Measuring the impact of community police engagement

Report: 8c
Date: 28 September 2006
By: Chief Executive and Clerk

Summary

In furthering the effectiveness of its oversight and scrutiny responsibilities over the implementation of the MPA/MPS Community Engagement Strategy, this report proposes for adoption by members outcome-orientated performance measures for community-police engagement in London.

A. Recommendation

That

1. the outcome measures proposed in paragraph 16 for application to community-police engagement in London be approved;
2. officers of both the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to collaborate in trialling the proposed measures in practice and in developing appropriate standards against which community-police engagement could be judged using these measures;
3. MPA officers consult with the Home Office (HO), Association of Police Authorities (APA), Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) regarding the continuing improvement and refinement of national performance measures for community-police engagement; and
4. future reports to the MPA, from by either the Chief Executive and Clerk or the Commissioner, where appropriate give details of any community engagement undertaken on the report in question.

B. Supporting information

1. The MPA has identified the need to develop outcome–orientated performance measures for community-police engagement activity in order to increase its ability to scrutinise effectively this area of work.

2. In assuming its oversight and scrutiny responsibilities over the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), the MPA requires a robust set of criteria by which it can hold the MPS to account in respect of its community engagement activity. The MPA is also concerned that community engagement is fully integrated and mainstreamed throughout the MPS. The MPA therefore requires a set of measures and standards for community engagement, which will allow it – and Londoners as a whole – to evaluate more effectively the MPS’s engagement with the communities of London.

3. In addition, the MPA is concerned with bolstering Londoners’ willingness and capacity to work collectively and effectively to shape and strengthen policing in London. Londoners therefore need to know the criteria by which to measure the effectiveness of their own engagement with the police.

Context

4. The principle of involving, developing and increasing the participation of communities, service users and stakeholders in decision-making regarding public service provision is now widely accepted throughout Government. With civil renewal, citizen focus and community engagement high on the agenda of all public sector agencies, there is increasing urgency for the MPA to measure the effectiveness of its work in these areas in a robust and organised fashion.

5. This task also contributes to progress towards agreed MPA strategic goals, particularly with reference to transforming community engagement to help Londoners secure more responsive policing at a local level, and supporting the MPA’s scrutiny and governance role to hold the Commissioner rigorously to account for continuing improvement in the effective operational and organisational performance of the Metropolitan Police Service.

Defining ‘community-police engagement’

6. The MPA, in line with the directions of the Home Office, has adopted a definition of community-police engagement that moves it beyond the traditional notion of ‘policing by consent’ to a more proactive, dynamic and accountable process of cooperation and collaboration between the police and the populace. 21st century community-police engagement is not merely public relations, it is not just community relations, and it is not simply consultation and satisfaction surveys. Rather, it is a proactive approach to harnessing the energies and knowledge of communities and partnerships, not only, retrospectively, to hold the police to account, but also, prospectively, to help identify problems, negotiate and influence priorities for action, and participate in shaping solutions.

7. Community-police engagement in this context means a much fuller spectrum of community involvement in policing, from basic information-provision and consultation, through increasingly intensive participatory levels, to community control of resources and decision-making.

Focus on outcomes

8. This modern definition of community-police engagement requires a more sophisticated set of performance measures than is currently available. It is no longer appropriate merely to identify the mechanisms by which community-police engagement is occurring and the sheer quantity of such activity taking place. The focus must now shift from outputs to outcomes. Questions such as ‘How many members of the public attended the meeting organised by the police?’ should be replaced with questions such as ‘Did the input the public gave at the meeting affect police decision-making?’

9. Much work has already been done at the MPA, the MPS and elsewhere on community engagement mechanisms. This report lays its emphasis instead on how information derived from community engagement activity is used. Determining the effectiveness and utility of community-police engagement necessitates a much clearer focus on evidence-based outcomes and actual impact upon strategic thinking, policy development and service provision.

Aims

10. Developing and applying a methodology for measuring the impact of community-police engagement will enable the MPA and partners to measure the impact of individual community-police engagement activities. This will allow the MPA to identify areas of strength and weakness in current practice and justify (or otherwise) MPA and MPS present expenditure on community-police engagement activity. In the light of such assessments it should be possible then to develop more effective methods of community-police engagement for the future, with the additional benefit of increasing community participation in such activity. This would lead directly to decision-making within the MPS and MPA which is better informed, more widely owned, more transparent, and more effective, and police service planning and delivery which is more responsive to the needs and aspirations of the communities served.

Framework

11. The national Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) provides a basis for measuring, assessing and comparing police force performance. Citizen Focus is one of the six PPAF domains, yet the outcome measures in this domain are concerned almost exclusively with basic user-satisfaction rates. The performance measures for community-police engagement contained in this Home Office framework are thus severely limited.

