Police & Law Enforcement Performance Standards
and Levels of Service

Contents

• Measuring Service Performance
• Community Surveys
• Community Feed Back forms
• Statistical Resources
• Program Goals and Measures in Budget Narratives
• Sample Annual Reports

Measuring Service Performance

• BJA Program Evaluation - Bureau of Justice Assistance Program Evaluation
• Problem Solving/Performance Standards - Community Policing Consortium
• Policing for the People ( 49 KB), Police Foundation, by Stephen Mastrofski, (Ideas in Community Policing Papers), March 1999
• Police Levels of Service ( 34 KB), from Level of Service Standards - Measures for Maintaining the Quality of Community Life, MRSC Report 31,1994
• Benchmarking : A Method for Achieving Superior Performance in Law Enforcement Services, National League of Cities, 1996. 38 p. Publication available as MRSC Library Loan
• Officer-Per-Thousand Formulas and Other Policy Myths, by John Campbell, Joseph Brann, and David Williams, Public Management, March 2004. MRSC Library Loan
• Performance Measures What Works ( 88.5 KB), National Criminal Justice Referral Service, OJJDP Fact Sheet, December 1998, #71
• Measuring the Performance of Police Departments, League of California Cities, City Managers Department, 1994. Publication available as MRSC Library Loan
• Measuring What Matters Part One: Measures of Crime, Fear, and Disorder, Community Policing Consortium, by Thomas V. Brady, National Institute of Justice Research in Action NCJ, December 1996
• Measuring What Matters Part Two: Developing Measures of What the Police Do ( 259 KB), National Criminal Justice Referral Service, National Institute of Justice, Research in Action, NCJ 167255, November 1997

Community Surveys

• Conducting Community Surveys: A Practical Guide for Law Enforcement Agencies, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ 178246, October 1999
• A Police Guide to Surveying Citizens and Their Environment ( 338 KB), National Criminal Justice Referral Service, Bureau of Justice Assistance Monograph, October 1993
• Police Department Community Survey (108 KB), RCPTI Online, by David L. Carter, Michigan State University. This is a model survey containing questions which may be useful to understanding issues and concerns within the community. Since this is a model survey, it is recommended that questions be used as guidelines only. Relevant questions can be selected out of the survey and modified as necessary to best apply to your community.
• Vancouver, Washington  Police Department Annual Report Card Survey

Law Enforcement Community Feedback Forms

• Oak Harbor Police Department Feedback
• DuPont Citizen Police Comment Form ( 51 KB)
• Kent Citizen Commendation/Comment/Complaint
• Olympia Compliments, Complaints, Suggestions (Link on Police Department Page) 
• Seattle OPA - Commendation/Complaint Form
• Sequim Police Survey and Comment Form

Statistical Resources

Caution should exercised when using statistics for comparative service measures. There are no state standards for levels of service for law enforcement. Service levels are generally a local policy decision. Second, there are many variables for each community including physical and social characteristics. The security needs of one community may be very different than another.

• Crime in Washington Annual Reports And Archives - Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Contains reports from 1980 to present.
• Local Police Departments 2000 - NCJ 186478, January 2003
  • Sheriffs Offices in 2000 - NCJ 196534, January 2003
• Washington Population, Land Area, and Density for Cities and Towns - Office of Financial Management, from 2005 Washington State Data Book 
• Land Area of  Washington Counties see Individual County Profiles in 2005 Washington State Data Book 

Program Goals and Measures in Budget Narratives

The following are sample program budgets for police departments which provide narratives that cite goals, performance measures, and outcomes

• Everett 2006 Budget, Police ( 975 KB)
• Longview 2005-2006 Budget, Police ( 9.76 MB)
• Lynnwood 2005-2006 Police Budget  ( 234 KB)
• Olympia 2006 Police Budget  ( 1.56 MB)
• Renton 2006 Police Budget ( 110 KB)

Sample Annual Reports

• Seattle Police Department Annual Reports
• Sequim Police Annual Report 2007
• Shoreline Annual Police Service Efforts and Accomplishments Report ( 2.4 MB), 2001, Contracted Service with King County
• Tukwila Police Department 2003 Annual Report
• Vancouver Police Annual Report 2004 ( 3.92 MB)