THE ISSUE OF ONE-MAN VS. TWO-MAN POLICE PATROL CARS.

This article examines the issue of one-man versus two-man police patrol cars as of January 1, 1956. Patrol methods have been the subject of heated debate among police officers over the years. Statements of half-truth, misplaced emphasis, and over generalization without documentation have too frequently clouded the controversies. One of the most venerable men in police administration, August Vollmer, early in his career came to the conclusion that the patrolman on foot was obsolete. Foot patrol trends, however, in comparison with motorized patrol, fail to support a theory that foot patrol is outmoded. Ten of the cities reporting all motorized patrol were cities of less than 10,000 population. Of the remaining 61 cities reporting all motorized patrol, 82% of them were in the 10,000-25,000 population group. Only one city over 100,000 population reported all motorized patrol. In 1943 there was a low degree of patrol motorization per 100 employees in cities over 500,000 population. Forty of the cities reporting all motorized patrol were cities in the 10,000-25,000 population group. The 526 cities reporting a combination of foot and motor patrol were in the 10,000-25,000 population group. All reporting cities with a population over 25,000 except one, reported the use of some form of motorized patrol. Thus today, as in the past, foot patrol is accepted generally as the most effective type of police patrol, with motorized patrol a natural adjunct. Though a patrol car without speeding will patrol ten times the area of a foot patrolman, foot patrol is urgent under certain circumstances. Nonetheless, area and population growth, and limitations on money available for police services, inevitably necessitate reductions in foot patrol. The ever-increasing demand for effective patrol, under existing restrictions, might be partially answered in the U.S. on the basis of experiments abroad.