NCJ Number
181388
Date Published
1998
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Police performance measurement is discussed in terms of the limitations of current approaches, the need for measures that focus on a new model of policing, and the implications for restructuring the overall objectives and measuring the accomplishments of policing through police agency performance measures.
Abstract
Measures such as reported crime rates and overall arrests and clearance rates reflect an increasingly outmoded model of police tasks. In addition, such measures may misguide police managers and lead them and their police agencies toward purposes and activities that are less valuable than others that they can achieve with limited and diminishing resources. These measures reflect the traditional model of professional law enforcement. In contrast, the new paradigm of policing emphasizes police involvement in community-based processes related to the production and maintenance of local human and social capital. Options for reforming police performance measures include improving existing measures, linking performance measures more closely to action in the community, and adding measures related to police-community relations and public attitudes. The urgent need in measuring police performance is to understand performance measurement as a device that managers can use to shape the future of policing. The new police paradigm requires new organizational elements, including neighborhood training, feedback mechanisms, and an institutionalized reward system for police officers, together with the measurement, analysis, and evaluation of these elements. 31 references