MODEL OF OPTIMUM SIZE FOR METROPOLITAN POLICE STATIONS FOR EFFICIENCY IN CRIME PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to present a model of optimum size for the police area of responsibility (AOR) by taking the factors facilitating crimes into consideration. These factors are physical, economic, social and population with radius size of service in the AOR. Realization of the capacity in patrolling and the distance to respond to a crime scene within the proper time is considered. According to the analysis, the factors facilitating crimes consist of the number of cases per area, development level, population density and types of land usage. The established model developed from an approach for determining the AOR size as to cover each group of police stations by substitution with the highest and lowest possible values of each factor into the model. This approach categorizes the crime threat into 3 levels: high, medium and low, and divides the usage of land into 8 main types: residential, commercial, industrial, mixed, public utility, public support, recreational and agricultural types. The findings are 1) high level of crime threat leads to smaller size of the AOR and 2) the AOR size varies, depending on the type of land usage: the AOR of land usage for commercial type is the smallest whilst the AOR of land usage for agricultural type is the largest.