Officer Evaluation in the Community Policing Context

• NCJ Number: 214202
• Journal: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Volume: 29 Issue: 1 Dated: 2006 Pages: 19-37
• Author(s): David Lilley; Sameer Hinduja
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 19 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Through a national survey, this study explored patrol officer performance evaluation in the context of community policing.

Abstract

Data indicate that approximately 70 percent of agencies across the country can be classified as transitional or community policing organizations. In terms of goals and objectives, transitional agencies and community policing organizations tend to be similar. However, transitional agencies appear to remain closely aligned with traditional agencies with regard to the implementation of performance appraisal. An example is that although both transitional and community policing agencies identified problem solving as an organizational objective more important than law enforcement, transitional organizations did not value officer traits and abilities that support this objective more than traditional law enforcement agencies. In addition, community policing agencies have added new output measures; however they continue to value enforcement statistics as much as their more traditional counterparts. It is suggested that further research examine why many transitional and community policing administrators place relatively little value in improving the officer evaluation process with regards to the incorporation of community policing principles. In the first nationwide assessment of police officer performance evaluation during the community policing era, this study compared traditional and community policing agencies in regards to how individual officers were formally evaluated and assessed organizational goals and objectives in each type of agency. The study consisted of a 75-item survey instrument, distributed to 600 municipal and county agencies with a response rate of 68 percent (125 traditional, 115 transitional, and 168 community policing agencies). In regards to performance evaluation content, the values of police supervisors, and organizational objectives, 11 hypotheses were tested. Tables and references