Link for Joplin Police Reallocation Study

Last night, the Joplin city council held its first work session to learn about a police resource allocation study. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

Tim Freesmeyer conducted the 64-page study that took 13-months to complete. Tim has taught Resource Allocation and Deployment to thousands of law enforcement managers across the country over the last 25 years. The study he conducted focused solely on the patrol and investigative division of the Joplin Police Department, studying every call from 2016 to 2021.

Councilmember Chuck Copple, a former Joplin firefighter, asked Freesemeyer a question regarding this study.

“We’ve had a dip in the number of officers that we’ve had on the streets for several years now, and I know a lot of our call activity comes from officer-initiated activities”. Freesmeyer responds,

“What’s happening is that officers are getting tied up on the more serious calls. As they get more tied up on serious calls, they have less time to do calls that take a shorter duration but generate more numbers.”

The work session lasted nearly two hours.