Community Policing in Madison, Wisconsin:  Evaluation of Implementation and Impact, 1987-1990

This study sought to evaluate the Madison, Wisconsin,
 Police Department's creation of a new organizational design (both
 structural and managerial) that was intended to support
 community-oriented and problem-oriented policing. One-sixth of the
 organization serving approximately one-sixth of the community was used
 as a test site for the new community policing approach. This
 Experimental Police District (EPD) was charged with implementing
 "quality policing," which emphasized quality of service delivery,
 quality of life in the community, and quality of life in the
 workplace. For the first part of the program evaluation, attitude
 changes among officers working in the EPD were compared with those of
 officers working in the rest of the police department. Part 1,
 Commissioned Personnel Data, Wave 1, contains responses from 269
 commissioned personnel surveyed in December 1987, before the creation
 of the EPD. Part 2, Commissioned Personnel Data, Wave 2, consists of
 responses from 264 police officers who completed a Wave 2 survey in
 December 1988, and Part 3, Commissioned Personnel Data, Wave 3,
 supplies responses from 230 police officers who completed a Wave 3
 survey in December 1989. Although the analysis was to be based on a
 panel design, efforts were made to survey all commissioned personnel
 during each survey administration period. Police personnel provided
 their assessments on how successfully quality leadership had been
 implemented, the extent to which they worked closely with and received
 feedback from other officers, the amount of their interaction with
 detectives, the amount of time available for problem-solving, ease of
 arranging schedules, safety of working conditions, satisfaction with
 working conditions, type of work they performed, their supervisor,
 commitment to the department, attitudes related to community policing
 and problem-solving, perception of their relationship with the
 community, views of human nature, attitudes toward change, attitudes
 toward decentralization, and demographic information. As the second
 part of the program evaluation, attitude changes among residents
 served by the EPD were compared with those of residents in the rest of
 the city. These data are presented in Part 4, Residents Data, Waves 1
 and 2. Data for Wave 1 consist of personal interviews with a random
 sample of 1,166 Madison residents in February and March 1988, prior to
 the opening of the EPD station. During the second wave, Wave 1
 respondents were interviewed by telephone in February and March
 1990. Residents provided their perceptions of police presence,
 frequency and quality of police-citizen contacts, estimates of the
 magnitude of various problems in their neighborhoods, evaluation of
 the problem-solving efforts of the police, perception of neighborhood
 conditions, levels of fear of crime, personal experience of
 victimization, knowledge of victimization of other residents, and
demographic information.

Tags: attitudes, community-policing, neighborhoods, police-citizen-interactions, police-community-relations, police-departments, program-evaluation, quality-of-life
Organization: Department of Justice