NCJ Number
103764
Date Published
1986
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This report summarizes a study that compared the productivity of municipal police departments of varying sizes and identified factors that increased and decreased productivity.
Abstract
Productivity improvement occurs when police agencies can produce greater service levels with constant or reduced resource levels. This study of police productivity used data from a 1974-1975 descriptive study of all police departments in 85 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. From the total sample, subsets of 62 agencies with 25 to 50 sworn officers and 49 agencies with 100 to 200 sworn officers were selected. Efficiency analyses, performed separately for each size subset, used data envelopment and constrained facet analyses to compute efficiency scores, which were averaged for each agency and regressed on variables representing productivity enhancement. Output variables were the total number of crimes cleared and the average number of patrol units deployed. Input variables were the number of full-time sworn officers, the number of full-time civilian employees, and the number of police vehicles. The total number of reported crimes was a nondiscretionary input variable. Based on the findings, departments with 25 to 50 sworn officers could increase productivity by deploying more officers to one-person patrol units, increasing command and control staff, and limiting the substitution of civilians for sworn officers. Although the study identified the more efficient large departments, the managerial factors analyzed were not consistently related to variations in departmental efficiency. For the full report, see NCJ 103763. 2 tables and 2 footnotes.