Evaluating a Police Report

An evaluation system was developed for a police department using the MAUT-Baysian (Multiple Attribute Utility-Baysian Statistics) system of strategy evaluation. This system requires the elected officials, police department, and community to jointly establish the goals for the police department. These goals are then rank ordered from most important to least important. A weighting system is then established using the least important goal as the unit of measure to ensure goal consistency.

Both objective and subjective measures were developed to help assess the success of the Department meeting these goals. Measurements included comparisons between the Department and other similar departments on areas of concern, survey results of citizen and police attitudes, and observational information. After completing the data collection for the evaluation it is placed on a matrix to aid the decision maker get a complete overview of the Department. The array allows the manager to see quickly how the Department is doing on each goal and how the Department is doing as a whole.

The management implications for the system are extensive and powerful, since the manager can see how resource allocation or change can affect overall success. By shifting small resources from lower ranked to higher ranked goals major changes in police effectiveness can be accomplished.