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Understanding Police Agency Performance

NCJ Number
93967
Editor(s)
G P Whitaker
Date Published
1984
Length
183 pages
Annotation
Twelve studies examine the measurement of police service production and modeling the social impacts of police activities.
Abstract
Studies pertaining to the measurement of police service production include the presentation and testing of a model that assesses and compares the efficiency of police agencies, the testing of a hypothesis that officers permanently assigned to small beats have a greater propensity to exhibit 'service-style policing' in urban residential neighborhoods, and an analysis of patrol response times to determine whether police discriminate against disadvantaged groups or invoke bureaucratic 'technical-rational' decision rules in executing their roles. Other studies relating to the measurement of police service production explore the utility of police officer knowledge of the beat as a performance measure, examine the effect of situational variables on police arrests in domestic disturbances, and identify factors affecting the police dissemination of crime prevention information to crime victims. Papers dealing with the modeling of social impacts of police activities focus on the reliability and techniques of using citizen surveys to determine the effectiveness of police performance.