Bandobast Manpower, Patrol Cycle and the Cost of Thinning Posts
For the 16:00–22:00 bandobast on a 3.2 km festival route in north Delhi, a police station has 1 SI, 4 head constables and 30 constables available. The plan requires a barricade point every 400 metres, each manned continuously by 3 constables, plus one control point with the SI and 4 constables. No constable may man a post for more than 5.5 hours of the six-hour window; the remaining 30 minutes is the relief break. Head constables are required at one per two barricade points and one at the control point. Station policy keeps 10% of the total requirement as an uncommitted reserve. Separately, the ACP wants a foot patrol that walks the entire route at 4 km/h with a 2-minute halt at every barricade point, so that no post goes unchecked for longer than 30 minutes. The reserve battalion can release men only against a request placed by 14:00.
1. Compute the number of barricade points, the total requirement of constables and head constables, the shortfall against available strength, and the size of the request to be placed with the reserve battalion.
Read the worked answer
Barricade points 3.2 km ÷ 0.4 km = 8 points (plus 1 control point = 9 posts).
Constables per barricade The post must be covered for 6 hours, but each man gives only 5.5 hours on post. 3 × 6 ÷ 5.5 = 3.27 → round up to 4 constables per barricade (rounding down would leave the post unheld for about 20 minutes).
Totals
- Barricades: 8 × 4 = 32 constables
- Control point: 4 constables
- Constables required = 36
- Head constables: one per two barricades = 4, plus 1 at control = 5
Shortfall Available: 30 constables, 4 HC → short by 6 constables and 1 HC. The SI is not short.
Request with reserve Policy keeps 10% of total requirement uncommitted:
- Constables: 36 × 1.10 = 39.6 → 40 → outside requirement = 40 − 30 = 10 constables
- HC: 5 × 1.10 = 5.5 → 6 → outside requirement = 6 − 4 = 2 HC
Place the indent for 10 constables and 2 HC well before 14:00, and state the calculation in the indent - a bare figure invites a cut.
2. How many foot patrols are needed so that every barricade is checked at least once every 30 minutes? Show the timing arithmetic.
Read the worked answer
One complete round
- Walking time: 3.2 km ÷ 4 km/h = 0.8 h = 48 minutes
- Halts: 8 barricades × 2 minutes = 16 minutes
- Total per round = 48 + 16 = 64 minutes
Number of patrols 64 ÷ 30 = 2.13 → round up to 3 patrols. With three patrols started at staggered intervals along the route, each start point is offset by about 64 ÷ 3 ≈ 21 minutes, so the interval between successive visits to any given barricade falls to roughly 21 minutes - comfortably inside the 30-minute limit.
Why two is not enough Two patrols give an average revisit interval of 32 minutes, which already breaches the 30-minute standard, and any delay (crowd, a stoppage at a barricade) pushes it further. The rule must be satisfied in the worst case, not on paper.
Note for the briefing The three patrols still need bodies: with 36 constables fully committed on posts, the patrols must either come from the 4 reserve constables plus supervision, or be built into the 40-constable figure before the indent goes out. Deciding this before 14:00 is the whole point of the reserve calculation.
3. The reserve battalion request is refused. Using only the 30 constables and 4 HC already available, what can actually be manned, and what is the operational consequence? Recommend what to do.
Read the worked answer
What can be manned
- Control point takes 4 constables → 26 constables left for barricades
- 26 ÷ 4 = 6.5 → 6 barricades can be fully manned (two barricades get no dedicated party)
Consequence in metres If the same 3.2 km is covered by 6 manned points, spacing becomes 3200 ÷ 6 ≈ 533 m against the 400 m standard - each gap is about 133 m wider than planned, an increase of roughly one third. That is where a crowd surge will pass unchecked, and where response time to an incident doubles.
The wrong fix Do not reduce each barricade from 4 constables to 3. The post then has 3 × 5.5 = 16.5 man-hours against the 18 man-hours needed for six hours of cover, so every barricade is unmanned for about 30 minutes during the busiest part of the evening. Thin coverage everywhere is worse than full coverage at chosen points.
Recommendation
- Hold 6 barricades at full strength at the identified choke points (market mouth, metro exit, crossing) and leave the two lowest-risk stretches to mobile patrol.
- Convert the two unm manned posts into one mobile patrol on a two-wheeler/jeep, with a written patrol beat and timings, so the uncovered stretch is still visited.
- Take the HC reserve down to zero and put the two spare HC on the uncovered stretch as static supervisors at the two highest-footfall points.
- Put the shortfall, the 533 m spacing and the residual risk in writing to the ACP before 16:00 - the decision to accept reduced cover must be an informed one taken by someone senior, and the record protects the AWO who flagged it.