THE OBJECTIVE OF ROTATING SCHEDULES IS TO ALLOCATE RESOURCES ACCORDING TO DEMAND WHILE TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE BEST INTERESTS OF OPERATIONS PERSONNEL. THE PROCESS HAS FOUR BASIC COMPONENTS: A DATA BASE, A LINEAR PROGRAM, A MISALLOCATION PROGRAM, AND A PROCESS TO GENERATE SHIFT SCHEDULES. INFORMATION ABOUT WORKLOAD DEMAND IS BASED ON TOTAL CONSUMED TIME FOR ALL CALLS RECORDED BY HOUR OF REQUEST FOR SERVICE, AS A PREFERRED CHOICE OVER DATA BASED ON CALLS FOR SERVICE ONLY. A LINEAR PROGRAM IS USED TO DETERMINE OPTIMAL SHIFT-STARTING TIMES TO MATCH WORKLOAD DEMAND WITH AVAILABLE PATROL RESOURCES, AND SPECIFIC CONSTRAINTS ARE INTRODUCED TO MAKE THE MODEL REFLECT THE REALITIES OF EACH SYSTEM. A MISALLOCATION PROGRAM IS USED TO COMPARE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF VARIOUS SHIFT SCHEDULES SO THAT CHANGES CAN BE MADE THAT TAKE HUMAN FACTORS INTO ACCOUNT. AS SOON AS SHIFT STARTING TIMES HAVE BEEN DECIDED, A RANGE OF ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULES CAN BE DEVELOPED WHICH ARE CONSISTENT WITH THE DEGREE OF ACCEPTABLE MISALLOCATION. UNDER THIS PROCESS, A POLICE CHIEF WHO IS OBLIGATED BY CONTRACT TO BOTH PLACE AN EQUAL NUMBER OF UNIFORMED PERSONNEL ON EACH SHIFT AND TO IMPLEMENT A COMPRESSED WORKWEEK--MOVING FROM 8-TO-10 HOUR SHIFT PERIODS--WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BREAK AWAY FROM EQUAL ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES BY SHIFT WHILE MEETING POLICE DEMANDS FOR THE SHORTER WORK WEEK. MOREOVER, COST SAVINGS ARE APPARENT IN ALLOCATING RESOURCES TO DEMAND; AT THE VERY LEAST, IT IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAINTAIN CURRENT PERFORMANCE LEVELS WITH PRESENT RESOURCES AS DEMAND INCREASES. FOOTNOTES, A BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH FOUR CITATIONS, AND TABULAR DATA ARE PROVIDED. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED--AOP)