POLICE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IN ENGLAND, WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND: INTEGRATING TRUST, LEGITIMACY AND PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
Abstract
This article reviews international scholarship on police performance measurement, emphasising the increasing centrality of public trust and police legitimacy in defining and operationalising effectiveness and efficiency. The authors contend that traditional output indicators, such as clearance rates, response times, and arrest or detention counts are insufficient to capture the full social value and should be supplemented by perceptual, process-quality, and procedural indicators. Drawing on empirical research regarding macro- and micro-level drivers of trust—including violent crime rates, democratic institutional context, and socio-demographic and attitudinal variables—the article demonstrates the practical significance of procedural justice for public acceptance of police decisions, even when outcomes are unfavourable for citizens. The analysis uses UK examples to illustrate institutional embedding of these concepts, focusing on the PEEL assessment framework in England and Wales and the accountability functions of Police and Crime Commissioners, while also incorporating Northern Ireland as a salient case where legitimacy- and confidence-oriented measurement has particular strategic importance for policing governance. The authors conclude that sustainable performance improvement depends on an integrated indicator system that renders both outcomes and the socially consequential side effects of policing visible through transparency, feedback mechanisms, and measurable legitimacy safeguards.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22190/TEME260218034V
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