Search results

The touted benefits of inter-governmental contracting are cost savings and simplicity when compared to shared service agreements. Some managers and public officials resist contracting given the assumption that there may be a drop-off in service quality. However, inter-governmental contracting introduces market forces which theoretically would improve performance while keeping costs per unit of output low (Boyne, 1998). This paperexamines municipal police contracting in the State of New Jersey, the purpose of which is to determine if there are statistically significant differences in non-violent crime rates among municipalities that maintain their own police force versus those that contract with neighboring municipalities for police services. Contracting costs are also explored. While summary statistics indicate lower non-violent crime rates among municipalities that maintain their own police force compared to those that contract for police services, multiple regression results indicate that contracting does not predict higher non-violent crime rates at the .05 level. Therefore, contracting for police services should be explored as an alternative municipal policing model.

The organisational and service delivery landscape of the emergency services in the UK has been rapidly changing and is facing further change in the foreseeable future. The purpose of this paper is to examine recent and ongoing organisational changes in the policy development, service delivery and regulatory landscape of the emergency services, in order to capture the overall picture and potential opportunities for improvement or further investigation.

This general review utilises the characteristics of the three domains of a national framework, namely, policy development, service delivery and public assurance, and uses these characteristics as lenses to examine the three main blue light emergency services of police, fire and ambulances.

What emerges in the organisational landscape and conceptual maps for the police and even more so for the Fire and Rescue Service, is the immaturity of many of the organisations in the policy and the public assurance domains while the service delivery organisations have remained relatively stable. In the relatively neglected ambulance services, we find the NHS’s recent Ambulance Response Programme has considerable potential to improve parts of all three domains.

The review is limited to the UK and primarily focussed on England.

The review identifies opportunities for improvement, potential improvement and further research.

Although the National Audit Office has attempted in the past to provide organisational landscape reviews of individual emergency services, this contemporary comparative review of all three services using a common model is unique. It provides considerable new insights for policy makers, service delivers and regulators.

Police-reported incidents of cybercrime appear to vary dramatically across Canadian municipal police services. This paper explores cybercrime reporting by police services in eight of Canada's largest municipalities, assessing (1) variation over time; (2) variation across jurisdictions; and (3) correlates of reporting volumes.

Data was collected from a combination of national Uniform Crime Report statistics and annual reports by police services. Two repeated one-way ANOVA tests and a Pearson's r correlation matrix were used to assess variation and correlation.

Findings suggest that police-reported cybercrime varies significantly across jurisdictions but not over time. Moreover, negative relationships were observed between police-reported cybercrime incidents per 100,000 residents and calls for service per 100,000, as well as number of sworn officers per 100,000.

The study assessed a small sample of cities (N = 8) providing 32 data points, which inhibited robust multivariate analyses. Data also strictly represents calls to police services, therefore excluding alternative resolutions such as public–private interventions.

Canadian provincial and federal governments should consider engaging in high-level talks to harmonize cybercrime reporting strategies within frontline policing. This will mitigate disparity and provide more accurate representations of cybercrime for future policy development. Additionally, services should revisit internal policies and procedures, as it appears that cybercrime is deprioritized in high call volume situations.

This paper introduces previously unreported data about police-reported cybercrime incidents in Canada. Furthermore, it adds quantitative evidence to support previous qualitative studies on police responses to cybercrime.

Neo‐liberal policies have had a profound effect on the organization of policing in Canada by rationalizing provincial and federal initiatives that off‐load policing costs to municipal and regional councils. This paper aims to comparatively analyze the effect of these initiatives on service delivery for regional versus non‐regional police services.

Four measures were used to assess efficiency: per capita cost, cost per criminal code offence, number of officers per 100,000 population, and number of support staff per 100,000 population. Three measures were used to assess effectiveness: violent crime clearance rate, property crime clearance rate, and total criminal code clearance rate.

Analysis of the data reveals that, despite claims surrounding regionalization, regional police services are not demonstrably any more effective or efficient than non‐regional services.

Utilizes official crime data and police expenditure statistics. A national survey of police service delivery and citizen satisfaction is needed. Practical implications – These results can inform municipal and town council decisions about regional (or provincial contract) versus local police service provision. Originality/value – The first comprehensive comparative Canadian study on the efficiency and effectiveness of police regionalization. The article empirically challenges the purported relative effectiveness and efficiency of larger regional police services versus smaller non‐regional services in Canada.

The present analysis examines police incident‐based activity in a public housing setting. Calls for service to the Philadelphia Housing Authority Police Department are described by call types in order to identify requests for police services by residents of the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Findings from the current research are compared and contrasted to what has been discovered about incident‐based activity in municipal police departments. The analysis reveals that public housing police respond in about the same proportion as municipal police to calls for service related to public order and (in some cases) reactive law enforcement, but that differential service demands exist, which are identified and placed in the public housing context. Additionally, it is found that incident‐driven activity levels in public housing are much lower than criminological research on crime in public housing might suggest. Implications for future research are discussed.