12. On 1 October 2005 a report entitled ‘Measuring the impact of community police engagement (1)’ was discussed by members on the MPA Community Engagement Committee. That report established the case for the development of a set of core performance measures for community-police engagement. Given significant MPA and MPS expenditure and resource-allocation on such activity, a rigorous methodology for testing its efficacy and efficiency is needed. The report’s recommendations were all approved.

13. That report committed MPA officers to consult with members of the MPA’s 3,000-person, demographically representative Safer London Panel (SLP), and with members of the Community Police Consultative Groups’ (CPCG) London Chairs’ Forum (LCF), to ascertain what outcomes they expect from community-police engagement and how they wish to see them measured. This consultation has since taken place and its results have been factored into the proposals in this report.

14. Since October 2005 further discussions have been held with ACPO, APA, the Home Office and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) on these matters. These conversations have also informed the present report.

15. This report distils to five the number of performance measures proposed, each corresponding to a key outcome of community engagement. The outcomes and associated measures are sufficiently generic to be applicable at all scales of community engagement activity, from ward-based through borough-level to city-wide. Each could be applied either by the MPS as a self-assessment tool, or by the MPA as a scrutiny device. Possible modes of measurement are suggested for each measure.

16. The following measures are therefore proposed as the result of comprehensive national and international consultation and extensive research and reading by officers in the MPA Community Engagement Unit:

Outcome 1: Information supplied by the public through community-police engagement is given due consideration by the police service in its decision-making.

Measure: The police service is able to provide documentary evidence of consultatively-generated information being presented to decision-makers; this information being considered in the decision-making process; and a record being made of why it was accepted or rejected in reaching the decision.

Mode of measurement: Examination of records of police service decision-making processes, including minutes of relevant meetings.

Outcome 2: Information supplied by the public through community-police engagement does influence police service management.

Measure: The police service is able to provide evidence of alignment or allocation of police resources (human, financial, physical etc) in response to community input.

Mode of measurement: Analysis of police service resourcing or restructuring decisions correlated with community inputs.

Outcome 3: The police service understands the needs of the different communities it serves.

Measure: The police service is able to provide evidence of the diversity of the members of the public involved in its community engagement activities according to the six primary demographic dimensions.

Mode of measurement: Assessment of records of demographic data on members of the public involved in community-police engagement activities.

Outcome 4: Community engagement is mainstreamed throughout police service business.

Measure: The police service is able to provide evidence of community engagement activity as a feature of the initiatives and operations it undertakes.

Mode of measurement: Assessment of police service initiatives and operations to establish whether they have as a component some form of community engagement.

Outcome 5: Members of the public who give their time to community-police engagement activities are satisfied that their contribution has been worthwhile.

Measure: Members of the public who have been involved in community-police engagement have received feedback following their consultation to explain its results and how they have been acted upon or why they have not been acted upon; members of the public are able to cite examples of changes they have observed in the planning or delivery of policing as a result of their contribution.

Mode of measurement: Survey of members of the public involved in community-police engagement activities.

17. In approving these measures, it is also recommended that Members direct officers of both the MPA and MPS to collaborate in trialling the proposed measures. The MPS Citizen Focus Team have already agreed to incorporate these measures, together with the existing HMIC Baseline Assessment requirements, into a draft set of standards and to undertake an extensive process of consultation across the organisation to be completed by 13 October 2006 to ensure these standards are deliverable by MPS staff and that they cover the issues that are relevant to the participants. It is the intent that these standards will be applied to all pre-planned MPS community engagement activities. It also the intent that these standards be complemented by standards that will be applied to B/OCU and the corporate engagement infrastructure to ensure that the quality of MPS engagement is enabled, is consistent and is coordinated throughout the MPS.

C. Race and equality impact

1. Application of the proposed measures to existing community-police engagement activity across the Metropolitan Police District (MPD) will demonstrate whether present mechanisms are equally effective in seeking, capturing, communicating and advancing the views on policing of all Londoners. If community-engagement techniques used with particular communities are more or less effective than others, measurement according to the measures proposed here should highlight this and enable any inequalities to be addressed.

D. Financial implications

1. The proposed trialling of the measures contained in this report is catered for in existing budgets. Possible subsequent widespread application of this methodology to all areas of London community-police engagement might entail additional expenditure which cannot be quantified at this stage. If this is the case it will be the subject of a further report on the process, additional costs and financing of these costs. It is envisaged that any such costs would be recouped through resulting cashable efficiency gains and appropriate budget reduced.

E. Background papers

• ‘Measuring the impact of community-police engagement (1)’, MPA Community Engagement Committee, 1 October 2005

F. Contact details

Report author: Tim Rees, Head of Community Engagement and Andy Hull, Community Engagement Officer, MPA

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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