Policing as a performing art? The contradictory nature of contemporary police performance management

Abstract

Performance management in criminal justice organisations has become a prominent issue in many countries and has faced increasing criticisms by scholars and practitioners. In this regard it is important to examine empirically how performance frameworks work concretely. We do so through the empirical examination of "performance regimes", i.e. the sets of performance indicators, internal procedures, instruments and processes of internal accountability through which performance is defined, assessed and monitored work in police organisations.By using the categories of traditional (target-based, top-down and short-term) and advanced (processes, more deliberative and creative and long-term) performance regimes, we have charted a process of evolution illustrated by the experience of two police forces in England. We argue that police performance management is a contradictory and hybrid process containing elements of both traditional and advanced regimes and in constant flux between them. Problem-solving and a focus on the quality of processes coexist with cascading pressures, an emphasis on numerical targets and other features of more traditional regimes.

A ‘good job’ in difficult conditions: Detectives’ reflections, decisions and discriminations in the context of ‘joint enterprise’

“…The criminal justice system in England and Wales has undergone significant transformation in the movement towards neo-liberalism. For the police, this shift has introduced changes in officers’ material existence and their cultural ‘order’, requiring the prioritization of actuarial strategies that focus on the identification and management of ‘risky’ populations (Feeley and Simon, 1992) and the achievement of specified targets (de Maillard and Savage, 2018). This cultural change has created work pressures that have been further exacerbated by a 20% reduction in police funding since 2010 (HMIC, 2013) at a time when violent crime has increased by 132% (in the five years between 2013 and 2018) (ONS, 2019).…”

The perverse impact of performance measures on policing: lessons from the rise and fall of out of court disposals

“…The announcement of a new Crime and Policing Performance Board (Patel 2020) signals a return to centralised performance measures. This research lends weight to the idea that any such performance regime should be of the more advanced, deliberative type, taking a longer-term view (to the extent that the political cycle will allow) and drawing on a range of measures, (including serviceusers experiences), measuring the process and focusing on what is achieved by different outcomes, rather than adopting a short-termist, targets-based approach and/or counting outputs (Curtis 2015, de Maillard andSavage 2018).…”

Is there ‘discretionary space’ in rank-based police constabularies for graduate constables to think critically and make autonomous decisions?

“…This monitoring and control can be seen in the positive arrest policy in cases of domestic abuse (Diemer et al, 2017;Myhill, 2019), the introduction of body worn video (Rowe, Pearson and Turner, 2018) and the detailed, time limited, demands of the National Crime Recording (McFadzien and Phillips, 2019). While these policies were designed in response to genuine concerns about the needs of victims and a desire to ensure that individual officers act conscientiously and with integrity, they do appear to conflict with a professionalisation agenda (Heslop, 2011b;de Maillard and Savage, 2018;Williams, Norman and Rowe, 2019).…”