Abstract
The rate of citizen calls for police service exhibits marked seasonal fluctuations, generally reaching a peak during the summer months and slacking off to a low point in midwinter. Data from St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit indicates a high correlation between the number of calls per week and meteorological variables such as aver age temperature and hours of daylight. Simple regression models, using the weekly norms for the weather variables, are employed to forecast the weekly demand for police service in each of the three cities. Since the weather data are easily obtained from the local weather bureau, and only a single year of police data is needed to estimate the regression coefficients, police planners may find such climatological models handy for scheduling patrol deployments and officers' vacations.
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