NCJ Number
125339
Date Published
1988
Length
261 pages
Annotation
The question of how police work can be evaluated has become a central concern of England's Home Office and many police chiefs.
Abstract
This concern stems from such developments as recent questioning of policing goals and results, drive to make police forces more financially accountable, challenge to police legitimacy, and recognition by senior police officers of the need to make police management more professional. The evaluation of police work is difficult because of the range and diversity of police work. To the extent that public order is maintained, crime is prevented, and offenders are caught, policing plays only one part in the context of a complex set of social processes. Nonetheless, evaluation of police work can be accomplished, provided a framework of assumptions exists about types of policing activities that are useful and about how each kind of policing should be done. For the most part, however, information required for evaluation is not readily available. For example, police managers have no accurate or complete information about what police officers actually do, and they rarely observe police work directly. In one research project conducted in two police subdivisions in England, researchers tried to simulate experimentation with information systems and methods of evaluating police work. The project was difficult, primarily because outside individuals were trying to initiate change without having the full support of local police management. In compiling basic information through message and activity analysis, project researchers determined that police evaluation against a benchmark of good practice may be the most promising approach to assessing police performance, although certain limitations of the approach must be recognized. Research data and forms associated with the project are appended. 73 references, 25 tables.