The police are one of the actors involved in ensuring national security. Therefore, the relevance of this article stems from the need to ensure effective performance. The issue of studying the experience of countries in this field is relevant to find the best models to assess the activities of these structures, which will contribute to a better performance of tasks assigned to them by law - this is one of the tools to assess the performance of the police. The aim of the article was to investigate the peculiarities of police performance assessment, thereby identifying practices that can improve the assessment of police performance. The objective was achieved by using dogmatic, statistical, comparative legal methods and a system-structural approach. The authors revealed the peculiarities of police assessment in Ukraine, the USA, Canada, France and the UK. The focus is on the assessment of police performance based on the level of citizens' trust and statistical data. The conclusion is made that citizens' trust in the police is necessary for the effective performance of its tasks.