Balancing act: Assessing police efficiency amidst staffing shortages through inverse data envelopment analysis

Abstract

Abstract Police agencies are amid a significant staffing shortage. Scholars and police managers warn about the effects of understaffing on public safety and security. Studies have examined the impacts of events like the Floyd protests had on police resignations. This study uses a linear programming method, Inverse data envelopment analysis (InvDEA), to estimate the efficient allocation of police resources using a simulated agency with 150 sectors. The first decision-making scenario simulated the challenge many agencies currently face with staffing shortages. Reallocating officers and civilians from inefficient to efficient units improved performance by 4.7% without additional officers. Results of the second and third decision-making scenarios indicate a need to reallocate resources by 23% and 19%, respectively. These findings contribute to the scarce literature on police staff allocation. In addition, the methodology employed in this study is helpful for police managers to make accurate operational decisions when combined with changes to the efficiency frontier that reflect the environment in which they operate.