U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Image of United States Department of Justice seal Commuity Oriented Policing Services logo www.cops.usdoj.gov Fact Sheet MORE Redeployment 101 COPS MORE: Civilian Redeployment The Wickersville Police Department applies for a MORE grant to hire four civilian police aides to answer non-emergency calls for service. Currently, each officer spends an estimated three hours per shift answering non-emergency calls for service. The department has a sworn force strength of 34 officers with six patrol officers assigned to each shift. If the department receives the MORE grant, it estimates that each officer will save approximately 1.5 hours per shift as a result of the civilian hires. The cost of hiring these four civilians is $100,000, including salary and benefits. To determine its required level of redeployment, the department would use the following formula that was laid out in the Cost Effectiveness Worksheet portion of the grant application: Actual Redeployment Using the estimated number of hours that these civilians could save each officer per shift, the department uses the following formula to calculate the estimated actual redeployment for this grant: 1.5 hrs. per officer per shift x 34 officers x 228 shifts = 11,628 hrs. saved 11,628 / 1,824 hrs.= 6.4 FTEs The department exceeds the required redeployment level and is awarded the MORE grant. Line 1 - Entry level salary of SWORN police officer (as of Jan. 1, 1998) 1. $28,500 Line 2 - Fringe benefits of SWORN police officer (as of Jan. 1, 1998) 2. $6,800 Line 3 - Add lines 1 and 2 3. $35,300 Line 4 - Multiply line 3 by .75 4. $26,475 Line 5 - Enter figure on line 4 or $25,000, whichever is less 5. $25,000 Line 6 - Total cost of item, system, or group of like items 6. $100,000 (100%) Line 7 - Federal amount requested 7. $75,000 (75%) Can be no more than 75% of total item cost (line 6) Line 8 - Divide line 7 by line 5 8. 3.0 FTEs Redeployment Tracking The Wickersville Police Department must now come up with a plan to track redeployment once the civilian positions have all been hired and received the necessary training. Using the guidelines provided in the Redeployment Tracking Q&A Fact Sheet provided by the COPS Office, the department prepares the following tracking plan. The first portion provides a short summary of the project. “The Wickersville Police Department was awarded a grant to hire four civilian police aides to help the department handle non-emergency calls for service. Prior to the implementation of the grant, the department estimated that each officer spent about three hours per shift answering these types of calls for service. By hiring the civilian police aides, the department estimates that it has cut this time in half.” Next, the department explains the method it plans to use to track the time saved by hiring the civilian police aides. “In order to track the time savings that officers will realize under this grant, the department has issued log sheets to all officers and asked them to log in the time that they spend each shift on non-emergency calls for service. On a monthly basis, the department will take a sample of the sheets for 10 officers on varying shifts to determine that average amount of time per shift that they spend answering non-emergency calls for service after the civilian police aides are hired and trained.” Finally, the department details the community policing activities that it plans to implement as a result of the time savings achieved as a result of the MORE grant. “With the time saved through the hiring of these civilians, the department will set up a ‘hot spot’ analysis program to target high crime areas.” Implementing the Redeployment Tracking Plan The department implements the grant, and each officer submits a time log each shift showing time saved as a result of the grant. The log sheets are then totaled for each officer and entered into a spreadsheet tracking the time that each officer saves. Once the civilians are hired, the department finds that only 24 officers will benefit from them because they will not be working the third shift. Because tracking the time savings for 24 officers is very time consuming, the department uses a sample of 10 officers who work varying shifts to determine time savings across the department. Using the log sheets, the department is able to create the following spreadsheet to determine how long it takes officers to do reports on average. A sample of the spreadsheet that they use to track the hours saved follows: Officer # of non- Hours spent on emergency calls non-emergency calls Hoff 3 2 Townsend 1 1 Varano 2 1.5 Smith 2 2.5 Curtis 3 3 Morgan 1 1 Shay 4 3 Tucker 3 2 Mehring 2 1.5 Phillips 3 2.5 Total 24 20 Three months after the civilians are hired, the department is able to tabulate on a daily basis the time savings that accrues over the course of the grant. The department finds that on average (based on the sample), each officer spends an average of two hours per shift answering non-emergency calls for service. This results in an average of one hour of time savings per officer per shift. The department calculates the time savings to date as follows: 1 hr. x 24 Officers x 57 shifts (1/4 of 228) = 1,368 hrs. saved 1,368 hrs. / 1,824 hrs. (COPS standard) = .8 FTEs If the department continues to see this level of time savings for the remainder of the 12 months, it can expect to achieve a total redeployment of 3.2 FTEs. This is less time savings than what the department had originally estimated, but it still exceeds the required level of redeployment. The department attributes the reduced savings to the fact that officers on the late shift do not reap the benefit of the civilians who only work the first two shifts of the day. Created: December 30, 2002 e10021762