NCJ Number
197201
Journal
Policing Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Dated: 2001 Pages: 216-227
Date Published
2001
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This paper presents the methodology and findings of a simulation study of the costing of police custody operations for a British police force.
Abstract
For the purpose of this study, the custody operation encompassed the arrest, booking, interview, detention, and court-appearance activities. The Activity Based Costing (ABC) approach was used as a framework to show how costs were generated by the three "drivers" of cost, activity, and resource. The ABC approach allows the user to distinguish between resource use and resource expenditure, with the difference being unused capacity. Once identified, this capacity can either be eliminated, thus reducing costs, or re-deployed, thus improving effectiveness. The study objective was to conduct a simulation study, in conjunction with the ABC approach, to identify and reduce costs within a custody process at a particular police force. The main aim of the simulation experimentation was to provide an estimate of the costs incurred in the custody process from the perspective of the three drivers of cost, i.e., cost, activity, and resource. The study found that ABC provided a useful framework for analyzing the costs involved in a process. Viewing cost from the three drivers provided a structure in which the manager could develop initiatives to reduce cost and identify the location, amount, and timing of unused capacity. The concept of committed and flexible resources emphasizes that cost saving can only be achieved when management makes decisions based on the cost analysis and then re-deploys or eliminates the unused capacity identified. 3 tables and 13 references