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Measuring Police Performance

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Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice

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Overview

Successful organizations have one critical thing in common: they get the right people on the bus (Collins 2001). Selecting top quality individuals is a critical first step in creating a highly effective organization. In general, this is true but nowhere is it more the case than in a police department. Consider the fact that in almost every other type of organization, deficiencies in selection can at least be partially corrected by successfully introducing supervisors and other leaders from outside the organization. In police departments, it is rare, in fact highly unlikely, that supervisors and other leaders come from anywhere else except those who joined the force as new officers. The pool of applicants for promotions and ultimately departmental leadership is almost exclusively made up of individuals who have come up through the ranks. Ineffective selection programs and the inevitable hiring mistakes that occur even with the best selection processes result in limitations in...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University and EB Jacobs, 508C Keller Building, 16802, University Park, PA, USA

    Rick Jacobs

  2. Penn State Justice and Safety Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, 329 Outreach, Suite 222, 16802, University Park, PA, USA

    Don Zettlemoyer

  3. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Lawrence Houston

Authors
  1. Rick Jacobs
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  2. Don Zettlemoyer
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  3. Lawrence Houston
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rick Jacobs .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  2. VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  3. Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    David Weisburd

  4. Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Weisburd

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Jacobs, R., Zettlemoyer, D., Houston, L. (2014). Measuring Police Performance. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_187

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_187

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2

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