NCJ Number
92420
Date Published
1981
Length
53 pages
Annotation
This study of the New Zealand police focused on the effectiveness of primary ('frontline') and support activities as well as efficiency in the use of personnel, motor vehicles, computer systems, management information system, administrative support, capital acquisition, and increased funding.
Abstract
In this study, 'effectiveness' is defined as 'the degree of achievement of the objective of a particular activity as measured against the expected results.' Efficiency is viewed as the 'maximizing of output given a set level of input.' Although the New Zealand police have done considerable work on workload measurement, and some relatively crude statistical information was available, no significant work has been done to enable management to measure effectiveness in the various activities with any degree of precision. This was also true of the development of performance standards. Opinions on the effectiveness of support services were reached through a structured discussion with a statistical sample of the staff. It was concluded that savings would result from a greater use of civilian personnel in the performance of some tasks now done by sworn personnel. Supplementary materials are appended.