On the Efficacy of Generic Performance Indicators for Police
| Author | Owen Hortz |
| Published date | 01 January 1996 |
| Date | 01 January 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X9606900109 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
OWEN
HORTZ,
MA,
Ass. Dip. Bus.
Detective Sergeant, Office
of
the Commissioner, Queensland Police
Service, Australia, working as Planner/Evaluator in Corporate Planning
ON THE EFFICACY OF GENERIC
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
FOR POLICE
Introduction
The introduction of national performance indicators for police heralds the
increasing focus on the evaluation of policing. The general application
nationwide of such indicators, however, may be inappropriate due to the
inherently differing nature of policing between localities and communities.
No two police servicescanclaim to police identical areas. Communities
are vastly different in terms of size, demography, population and ethnicity
breakdown, and social factors such as health, welfare, education, housing,
wealth and employment. The concept that one set
of
indicators is
appropriate to measure the quality of police performance for several
different police services is problematic.
It is argued that, more appropriately, indicators should be developed
around the priorities of the community.
Early
Assessments
of
Police
Performance
It is apparent that for over the first 100 years of the inception of the New
Police in England in 1829, there was little interest shown in the actual
efficacy of the police in achieving their goals as set out in the original
instructions. It may be that this neglect of the issue of effectiveness was
due to the more immediate concerns of securing acceptance of their role
and function in society. The initial focus on crime figures as a means of
justifying their creation was undoubtedly responsible for the subsequent
reliance on such figures to assess the efficacy of the police.
Lee reported in 1901 that it was virtually impossible to assess the
efficiency of the established police by means other than crime statistics
(p.336). His subsequent analysis
ofthe
figures for the first 60 years of the
New Police in England indicted that crime was decreasing steadily, and it
was therefore assumed that the police were effective in their role.
In 1929 Moylan, Receiver' for the Metropolitan Police in England,
advised that a Royal Commission on Police the preceding year focusing
on powers and procedures found favourably toward the police as a body
(p.ix). He stated that the absence of crime "must always be the test of
success for every police service" and to that end "a policeman's efficiency
must not bejudged by his activity in the matter of arrests" (ibid. p.281), yet
the only supportable assessment of police effectiveness that he made in
respect of preventing crime was via the medium of reported indictable
offences, and the rate of arrests and summonses.
68 The Police Journal January 1996
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