What and who decides how many police officers answer to a call???

Question

What and who decides how many police officers answer to a call???

Answer 1

Department policy based on the type of call, the dispatcher taking the call, a supervisor aware of the situation, or a combination of the three decide how many answer a call.

Answer 2

As most have said, it's a combination of agency policy, the individual officers responding and / or their supervisors, and the specifics of the call.

There are some calls, which automatically get more than one officer (ie:  domestics, shots fired, etc.)  and will normally have the attention of a supervisor, or supervisor response in some areas.  

What TCSO mentioned plays a big part.  Even for single-response calls, in slow, generally benign areas, if the dispatcher feels the need to send another, or even a few more officers, then they respond and hash out the details later.  At the onset of every police call, there is the actual call to communications.  At that point, the dispatcher knows more about what's going on at the scene than anyone else on the force.  Regardless of what is (or isn't said) the dispatcher can have a glimpse into the severity of the call, based on the noise in the background, voice characteristics of the caller, etc.  

Sometimes, the others will hear a single-response call and say "hmm, maybe I should head that way" on a hunch.

Answer 3

A mixture of procedure protocals, supervisors and the folks in the field.

Answer 4

The type of call.

Example: Loud PArty 1 unit

Example: Foot pursuit : all untis available

Example: Fight 2 units

Answer 5

if your child dials 911 while having a temper tantrum they will come over with 2.  if you are in a car at night doing something naughty one will show up and then one more nosy one will come to see who you are.

Answer 6

Boredom

Answer 7

The Manager at Dunkin Donuts

Answer 8

The call comes across ALL of their radios..whomever is not busy will respond.  Officer Down..they ALL will show up!!

Answer 9

My agency has guidelines in place for certain calls that require at least two officers.

I can always request another officer if I think I need one, or ask an officer to disregard if I don't need anyone else.

Answer 10

We had an officer get shot on a suspicious character call over the weekend. Officer down, suspect outstanding...no deciding there, everyone went. And for incidents like that, it won't just be members of the particular department responding, there were even off duty troopers coming in.