Doesn’t collecting ABC data take officers away from their policing duties?
Not all officers within a police force are required to complete Activity Sampling. The ABC Model requires that all officers and other operational staff working in multi-function units (e.g. CID, Traffic, BCU Response Teams) complete a detailed record of their time. This will be captured through Activity Sampling in most forces. In practical terms, Activity Sampling is likely to require officers to take up to 10 minutes each day during the survey to record their activity. Forces are required to survey their officer for a minimum of two weeks each year. We expect that, in most forces, Activity Sampling will cover about 2/3 of police officers. Two weeks is a small part of the year. We believe activity sampling is justified by the benefits available. We will look closely at how this area of ABC can be improved, for example using information held in command and control systems.
