Seminar in Law Enforcement Police personnel organize patrolling duties by using either an intuitive approach or through a comparative approach. An intuitive approach is based more or less on patterns of crime from the years before. For example, as crime rates increase, more police officers are hired. While hiring more police officers can have positive effects, hiring police officers when there is an increase in crime can also be seen as “a desperate game of catch-up that has no effect on the increase in crime” (Cox 136). A comparative approach uses the ratio of police officers to the population to estimate how many police officers should be used in the area that is being policed. Although the comparative approach seems to take the guess work out of …show more content…
The comparative approach does not consider certain characteristics, such as the size of the area, crime rate, tourist attractions, and employment rates. These special circumstances also play a role in determining how many officers should be policing in an area. Other types of patrolling include foot patrol, bicycle patrol, air patrol, and mounted patrol. Foot patrol was the first form of patrolling in policing, and while foot patrol does not correlate to reduced crime levels, citizens of the public hold more satisfaction with police officers and reduced fear of occurrences of crime. Bicycle patrolling does require more equipment and training, but has numerous advantages: more area can be covered in comparison to foot patrol, lower cost than vehicles, and higher reports of contacts. Air patrol is more effective as far observation ability, but is he most costly form of patrolling. Lastly, mounted patrol is utilized in areas such as parks and lakefronts. The Chicago Police Department concluded that one mounted police officers had the effectiveness of 10 to 20 police officers (Cox, 141). However, with bicycle patrolling, increase foot patrols, and all-terrain vehicles, the number of mounted