Patrol Car Allocation Model - Program Description

• NCJ Number: 98721
• Author(s): J M Chaiken; W E Walker; R Dormont
• Date Published: July 1985
• Length: 226 pages
• Grant Number(s): 81-IJ-CX-0088
• Agencies: Rand Corporation; NIJ-Sponsored

Annotation

This report provides installation instructions and an annotated program listing for the Patrol Car Allocation Model (PCAM85), written in Fortran. The computer program helps police agencies determine the number of patrol cars to have on duty in each of their geographical commands.

Abstract

The description of program installation covers PCAM source language and compilation, file structure and conventions, storage allocation, memory requirements, minor program modifications, and costs. A description of the PCAM data file format encompasses explanations of each of the nine records in the file. The algorithms that PCAM uses to convert allocations of cars to tours into block allocations and vice versa are documented. The report unavailable a tour as a period of time over which a patrol car can be on duty, and a block is defined as a part of a tour during which the number of patrol cars on duty is constant. PCAM's internal data structures and its run-time storage management system are described, including table pointers and data storage. The report concludes with a listing and description of the PCAM Fortran program, together with a discussion of the main program and the subprograms. The appendix contains a demonstration data base, a program for estimating the relationship between the number of patrol cars unavailable because of calls for service (CFS) and the number of non-CFS unavailable patrol cars, and a program cross-reference table. Addresses for further information are provided, along with two references. For executive summary and user's manual, see NCJ 98719-20.