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The Measurement Of Police Force Efficiency: An Assessment Of U.K. Home Office Policy

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  • LEIGH M. DRAKE
  • RICHARD SIMPER

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, governments around the world have implemented strategies and targets to ensure that public services are efficient in the management of resources. In the United Kingdom this common agenda has led to the recent Police Reform Act 2002 in which consideration was given to how police forces can show value for money based on government strategic policy targets. This article presents a critique of the performance radar technique proposed by the Home Office in the United Kingdom as a new public policy objective to assess police force performance. Using an alternative and innovative nonparametric modeling strategy, the article shows that the use of the former approach can produce biased performance rankings and also demonstrate that environmental factors can have a substantial impact on the apparent efficiency of individual police forces. Finally, the results suggest that survey data (as used by the Home Office) should not be used as a basis to assess police performance. (JEL C14, L3, M2)

Suggested Citation

  • Leigh M. Drake & Richard Simper, 2005. "The Measurement Of Police Force Efficiency: An Assessment Of U.K. Home Office Policy," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(4), pages 465-482, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:23:y:2005:i:4:p:465-482
    DOI: 10.1093/cep/byi035
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. David Mason & Carola Hillenbrand & Kevin Money, 2014. "Are Informed Citizens More Trusting? Transparency of Performance Data and Trust Towards a British Police Force," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 321-341, June.
    2. Hall, Maximilian J.B. & Liu, Wenbin B. & Simper, Richard & Zhou, Zhongbao, 2013. "The economic efficiency of rehabilitative management in young offender institutions in England and Wales," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 38-49.
    3. Mallikarjun, Sreekanth & Lewis, Herbert F. & Sexton, Thomas R., 2014. "Operational performance of U.S. public rail transit and implications for public policy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 74-88.
    4. Verschelde, Marijn & Rogge, Nicky, 2012. "An environment-adjusted evaluation of citizen satisfaction with local police effectiveness: Evidence from a conditional Data Envelopment Analysis approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 214-225.
    5. Richard SIMPER & Thomas WEYMAN‐JONES, 2008. "Evaluating Gains From Mergers In A Non‐Parametric Public Good Model Of Police Services," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 79(1), pages 3-33, March.
    6. Rogge, Nicky & Simper, Richard & Verschelde, Marijn & Hall, Maximilian, 2015. "An analysis of managerialism and performance in English and Welsh male prisons," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(1), pages 224-235.
    7. Isabel-María García-Sánchez & Luis Rodríguez-Domínguez & Javier Parra-Domínguez, 2013. "Yearly evolution of police efficiency in Spain and explanatory factors," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 21(1), pages 31-62, January.
    8. Surender Kumar & Sudesh Kumar, 2015. "Does modernization improve performance: evidence from Indian police," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 57-77, February.
    9. Wen-Jen Tsay & Cliff J. Huang & Tsu-Tan Fu & I-Lin Ho, 2009. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Censored Stochastic Frontier Models: An Application to the Three-Stage DEA Method," IEAS Working Paper : academic research 09-A003, Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
    10. Gorman, Michael F. & Ruggiero, John, 2008. "Evaluating US state police performance using data envelopment analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 1031-1037, June.
    11. Hall, Maximilian J.B. & Kenjegalieva, Karligash A. & Simper, Richard, 2011. "An alternative to the weighted score card approach to measuring performance: An analysis of English and Welsh probation boards," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 184-193, December.
    12. Thyago Celso Cavalcante Nepomuceno & Katarina Tatiana Marques Santiago & Cinzia Daraio & Ana Paula Cabral Seixas Costa, 2022. "Exogenous crimes and the assessment of public safety efficiency and effectiveness," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 316(2), pages 1349-1382, September.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • L3 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise
    • M2 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics

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