NCJ Number
84790
Journal
Urban Interest Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1982) Pages: 3-40
Editor(s)
S Mastrofski
Date Published
1982
Length
38 pages
Annotation
A series of four articles represents the issues discussed at a symposium devoted to the search for effective measurement methods and performance indicators in police personnel assessment.
Abstract
The articles recognize the conflict arising from the demands for scientific rigor in police performance measurement under practical feasibility constraints. Two papers address the problems of obtaining valid measurements from working police departments with limited budgets for performance measurement. One suggests resolving the dilemma by using line supervisors to evaluate individual officers' performance, thus minimizing the costs of data collection and maximizing the immediate relevance of the evaluation. Another paper examines the scientific validity of citizen surveys, i.e., the user perspective, as a means of police performance assessment. A fourth contribution discusses the impact of an evaluation system that brings in external certified police experts as judges of a department's performance under a law enforcement agency accreditation program. These articles present a range of approaches and methodologies for performance measurement to encourage administrators and researchers to experiment with a variety of techniques. In general, the articles all suggest that performance measures should focus on the more tangible aspects of police work rather than on broad-scale social goals such as crime reduction. Footnotes and references are given with individual articles.