Flaws emerge in the DCED presentation for the Jenkintown Police

Analysis of the Police Patrol Coverage Calculations

The PA DCED team presented its Cost to Benefit report findings to the Jenkintown Borough Council and the Jenkintown community on November 13, 2024. 

The Borough isn’t (yet) proposing to drop staffing to 4 officers, but the fact that the DCED says they could shows the flaws in their methodology. Therefore, the DCED staffing analysis is misleading and does not make clear the implications and negative impact of its calculations on the residents of our community. One must wonder about other flaws in their presentation.

In that presentation, the DCED team included a “Realigned Staffing” model. The DCED staffing model was based on Jenkintown’s 2022 population and the rate of/time required to service Jenkintown’s specific data for police patrol incidents. Based on this DCED model, Jenkintown requires 4 patrol full-time employees (FTE) to service our community.

Under the DCED model, the 4 patrol FTEs would provide for ONLY single patrol coverage at all times and, further, would only cover 313 days per year, leaving no patrol coverage 52 days of the year or almost two (2) months per year.

Even the Chief himself acknowledges one man patrols are not the safest, admonishing the crowd to not be posting on social media when one man patrols are taking place… due to safety concerns. And yet, this is what he’s already implemented.

If Jenkintown wants to be able to fully utilize its police force, two man patrols and the number of officers required to staff them are a necessity.

The table below displays an alternative analysis for Jenkintown’s patrol staffing requirements based on a minimum coverage model. That is, Jenkintown’s police patrol services are needed 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Jenkintown Borough: Patrol Minimum Staffing Requirements

Until recently, the Jenkintown Police Department (JPD) staffed its patrol service with two (2) officers per shift. Based on minimum staffing requirements, 9.32 FTEs would be required for staffing.  

The JPD recently adjusted its nighttime patrol staffing to be reduced to one (1) officer except on Friday and Saturday evenings. Making this adjustment to the two (2) patrol officer coverage model above, assuming 8 hours of nighttime patrol coverage 5 days per week, the 9.32 FTE staffing requirement could be reduced to approximately 8.2 FTEs.

The DCED report findings appear to have used a staffing model based only on activity levels and not coverage requirements, leaving the Jenkintown community understaffed and with significant periods of time with no coverage at all.