police

Know them Better, Serve them
better: Measuring Public Opinions
on Policing
Johan Huizing
Eenheid Noord Nederland
December 10 2014 Prague
Who am I?
Johan Huizing, MA
• Projectmanager Quality Surveys Police Unit
North of the Netherlands (1992• Coordinator Crime Prevention for Local
Government (1987-1992)
Know them better,
Serve them better
• Strategic goal Police of the Netherlands:
Measuring & Improving Public Confidence in
Policing
• How?
1) National Crime Survey & (Local Safety Scan)
2) Police Service Monitor
Dutch Police
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Until 1992: 148 departments of municipal police
(>25.000 inhabitants) and 1 group national police force
for the rest
1992-2012: 26 regional Police forces
2012 – National Police Force; 11 units; 65.000
employees
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Units Police Holland
Strategic Intentions of our new
National Police (2012)
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1. Greater Effectivity
2. More Legitimacy and Confidence in the
police
3. Acting as One force
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How to obtain Confidence of the public
• Citizens want to be taken seriously by the
police
• They see themselves also as partners of
the police
What can help?
• Know them better/ better knowledge
• Serve them better / better service
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How to obtain better knowledge?
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Statistics on Crime, Burglary
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Recorded crime and dark number crime
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Example: Bicycle theft
First victimization survey 1989:
Bicycle theft in City of Groningen:
Reported 5.000
% reported in survey 35%
Real amount of cases: 14.286 (170.000 inhabitants)
What is the problem:
The 5000 cases that are reported or the 14.286 cases
that happened?
Conclusion of the local authorities: the problem is
greater than estimated and deserves a new approach
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Not only Police, also Community
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How to obtain better knowledge?
Survey among citizens
• 1993 First survey in the Netherlands (98.000 people)
• Method: Telephonic questionnaires
• Victimisation, reporting rate, feelings of unsafety,
recent experience with police, attitudes to police,
prevention
• Feelings of unsafety are also relevant for community
policing
• Survey should include attitude toward police and
confidence in police
• 2001: start with local web based surveys in each
municipality
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How to obtain better knowledge?
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How to obtain better knowledge?
Internet
6. Netherlands: 94,0%
34. Czech Republic: 74,1%
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How to obtain better knowledge?
Survey among citizens municipality
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Quality of policing
Text in entrance of University Medical Centre Groningen:
“You cannot be a Quality Hospital, you will have to become a Quality
Hospital every day”
Confidence in police one of the most important targets for the National
Police
• More than 50% of crimes is solved thanks to information of citizens
• Citizens will help police sooner if there is more confidence in the police
• In questionnaires always two questions about confidence in the police.
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How to obtain better service? Ask
• Ask the citizens that had
contact with you
• Customer satisfaction
survey
BUT:
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The problem with Client satisfaction
survey for the police
• Most commercial organizations have one type of clients:
Customers, who buy, should be satisfied and come again
• Police has several types of clients, some of them cannot be
satisfied and some of them should not come again
• It is not possible to ask all clients of the police in one
questionnaire whether they are satisfied
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The police has numerous types of
clients

Every client has different expectations

Citizens (asking for safety, information, police assistance)
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Offenders receiving a ticket or fine (asking for remission)
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Suspects (asking for proper treatment)
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Victims reporting a crime at the police station. by internet, by
telephone (they want their things back, the thief being caught)

Victims of traffic accidents
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The police has numerous types of
clients

Every client contact demands a different evaluation

Monitoring should be continuous and cheap

Questionnaires should be offered at a proper moment
after the contact e.g.:
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Phone contacts within a week
Reporting crimes after 6 weeks
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Six ways to report to the police
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How to obtain better knowledge?
Developing a Library of Questionnaires
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Procedure from sampling to connection
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Crossing Confidence with various ways
of giving feedback after burglary
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Crossing Confidence with various ways
of reacting after calling for assistance
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Crossing Confidence with various ways
dealing with traffic offenders
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At last
Police work is often like mopping with the
tap open, but the police is the only one
who can do this job excellently
Jurriën Rood, 2013
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Measuring is fine but:
By measuring temperature alone the weather
will not become better
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