NCJ Number
181391
Date Published
1998
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This discussion of police performance evaluation in the context of community policing emphasizes the need to develop evaluations that accurately reflect the work police officers are expected to do and that the need to develop such evaluations is neither new nor unique to community policing.
Abstract
Most performance evaluations currently used by police agencies do not reflect police officers' work. Instead, evaluations typically consist of compliance audits, statistical comparisons, or descriptive summaries of events. Few agencies have staff for the challenging task of constructing a valid and reliable evaluation process. A redesigned performance measurement system should center on measuring differences in individual knowledge, skills, and attitudes; the nature of the effort; and/or the attainment of results. Creating a valid and reliable means of performance measurement involves issues of timing, the unit of analysis, purpose, content, and requirements for performance evaluations. The process used in Houston to redesign police performance evaluation in the late 1980's suggests the issues germane to any agency undertaking redesign. These issues include adopting new assumptions, defining the purposes of evaluations, identifying new performance criteria, measuring the effects of officer performance, strengthening the verification process developing new instrumentation, soliciting officer feedback about the sergeant, and revising rating scales. Police executives who accept the challenge of modifying their system will discover an effective management tool to attain results in neighborhoods and their organizations. Figures, notes, appended assumptions associated with community policing, and 31 references