Productivity in the police

Policing is under pressure to demonstrate the public benefits of the substantial investments it has received. The productivity performance of the police sector has long been an issue of considerable interest but struggles with a significant lack of evidence.

The assessment of policing’s productivity performance is even more difficult than that of other public sectors due to the multi-outputs and multi-outcomes nature of police activity and the continuously shifting priorities for the police from a policy, strategic and operational perspective.

Professor Bart van Ark and Research Associate Joel Hoskins researched a background study on policing productivity with the Policing Productivity Team , which contributed to the Policing Productivity Review, an independent review commissioned by the Home Office through the National Police Chiefs' Council , which was published in November 2023. It is part of the Treasury’s public sector productivity drive.

The report details the range of barriers in implementing productivity enhancing methods in the police and where data could be improved. ?It points to a range of barriers in implementing productivity enhancing methods in the police, including budget constraints, frequent policy interventions and the need to ‘fire-fight’ small crises to the detriment of long-term programmes that are conducive to productivity.

In part, barriers are also caused by a lack of bandwidth for leaders in the force to follow through with critical initiatives already underway in a clear, consistent, and scale-up manner.

The report considered 250 works covering:

• The police delivery chain: Developing an understanding of how police budgets and inputs are transformed into activities (outputs) which are then turned into societal outcomes.
• Measurement of police productivity: An overview of the data that is available for measuring police productivity.
• Drivers of police productivity: An overview of the key factors (organisation, people, and technology) by which an organisation can improve its productivity.
• Practical management of police productivity: How organisations should think about putting insights on productivity improvements into practice.

Areas of attention

The study identified ways to drive improvements in the productivity performance of the sector:

1. Mapping of service delivery chains for each function in the police force. A better understanding of budgets, inputs, output and outcomes for each core and ancillary function will help to determine what success looks like and what the needs are to drive productivity.
2. Measurement of police productivity at both the aggregate level and the organisational level should be a major priority. However, such measurement efforts either require investment in new data collection or significant work on replacing missing data with substituted values.
3. Sustainable productivity growth is obtained through the nurturing of three drivers of productivity growth – the organisational driver and the technological driver to help digital transformation; and the individual driver to help create an agile workforce. Organisational learning is a key principle to unlock those drivers of productivity, as it will be able to continually identify and implement productivity improvements.
4. Integrated approach to change management as is common practice in large scale private-sector organisations. Change management and the prioritisation of new projects through the management constraints approach reduce risk of failure. Evidence-based management, transparent communication, and internal and external collaboration are key drivers to manage productivity on a consistent basis.

Police productivity in action

The Productivity Institute ’s partnership with the Institute for Government on the topic of productivity in the public sector led to a focus on the criminal justice system as part of the event series Productivity Pitches where three case studies were detailed:

• Police use of video calls: The Policing Productivity Team detailed how this technology has led to a more tailored response for crime victims in certain domestic abuse cases and greater efficiency and productivity for the service.
• New approaches to cautions: The charity, Hampton Trust , spoke about the roll-out of their CARA programme of conditional and diversionary cautions for domestic abuse offenders.
• Neurodiversity focus: HMP Pentonville explained their work with neurodiverse prisoners, describing a wing that has been adapted to suit their diverse needs.

Find out more

• Read Investigating Police Productivity: A Literature Review, by Bart van Ark and Joel Hoskins , a report for The Productivity Institute and the Policing Productivity Team .
• Watch Productivity Pitches #2: criminal justice and law enforcement, an event co-hosted by The Productivity Institute and the Institute for Government , featuring Bart van Ark , Nick Davies , Matthew Burbeck , Chantal Hughes, Emma Hazan , Varinder Panesar and Neil Fraser .
• Register to attend Productivity Pitches #3: Health and social care, Thursday 23 May, 18:00-19:15, an event co-hosted by The Productivity Institute and the Institute for Government, featuring Diane Coyle , Nick Davies and others.
• Read Public sector can raise productivity but it should not be pushed over the edge, a blog by Bart van Ark.

The Productivity Institute??

The Productivity Institute is a UK-wide research organisation exploring what productivity means for business, for workers and for communities - how it is measured and how it truly contributes to increased living standards and well-being. It is funded by the ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council .