NCJ Number
81054
Date Published
1981
Length
603 pages
Annotation
This report comprises a comprehensive description of the Police Performance and Productivity Measurement System (PPPm) and a PPPm 'package' containing conceptual material, measurement tools, and procedural guidelines developed to aid police departments in measuring their effectiveness and productivity. The report also includes an evaluation of the system based on tests in three large urban police departments.
Abstract
The PPPm system offers police chiefs, sheriffs, and city and county officials a management information system that thoroughly assesses achievement. The system focuses on the degree to which departmental objectives are achieved successfully and on the cost incurred to attain objectives. PPPm measures achievement of ultimate objectives rather than the activities undertaken to reach the objectives. For example, in evaluating the traffic function the PPPm measures the vehicle accident rate rather than the number of traffic citations issued. To measure objectives, the system supplies sets of measurement tools containing mathematical measures of objective attainment, instructions for computing the measures, and standards for judging the attainment of objectives. PPPm supplies sets to measure 46 objectives, grouped into 5 categories: crime prevention, crime control, conflict resolution, police services, and administration. The comprehensiveness of the system is seen as an advantage to local police agencies who typically gather some information on crime prevention and control but pay little attention to conflict resolution, services, and administration. Moreover, police collect data that are frequently unrelated to the objectives of the departments. Implementation of PPPm requires modeling to determine how many and which departmental objectives will be measured, developing a baseline of measurement tools already in use, providing for measurement of additional objectives, scheduling target dates, and preparing plans for system implementation. Field tests in three different cities during 1977 and 1978 compared the system to each department's prior performance measurement capability. PPPm was considered an improvement over performance measures already in place. Extensive worksheet, log, and report materials are supplied along with the sets for each objective.