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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:32 am
Time: 11:32 am
Results for policing (netherlands)
2 results foundAuthor: Vollaard, Ben Title: Performance Contracts for Police Forces Summary: In 2003, the government will enter into performance contracts with each of the 25 regional police forces. The performance contracts establish a direct link between meeting a number of quantitative performance targets and financial incentives. A major improvement in police performance is necessary to meet the objective of 20 to 25 percent less criminal and disorderly behavior by 2006. A closer look at the performance contracts learns that they may not be the most appropriate policy instrument to achieve this objective. The nature of police work does not allow for advance planning of outputs. The police consist of professionals who need a high degree of discretion to do their work. The targets invite adverse behavioral effects. Management could become focused on 'meeting the numbers' rather than on delivering results. Because of the wide variety in police tasks and the low measurability of quality, there is a wide gap between performance measures and results. The financial incentives make it worse, by forcing a yes/no decision based on weighing multiple, non discrete performance measures. Moreover, the targets are likely to be off since the government does not have the information to set them at the right level. Less financial resources for poorly performing forces also adversely affect citizens. They cannot choose between providers of police services as in the case of hospitals or schools. Experiences in Australia and the United Kingdom suggest an alternative approach. They focus on benchmarking of police forces without direct financial incentives. Both countries have invested many years in improving the quality and comparability of police data as well as methods for fair comparisons between forces. Based on these comparisons, police forces are hold accountable. Consequently, the police are being forced to develop a clear picture of the effects of their approach in terms of the region's specific problems. The Dutch government could follow a similar approach. A system of peer review and customer satisfaction surveys can be instrumental in assessing a force's performance and in providing ideas for improvement. Critical assessment of performance data by knowledgeable people is a necessary ingredient to a policy of holding the police accountable to results. It stimulates a culture of experimenting, data collection and analysis, and singling out and sharing best practices. Such a change is necessary to bring about the desired improvement in police performance. Details: The Hague: CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, 2003. 119p. Source: Internet Resource: CPB Document No. 31: Accessed February 9, 2011 at: http://www.cpb.nl/sites/default/files/publicaties/download/performance-contrasts-police-forces.pdf Year: 2003 Country: Netherlands URL: http://www.cpb.nl/sites/default/files/publicaties/download/performance-contrasts-police-forces.pdf Shelf Number: 120728 Keywords: Police AccountabilityPolice PerformancePolicing (Netherlands) |
Author: Hoogenboom, A.B. Title: Bringing the police back in. Notes on the lost & found character of the police in police studies Summary: Narratives - or storytelling - are essential elements of our history and culture. In his Origins of Stories, Boyd (2009) argues that narratives are a specifically human adaptation. They offer tangible advantages for human survival, and are derived from playing, itself an adaption widespread among intelligent animals. More particularly, our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity. The need to hold an audience’s attention, Boyd underscores, is the fundamental problem facing all storytellers. Today, I will do just that in trying to hold your attention. This lecture is about politics, policing and the police, and it brings back in the political context of policing - and also how this relates to the craft of policing. I define the craft of policing in terms of the core tasks of the police: maintaining public order, enforcing the law, offering services to the public and securing the underlying quality of (criminal) intelligence - and finally executing these tasks in a timely and professional way. And by ‘professional’ I mean ‘within the boundaries of the law’, and thus proportionate. Still, the term ‘professional’ here is also about setting one’s own moral standards and about being self-critical when it comes to assessing one’s performance. In the first part of my lecture I will define the political context of policing from which the core tasks of the police are derived. Next, I will give an overview of what these core tasks are. In the second part of my lecture I shall argue how in the last 35 years both the political context and the craft of policing have gradually disappeared in police research. Layers and layers of academic knowledge bringing in theories, concepts, definitions and ideas from different social sciences have been put on top of the craft of policing. Most of the research concerned here deals with organizational and managerial issues, or with descriptions of police processes. As a result, the political and theoretical context of policing, receiving less and less attention in research, is increasingly often ignored. I put forward six interrelated factors to explain why and how this happened. In the third part of my lecture I will bring the police back into police research by arguing that the political context is changing. I will do this on two levels. On the first level I shall argue that order keeping and law enforcement, and the quality of intelligence needed to execute these tasks, is becoming more prominent in actual policing. The Dutch police system is slowly evolving from a service and consent model of policing towards a system in which order keeping, law enforcement and intelligence is being brought in. Yet, much of the police research still clings to the theories, models, concepts and ideologies of a police system oriented towards service to the public. This means other research questions have to formulated. Which is what I will do. On the second level, the strategically relevant question, both for the political system and the police, asks what - if at all - the function is of the police in today’s network society in which a multitude of agencies and private actors are currently supplying safety and security. I will bring in recent research to fuel this discussion. Finally, I shall thank some of the people who have been an inspiration for me, and thank others who have made it possible for me to lecture, to write, and to tell stories - and who have enabled me throughout my career to satisfy my curiosity and my interest in policing. Details: Dordrecht, Netherlands: Stichting Maatschappij, Veiligheid en Politie, 2009. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 13, 2012 at http://www.smvp.nl/files/hoogenboom_english.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Netherlands URL: http://www.smvp.nl/files/hoogenboom_english.pdf Shelf Number: 124520 Keywords: Police Behavior (Netherlands)Police Policies and Procedures (Netherlands)Policing (Netherlands) |