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The Need for New Measures of Police Effectiveness

Not only is it difficult for the police to control crime, it is also difficult to measure the control of crime. For example, consider this likely possibility: In a retirement community, there is very little crime. In a college town or in the part of a city where a college is located, there is usually a relatively high rate of crime, especially property crime. So is it accurate to conclude the police in the retirement community are more effective at controlling crime than the police in the college town, simply based on the amount of crime in those two areas? There are many factors that may account for the difference in crime levels in the two places—factors that have nothing to do with the police. Further, the role of the police is multi-dimensional, and measures of police effectiveness should reflect these responsibilities. Therefore, for example, it is necessary for police leaders to know if citizens are being treated fairly by the police when they request services or when they are stopped by an officer, whether members of the public perceive fairness from the police in their interactions with them, if police priorities are in line with those of the community, and if services are being provided in a cost-efficient manner.²² It is simply no longer enough to evaluate police performance in terms of crime and arrest tallies.