Methods for Allocating Urban Emergency Units: A Survey

An urban emergency service system provides mobile units (vehicles) to respond to requests for service which can occur at any time and any place throughout a city. This paper describes the common characteristics and operational problems of these systems and surveys the various methods, both traditional and recently developed, which may be used for allocating their units. Aspects of allocation policy discussed include (1) determining the number of units to have on duty, (2) locating the units, (3) designing their response areas or patrol areas, (4) relocating units, and (5) planning preventive-patrol patterns for police cars. Typical policy changes which may be suggested by the use of quantitative allocation models include selective queuing of low priority calls, varying the number of units on duty (and their locations) by time of day, dispatching units other than the closest ones to certain incidents, relocating units as unavailabilities begin to develop, and assigning police cars to overlapping patrol sectors. As a result of making such changes, it is often possible to reduce queuing and travel time delays, improve the balance of workload among units, and enhance the amount of preventive patrol where needed.