Answering Elusive Questions about Patrol Status Using Automated Vehicle Locator Data

• In Event: Strengthening Evidence-Based Policing Through Applied Research Partnerships

Abstract

Modern policing is robust with technologies designed to promote efficiency and efficacy. These technologies have coincided with a larger-scale data movement to measure and evaluate law enforcement actions. Police are expected to quantify a range of activities like the number of assignments undertaken, the level of mobility, and the time spent uncommitted or proactively during a patrol shift. However, many of the activities occurring on a patrol shift are unrecorded as most of policing is simultaneously high in discretion and low in supervision. Patrol status is generally fluid and may be impacted by a range of spatial, temporal, and social factors. This study attempts to better understand patrol assignments in Kansas City through automated vehicle locator data. AVLs provide a coordinated ping for every patrol car in ten-second intervals to track location, assignment, and activity. The analyses will determine the amount of committed or uncommitted, stationary or mobile, and proactive time allocated across a patrol shift. Spatial analyses will reveal if there are any shift-based clusters of activity, and shift scripting will examine how uncommitted time is subsequently used during a patrol shift. The results will shed light on patrol status, assignments, and activities across time and space.

Authors

• Nathan Connealy, University of Tampa

• Eric L. Piza, Northeastern University

• Savannah A. Reid, Northeastern University

• Christianna Palermo, Northeastern University

• Victoria A. Sytsma, Queen's University