4 Policing decision-making
One technique that can be used to analyse local policing demand blends the SARA decision-making model of policing with demand analysis. The example below shows how a demand problem might be broken down into steps:
- Scanning
What are the recurring problems of concern to the public and police?
Can we confirm the problem exists?
Do we know how frequently the problem occurs?
- Analysis
What data do we need to analyse the problem and derive solutions?
What ideas do we test to see why the problem is occurring?
- Response
What interventions to reduce the problem can we test?
Do we have a plan to implement solutions and test their effectiveness?
- Assessment
Did our interventions work?
What evidence do we have to understand how well our interventions worked?
Do we need to do more work?
This approach can be used to identify many types of demand problems in policing, such as:
- Understanding the nature and scale of repeat offending
- Identifying where people are repeat victims and why this is the case
- Repeat locations
- Anti-social behaviour
Case study: Repeat attendances at A&E
In November 2021 the BBC reported new analysis by the British Red Cross of NHS data on regular Attendance at A&E departments. They discovered that less than 1% of the population account for 16% of all A&E attendances, with just 0.7% of the population accounting for 29% of ambulance journeys and 26% of unplanned hospital admissions. The data also showed that many of the regular attenders were dealing with ‘mental health problems, relationship breakdown, housing insecurity or loneliness.’
Some vulnerable people use A&E weekly or more BBC News [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
Activity 4 Accessing services
Think about your own work. Do you come into contact with people who regularly access services for similar reasons or problems such as drug addiction?
The next section looks at how we can apply the SARA decision-making model to help us understand demand management problems.