In many cities, a substantial fraction of calls for police service require more than one patrol car. We compare Green's multiple dispatch queueing model to several M/M/c-based approximations for multiple car dispatching that are obtained by adjusting the parameters. We found that none of the...

One of the primary concerns of urban police departments is the effective use of patrol cars. In large cities, police assigned to patrol cars typically account for more than 50% of total police manpower and their allocation has become particularly crucial in light of recent fiscal cutbacks. The...