The Role of Citizen, Essay Example, Essay Example

The question of the effectiveness of police officers, on the levels of both individuals and of supervisors, is complicated by the nature of their task: the prevention of crime. Sir Robert Peel’s remark regarding maximally effective police work and the lack of criminal enforcement speaks to the paradox of law enforcement: The best crime prevention would engender the elimination of criminal activity, and thus the elimination of the need for crime prevention itself. What Peel therefore identifies is the uniqueness of the law enforcement paradigm. When positing how to grade the performance of law enforcement, this paradigm itself must be considered.

Accordingly, grading approaches that highly rate police squads that commit more arrests tend to overlook the specificity of the law enforcement paradigm. These approaches essentially use an economic or capitalist index to measure law enforcement. Hence, the number of arrests made resembles something to the effect of the production of goods. In consequence, law enforcement has to produce a product, i.e., arrests, etc., in order to justify its existence. This approach implies a quantitative measure, as opposed to a qualitative measure of success. As Oettmeier and Wycoff (1999) define this distinction: “quantity (how much is done) refers to the number of specified acts within a given period of time. Quality (how well the act is done) is a function of the competence with which actions are performed.” (p. 59) Insofar as police work takes place within the setting of a community, with a primary social objective, the quantitative measure falls short: For example, a single crime can have a particularly traumatic effect on a community. Furthermore, a high quantity of traffic arrests for police may not mean an increase in the quality of life in the given community. Accordingly, because of the unique nature and task of law enforcement, a qualitative approach to assessing performance remains most pertinent. The qualitative approach best fits the law enforcement task, as this task is not one of positive production, but rather aims to produce a negative result: the minimization of crime itself.

This qualitative element can be considered in both internal and external senses. In terms of the external, quality can be assessed through inquiring about the general feelings of the community itself vis-à-vis the performance of its law enforcement agents. For example, is the community satisfied with both the strategies and the actions of the law enforcement? Are there noticeable increases in quality of life as a result of the work of the police? This attempt to assess the community’s reception of law enforcement can take the form of citizen surveys, which as Burckhardt and Ruiz (2008) contend, can help “evaluate the effectiveness of current programs through citizens’ subjective measures and…address concerns that had previously received little or no attention.” (p. 34) In terms of an internal qualitative assessment some of the pertinent questions may include: is the department itself satisfied with how it functions and the work it carries out? Is there a sense on the part of personnel that they are successful in their jobs; do they see improvements in their community because of their work? According to the invariably social nature of police work, it is precisely society itself that should be considered when reflecting on police effectivity.

While on a personal level, I have never worked in an environment that explicitly featured the quality-quantity dilemma; I have known people who have. For example, a colleague who is a former police detective was beset with this dilemma in his department. One of the key problems he identified is how economic modes of thinking have impacted the evaluation of law enforcement, such as the increasing quantitative approach to police work. For example, statistics in terms of number of tickets issued, etc., do not speak to the essence of law itself, but rather mimic economic means of success. The positing of law enforcement in terms of some type of productivity neglects the very aforementioned essence of police work that is, to maintain the rule of law and a quality of life that is (ideally) supported by this rule of law.

Accordingly, the measuring of police success and individual officers should be measured qualitatively, which is to say, in social terms as opposed to economic terms. The police department works within a social community; simultaneously, the police officer is a part of a social community. In this regard, assessments have to be made in terms of how the officer or the agency operate in the social realm, that is, if they satisfy their obligations to the law; accordingly, individual officers must be viewed in terms of their social function and if they fulfill their role. Because of the unique role of law enforcement within society, in essence what are required are new sets of standards to analyze the effectiveness of law enforcement, in order to effectively posit the unique nature of the profession.

Works Cited

Burckhardt, Charles and Ruiz, Jim. (2008). “The Role of Citizen Surveys in Responsive Policing.” In Ruiz, Jim and Hummer, Dennis. (eds.) Handbook of Police Administration. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group.

Oettmeier, Timothy N. and Wycoff, Mary Ann. (1999). “Personal Performance Evaluations in the Community-Policing Context.” In Kenney, Dennis Jay and McNamara, Robert J.

(eds.) Police and Policing: Contemporary Issues. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.