Many organisations attempt to improve their performance through innovation but innovative activities exert an undefined influence on police performance. Furthermore, studies on determining the role of creative leadership and knowledge sharing on the relationship between service innovation and police performance are scarce. Thus, the aforementioned relationship was empirically analysed in this study using creative leadership and knowledge sharing as moderating variables.

In this quantitative cross-sectional study, data were collected from 435 Ajman police employees using an online questionnaire. The hypothesised associations were tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The statistical findings clearly demonstrated that service innovation favourably influenced the Ajman police performance. Creative leadership positively moderated the relationship between service innovation and police performance while knowledge sharing did not.

The results presented a wide range of theoretical and practical implications. Police performance can be improved by promoting service innovation, which can be enhanced by creative leadership.

Empirical research that examined the connection between innovation and police performance is scarce. Additionally, the role of creative leadership and knowledge sharing in this relationship is unknown. Thus, this research aims to close the knowledge gap and provided data to support the hypotheses. This study is unique as these factors are used in police agencies.

This paper aims to examine the extent to which police services are set up to deal with hate crime against people with learning disabilities; looking at infrastructure, policies, procedures and levels of awareness and understanding.

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with representatives from 14 police services in England. Key documents submitted by the police services were reviewed, and a focus group with eight people with learning disabilities was conducted.

Many police services are committed to tackling hate crime against people with learning disabilities. A wide variety of individuals have responsibility for dealing with hate crime and accountability structures are often unclear. Many services do not have hate crime policies that deal specifically with people with learning disabilities, or even disabled people in general. More training is required to ensure relevant staff are equipped to deal with the issues. Hate crime statistics are regarded as unreliable due to significant under‐reporting, although a few services have implemented innovative interventions to encourage reporting through awareness‐raising and multi‐agency working.

The Coalition Government has called for greater efforts at combating disability hate crime. It is widely acknowledged that the police are still failing disabled victims and witnesses. This paper identifies specific areas for improvement as well as innovative and effective practice that should be shared more widely.

The purpose of this paper is to review officer support for the consolidation of law enforcement agencies.

The current study surveys 139 officers employed by four agencies that have recently undergone a consolidation of police services. The survey asked officers their level of support for consolidation of services as well as their views of how consolidation has affected employment conditions, organizational characteristics, and the delivery of police services.

While officers generally support consolidation, views on the effects of shared services vary significantly by level of support. Officers who most strongly support consolidation are also most likely to view it as leading to improvements in some working conditions (e.g. job satisfaction, morale), elements of organizational capacity (e.g. professionalism, investigative/intelligence capacity, recruitment), and the delivery of services (e.g. cost-effectiveness, quality and efficiency of services, and reductions in crime).

The sample size and response rate are low. Still, the study offers insights into officer views of consolidation not previously available.

This research offers insights to communities considering the consolidation of police services regarding what organizational, employment, and service conditions are most likely to appeal to officers, whose support is necessary for successful implementation.

While single case studies previously considered officer attitudes on these issues, this work is the first to comparatively examine views of shared services across varying levels of support for consolidation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions and satisfaction between police officers and citizens on Kinmen Island (of Taiwan), using an analytical framework that combines five primary dimensions and 25 corresponding determinants.

It considers recent developments in the application of performance measures and management to public and, particularly, police services. It goes on to assess comparative rural police performance which suggests that the application of targets could ultimately serve to provide the overall satisfaction with police services.

The findings of the study suggest that perceptions and satisfaction of both citizens and police staff may result in the success of the policing management, and that police managers have to satisfy their citizens with a high level of service quality based on different localities.

From managerial perspectives, police managers should consider both the service quality and customer satisfaction constructs as determinants of behavioural intentions, based on the fact that satisfaction can be a strategic key to maintain long term relationship with citizens as it is found of significant impact on the intentional behaviour.

This research adds empirical support to this vein of literature and has identified the five main dimensions and the 25 sub-dimensions as important constructs for police service quality.

The purpose of the paper is to present and test a particular theory of pricing of police services.

A theory of police pricing was developed, then tested using data collected from a mail survey of Chiefs of Police in Pennsylvania.

Pricing practices vary considerably among police departments. There appears to be no underlying theory in the practice of pricing of police services.

Research was limited to one state in the USA and for a limited number of police services.

In setting prices, police departments ought to consider how the price charged is consistent or inconsistent with achieving their overall departmental goals.

No previous empirical studies on how police departments charge for their services have been found. This research may lead to a more complete understanding of policing operations.