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Results for policing (wales, u.k.)

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Author: Feilzer, Martina

Title: The Impact of Value Based Decision Making on Policing in North Wales

Summary: This report summarises research examining the impact of value based decision making on front line policing practice; as well as its impact on front line policing staff‟s perception of their work. The research also considered the impact of value based decision making on the local community‟s evaluation of policing and the perception of police legitimacy; and the likelihood of the adoption of value based decision making increasing public confidence in the police. Value based decision making was introduced and rolled out to the whole of the North Wales Police force area in 2010. North Wales Police invested heavily in training all police staff and in total 76 training sessions were delivered and approximately 1,200 staff trained. Value based decision making is a decision making process and, in an organisational setting, has come to mean that all decisions made should be based on the values of the organisation. The process is designed to help deal with legitimate value conflicts or ambiguous situations in front line policing, such as conflicts between crime control focussed decisions and avoiding criminalisation where it serves no public interest. The research was carried out between October 2010 and August 2011 and consisted of number of research methods, including secondary data analysis, repeat interviews, and observational work. We observed training sessions for North Wales police staff; carried out repeat interviews with ten members of North Wales Police, a total of 30 interviews; analysed victim satisfaction surveys and the British Crime Survey; analysed a total of 45 sample cases dealt with under VBDM; and reviewed press coverage of North Wales Police. The introduction of value based decision making in North Wales Police mirrored a wider national trend to move away from a detection driven target culture and to return a degree of discretion to front line policing. The rationale for this shift in emphasis was to ensure that the scarce resources of policing are used to their best effect. North Wales Police implemented value based decision making as a formal decision making process with the aim of ensuring that discretion in front line policing was not completely unfettered but that there was discretion „with rules‟. The introduction of value based decision making which allowed front line police officers to make decisions and not to always act formally upon offences „detected‟ was seen to signify a culture change by senior North Wales Police management. While police staff generally welcomed an officially condoned return of discretion to the front line, their assessment of whether or not it constituted a culture change was mixed and generally more cautious. Some staff felt that they had always been able to use discretion and therefore considered the introduction of VBDM simply as confirmation as what they had been doing all along; others considered it to be a significant shift from the detection culture but one that they did not trust entirely. Police staff‟s understanding of VBDM was generally poor and some of this was due to the vague nature of the concept as well as the implementation process including the structure and content of the training sessions. Assessing the impact of value based decision making on those subjected to policing, as victims, offenders, or the general public is difficult. North Wales Police has not advertised the use of VBDM widely as far as could be ascertained from our exploratory media analysis. Additionally, only few members of the public would be exposed to VBDM in practice, mainly victims and offenders involved in minor crimes. As a result, it is unlikely that the effects of VBDM will be measurable in general public opinion surveys. However, it may be worthwhile monitoring user satisfaction surveys to assess whether non-detection under VBDM has an effect on levels of satisfaction with services received and, in particular, whether the rate of respondents indicating that „nothing had been done‟ increases. The impact of the introduction of value based decision making can be seen in a slight fall of the overall detection rate but its impact on police staff‟s assessment of their working practices was limited. A significant impact on public ratings of public confidence in North Wales Police is unlikely but there may be some measurable impact on user satisfaction. This is yet to be seen.

Details: Gwynedd, Wales: School of Social Sciences, Bangor University, 2012. 38p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed Mardh 18, 2013 at: http://wales.gov.uk/docs/caecd/research/130122-impact-value-based-decision-making-policing-north-wales-en.pdf

Year: 2012

Country: United Kingdom

URL: http://wales.gov.uk/docs/caecd/research/130122-impact-value-based-decision-making-policing-north-wales-en.pdf

Shelf Number: 128008

Keywords:
Police Decision-Making
Police Legitimacy
Police-Citizen Interactions
Police-Community Relations
Policing (Wales, U.K.)