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Citizen satisfaction as indicator of police effectiveness
Ben Vollaard
CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis
September 29, 2006
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detection ratesickness absence
response time
citizen satisfaction
fear of crime
Finding out how well the police performwithout being knowledgeable about police work
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Outline of presentation
Why subjective performance assessment? How useful a performance indicator is citizen
satisfaction? Conclusions
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1. Why subjective assessment?
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Ex ante (‘objective’) vs. Ex post (‘subjective’) assessment
Define ‘good performance’ex ante, rule-based, no room forsubjective judgment
Subjective assessment ex post,incl. customer satisfaction/
professional judgment
NL E&Wex ante ex post
choice differs between police tasks
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England & Wales vs. the Netherlands: two styles of performance assessment
English approach: mostly subjective (incl. citizen satisfaction and professional judgment), no overall judgment, comparative
Dutch approach: mostly objective, overall judgment, force-specific
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3. How useful a performance indicator is citizen satisfaction?
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Citizen satisfaction: advantages
Link between broad set of (hard-to-observe) police actions and safety► ‘The police react on problems in the neighbourhood’
Information on specific hard-to-observe dimensions of police work► ‘The police don’t intervene sufficiently aggressive’
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Reliability of citizens' perceptions
Do citizens have any idea of police work?► Patterns in perceived police performance correspond
with anecdotal evidence (overall performance) and police data (police fining)
Aren’t citizens’ responses biased by the local safety situation?► Across municipalities: judgment in (low-crime) rural
areas just as likely to be negative as in (high-crime) urban areas
► Over time: 1993-2003, declining crime; growing dissatisfaction with police work
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NL: matching two local policing strategies with survey questions
Disorder policing: dissatisfaction with lack of ‘proactive’/ aggressive police intervention
Hot spots policing: is the police visible in those places where people appreciate it most?
‘See police once a week’
‘See
pol
ice
too
little
’
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Relation between perceived disorder and hot spots policing and safety
Crime and disorder go down more rapidly in municipalities that follow a pro-active approach to policing
Tougher, more targeted policing during 2003-2005 reduced disorder by 5%, property crime by 3%, violent crime by 2%
Might be underestimation because of simultaneity that has not been controlled for
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Conclusion
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Do we get ‘value for money’?
Ask ‘customers’; subjective evaluation of police strategies and how they contribute to safety► Citizen satisfaction provides meaningful information
on local policing► Relation between citizen satisfaction with police work
and local safety
Citizen satisfaction is a useful performance indicator for police tasks visible to the public
BCS citizen satisfaction questions currently very limited
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Dutch Victimisation Survey vs. British Crime Survey (◄)
Set of questions about police contact of victims of crime ◄ ‘The police do a good job’ ◄ ‘The police react on problems in the neighbourhood’ ! ‘The police do not intervene sufficiently forcefully’ ! ‘The police are too little visible’ ! ‘See the police at least once a week’ ! ‘The police offer protection’ ‘The police fine too little’ ‘The police do not arrive quickly when called’ ‘The police get out of the car too little’ ‘The police have too little time for all kinds of things’ ‘The police maintain contact with people in the n’hood’ ‘The police are too little approachable’ ‘The police address problems efficiently’
