"Efficiency and Effectiveness in Big City Police Departments," Public Administration
Review, 36 (May-June, 1976), 278-286.
Two concepts employed to gauge the performance of public and private organizations are "efficiency" and
"effectiveness." Effectiveness means task performance: effective organizations are those which meet
challenges put to them, satisfy demands for service, or solve problems. In the terminology of systems
analysis, they are organizations which convert a large proportion of their task-related inputs into desired
outputs. Efficiency, on the other hand, is defined in terms of processing costs. This report explores two
fundamental concepts used to evaluate organizational activity: efficiency and effectiveness. These are defined
in terms of the relationship between inputs and outputs for organizations and their relative processing costs.
The concepts are then applied to police departments and data from a large sample of cities are used to
explore the impact of several factors which presumably maximize efficiency and effectiveness. Evidence is
presented that organizational reforms (hiring black policemen) and innovations (employing computers and
civilians) enhance both dimensions of organizational performance.
Review, 36 (May-June, 1976), 278-286.
Two concepts employed to gauge the performance of public and private organizations are "efficiency" and
"effectiveness." Effectiveness means task performance: effective organizations are those which meet
challenges put to them, satisfy demands for service, or solve problems. In the terminology of systems
analysis, they are organizations which convert a large proportion of their task-related inputs into desired
outputs. Efficiency, on the other hand, is defined in terms of processing costs. This report explores two
fundamental concepts used to evaluate organizational activity: efficiency and effectiveness. These are defined
in terms of the relationship between inputs and outputs for organizations and their relative processing costs.
The concepts are then applied to police departments and data from a large sample of cities are used to
explore the impact of several factors which presumably maximize efficiency and effectiveness. Evidence is
presented that organizational reforms (hiring black policemen) and innovations (employing computers and
civilians) enhance both dimensions of organizational performance.
"Information, Apprehension and Deterrence: Exploring the Limits of Police
Productivity," Journal of Criminal Justice, (Fall, 1979), 217-242.
The capacity of police departments to solve crimes and apprehend offenders is low for many types of
crime, particularly crimes of profit. This article reviews a variety of studies of police apprehension and
hypothesizes that an important determinant of the ability of the police to apprehend criminals is information.
The complete absence of information for many types of crime places fairly clear upper bounds on the ability
of the police to effect solutions. To discover whether these boundaries are high or low we analyzed data from
the 1973 National Crime Panel about the types and amount of information potentially available to police
through victim reports and patrol activities. The evidence suggests that if the police rely on information made
readily available to them, they will never do much better than they are doing now. On the other hand, there
appears to be more information available to bystanders and passing patrols than currently is being used,
which suggests that surveillance strategies and improved police methods for eliciting, recording, and
analyzing information supplied by victims and witnesses might increase the probability of solving crimes and
making arrests. In light of this we review a few possibly helpful innovations suggested in the literature on
police productivity and procedure.
Productivity," Journal of Criminal Justice, (Fall, 1979), 217-242.
The capacity of police departments to solve crimes and apprehend offenders is low for many types of
crime, particularly crimes of profit. This article reviews a variety of studies of police apprehension and
hypothesizes that an important determinant of the ability of the police to apprehend criminals is information.
The complete absence of information for many types of crime places fairly clear upper bounds on the ability
of the police to effect solutions. To discover whether these boundaries are high or low we analyzed data from
the 1973 National Crime Panel about the types and amount of information potentially available to police
through victim reports and patrol activities. The evidence suggests that if the police rely on information made
readily available to them, they will never do much better than they are doing now. On the other hand, there
appears to be more information available to bystanders and passing patrols than currently is being used,
which suggests that surveillance strategies and improved police methods for eliciting, recording, and
analyzing information supplied by victims and witnesses might increase the probability of solving crimes and
making arrests. In light of this we review a few possibly helpful innovations suggested in the literature on
police productivity and procedure.
Policing Abstracts
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