Contribution to Book
Police Performance Management and Social Justice
Routledge Handbook of Social, Economic, and Criminal Justice
(2018)
Abstract
Police performance management, sometimes called Compstat (compare statistics), was launched in 1994 in New York City. Initially an accountability system that empowered lower-ranking precinct commanders, Compstat morphed into a numbers-crunching bureaucratic system. When fear served as a motivator, lower-ranking officers and communities were alienated. Minority communities were overrun by police like an army of occupation. The top-down policies developed by police leaders shattered the efforts of community engagement, leading to an era of making numbers look good—at any cost. Officers frantically looking to make sure they met their quotas did whatever they needed to appease their supervisors. While there were positive aspects to this system, the unpublicized negative effects led to many social justice issues, such as racism by police, officers massaging crime reports rather than helping victims, and bullying behaviors by supervisors. The results are that numerous police agencies are under consent decrees/court-ordered sanctions, crime is now on the rise, minorities are alienated, and due process is lacking.
Disciplines
Publication Date
May 8, 2018
Editor
Cliff Roberson
Publisher
Routledge
ISBN
9781138545649
DOI
10.4324/9781351002707-10
Citation Information
John A. Eterno and Eli B. Silverman. "Police Performance Management and Social Justice" Routledge Handbook of Social, Economic, and Criminal Justice (2018) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/john-eterno/80/