of Coatesville, could post this message with links to our survey onto your blog. It is our goal to get as much citizen participation as possible, as this survey is of vital importance to our work with the City. A brief description and links to the survey, in English and Spanish, can be found below. We greatly appreciate your assistance in this matter.
The City of Coatesville, via consultants Econsult, is conducting a survey to get your ideas about Coatesville today and what you would like Coatesville to look like in 5 to 10 years. We are preparing a vision for downtown Coatesville, and as part of the process, we are gathering citizen and stakeholder input on three main areas:
- What types of buildings and uses are appropriate downtown;
- What kind of retail options are most valuable; and
- What kind of amenities would help make Coatesville a better place to live, work, and play.
There is a short survey to help us collect this information. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey and provide us with the information we need to help guide Coatesville’s direction.
English version:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/767P22J
La ciudad de Coatesville, a través de los consultores Econsult, está realizando una encuesta para obtener sus ideas acerca de Coatesville hoy y como le gustaría que Coatesville fuera en 5 a 10 años. Estamos preparando una visión para el centro de Coatesville, y como parte del proceso, nos estamos reuniendo ciudadanos e interesados en tres áreas principales:
- ¿Qué tipos de edificios y usos son apropiados en el céntrico?;
- ¿Qué tipo de venta al por menor son las opciones más valioso?;
- ¿Qué clase de comodidades ayudaría a hacer Coatesville un lugar mejor para vivir, trabajar y dsifrutarse?
Hay una breve encuesta para ayudarnos a recopilar esta información. Por favor, tómese unos minutos para completar la encuesta. Su participación nos ayudará a mejorar a Coatesville.
Spanish version:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S7BTDP7
Thank you very much,
John
Intern, Econsult
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