A national activity survey of police work

The study comprises a national activity survey of the distribution of time spent on various policing tasks among a sample of over 1,600 community constables and general duty officers. The results of the survey show that about one-third of a typical tour of duty of community constables and about two-fifths of the typical duty tour of general duty officers is spent inside the station. When inside the station the major proportion of their time is spent on general administrative duties including paperwork and when outside the station the major proportion of their time is spent on routine patrol. A comparative analysis of activities across all forces shows considerable variation in the amount of time uniform officers spend on various tasks. An important difference among forces whose officers spend a large amount of time outside the station and forces whose officers spend a small amount of time outside the police station is the amount of time spent on general administrative duties including paperwork. The paper concludes that activity analyses can identify problems in the organisation and deployment of patrol officers and notes plans by HMIC and the Home Office to produce a standard activity sampling package and to encourage forces to use it.