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Chapter 14. Goal Measurement <br />What information can or should we gather and analyze that will us to <br />measure our agency's impact (e.g., complaint sustain rates, levels of <br />community satisfaction, levels of community trust, lawsuits, settlements, <br />uses of deadly force, policy changes, compliance rates, or early warning <br />system indicators)? <br />With the goal of improving the public's trust in the police, surveys of the public and <br />police can be a useful method for obtaining repeat measures in levels of trust and <br />mutual cooperation and support over time. A local university can be an important <br />partner to help create valid research instruments suited to the community served. This <br />effort is further aided by data provided by police agencies. To ensure cooperation in <br />this effort, provisions for access to police data should be specified in the enabling <br />legislation. <br />If appropriate, the tracking of monetary settlements of lawsuits or the awards made to <br />victims of police misconduct will help measure the success and cost efficiency of an <br />agency over time (See Chapter 13 above). <br />Complainant and respondent satisfaction measures are used by a few agencies but so <br />much depends on how these are constructed and implemented that they are not usually <br />recommended as the best way to demonstrate agency impact. Most agencies work for <br />the greater good of the community, not on the side of either complainant or respondent. <br />This need for maintaining neutrality often causes dissatisfaction for one of the two <br />parties. <br />An agency that can document major police department policy changes is more likely to <br />survive than one that closes hundreds of complaint cases but cannot document <br />changes in policy. <br />It is important to occasionally sample community groups to get a sense of how many <br />people know that your agency exists. It is recommended that each agency sets goals to <br />increase the percentage of citizens that not only are aware of the agency but have had <br />opportunities to meaningfully engage with the process and help improve public safety in <br />their own community. <br />35 <br />65D-164 <br />