Citizen satisfaction as indicator of police effectiveness

1
Citizen satisfaction as indicator of police
effectiveness

• Ben Vollaard
• CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy
  Analysis
• September 29, 2006

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Finding out how well the police performwithout
being knowledgeable about police work
sickness absence
citizen satisfaction
response time
fear of crime
detection rate
Do you get where you pay for?
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Outline of presentation

• Why subjective performance assessment?
• How useful a performance indicator is citizen
  satisfaction?
• Conclusions

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Why subjective assessment?
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Ex ante (objective) vs. Ex post (subjective)
assessment
EW
NL
ex post
ex ante
Define good performance ex ante, rule-based, no
room for subjective judgment
Subjective assessment ex post, incl. customer
satisfaction/ professional judgment

• 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 dont 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)
• Arent 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 too little
See police once a week
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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
  nhood
• The police are too little approachable
• The police address problems efficiently