Control-room triage with three patrol vehicles
At 22:00 the control room of a commissionerate has three patrol vehicles, A, B and C, and six beats. Four calls arrive within four minutes: (i) a 62-year-old man with chest pain at Beat 2; (ii) a two-wheeler theft at Beat 5, which occurred three hours earlier; (iii) five men quarrelling with sticks at Beat 4; (iv) a woman reporting her 14-year-old daughter missing since 18:00 from Beat 6. Vehicle A is at Beat 1, B at Beat 3, C at Beat 5. A to Beat 2 takes 4 minutes; A to Beat 4 takes 9 minutes. B to Beat 4 takes 5 minutes; B to Beat 6 takes 7 minutes. C to Beat 6 takes 10 minutes; C to Beat 4 takes 8 minutes; C to Beat 5 takes 2 minutes. Each vehicle can attend one call at a time. The constable must prioritise and dispatch.
1. Rank the four calls and allocate the three vehicles. Justify the allocation with travel times.
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Priority: (1) chest pain-potential life threat; (2) men with sticks-active violence and risk of injury; (3) missing 14-year-old-vulnerable child, but not an active fight; (4) theft-property offence already three hours old. Allocation: A to Beat 2 in 4 minutes for the medical emergency. B to Beat 4 in 5 minutes to stop the fight. C to Beat 6 in 10 minutes for the missing child. C is already at Beat 5, so the theft is at its location, but a three-hour-old property offence should not displace a missing-child call. Ask a beat officer or the theft complainant to come to the station, or attend after the child call. If no fourth vehicle is available, register the theft by phone and attend later. The key is not to send all vehicles to the loudest call.
2. After 10 minutes, A reports that the man is stable and B has detained two men. What should C do if the missing girl's mother says the girl may be with a 19-year-old neighbour?
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C should not abandon the missing-child call, but should convert it into a focused inquiry: record the neighbour's name, address, phone and vehicle details; check whether the girl left voluntarily; call the neighbour's number from the control room; send a beat officer to the neighbour's house if it is nearby. If there are signs of trafficking or coercion, treat it as a cognizable case and escalate. A can be released from the medical call once the man is in the ambulance and sent to Beat 5 for the theft, or to support C. B should complete the arrest formalities and then be available for backup. The control room must log every decision and time.
3. What information should the control room collect before dispatching a vehicle?
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For each call: exact address and landmark, caller's name and callback number, nature of the incident, number of people involved, weapons, injuries, whether anyone is trapped, description of suspects or vehicles, direction of escape, and whether the caller can safely stay on the line. For the medical call, ask age, consciousness, breathing and chest pain history; for the missing child, ask last seen place, clothes, phone, friends, and whether she has taken money or documents; for the fight, ask whether alcohol or weapons are involved; for the theft, ask registration number, chassis number and when it was last seen. Dispatch the nearest suitable vehicle and tell the caller what to do until police arrive. Record the time of call and dispatch.