"michigan state university will use FY24 CPD funding to develop lessons on workforce allocation and staff optimization that will enable agencies to increase their capacity for change and community…

This federal Cooperative Agreement award, provided by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services under the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Grants (CFDA 16.710) program, will enable Michigan State University to develop lessons on workforce allocation and staff optimization to increase the capacity of law enforcement agencies for community policing.

The $500,000 project, with a performance period from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2026, will create allocation models, conduct work schedule simulations, translate organizational learning principles for policing, develop practitioner-oriented resources, and market and disseminate the lessons and resources. The goal is to fill gaps in knowledge regarding allocation methods, work schedule efficiency, and organizational learning that facilitate community policing, while increasing awareness, skills, and adoption of evidence- and community-based approaches to law enforcement staffing and workforce management.

"michigan state university will use FY24 CPD funding to develop lessons on workforce allocation and staff optimization that will enable agencies to increase their capacity for change and community policing. Our research will fill the GAP of knowledge regarding allocation methods, work schedule efficiency and organizational learning that facilitate community policing; increase awareness on workforce allocation challenges and how to meet them; increase skills and abilities of agencies to employ evidence- and community-based approaches in workforce issues; increase practice of research-based strategies that meet local staffing needs; and institutionalize practice of these lessons. The five tasks of our project are 1. Create allocation models. To do so, we will review previous research, conduct subject-matter expert interviews, develop methodologies for creating the models, and apply the methodologies to case study agencies. 2. Conduct work schedule simulations. This will include analyzing a sample of cases, varying by schedule type, workload demand, and agency size, to illustrate how shifting a work schedule (e.g., from 8-hour to 10-hour shifts) affects efficiency of the workforce. 3. Translate organizational learning principles for policing. This will involve measuring the extent to which police agencies embrace organizational learning and systems thinking, identifying staffing allocation practices of exemplar agencies that have embraced such perspectives, and generating best-practice guidelines for doing so. 4. Develop practitioner-oriented resources. We will develop guidebooks and ancillary products on allocation models for criminal investigations, allocation models for support units, managing workload-based allocation assessments, work schedule efficiency, and organizational learning for the staffing system. 5. Market and disseminate lessons/resources. As part of the michigan state university (MSU) police staffing observatory, this project will have extraordinary opportunities for marketing and dissemination. We will also disseminate our research through major conferences, coordination with cops office and MSU staff, and based on practitioner input.