Evaluating the Quality of the Differential Police Response Strategy: Applications of Statistical Quality Control Charts

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the quality of Differential Police Response strategy. Although it has been approximately three years since these new police response systems were introduced, there is no research to evaluate them empirically. Using two types of statistical quality control techniques, Xbar-R control charts for variables data and P charts for attributes data, this study analyzes approximately 3,000 calls reported throughout the year 2012 to the 112 Integrated Dispatch Center in Ik-san police station. The Xbar-R control charts revealed that the police did not consistently respond to an emergency call for service (i.e., code one case) within 3 minutes. The P control chart also identified that there was a significant variation in the portion/number of defective calls where police failed to respond to non-emergency calls for service within 5 minutes. The results from this study suggest the police may need to review the target response time for code 1 and code 2 respectively.