Strategy #11
Assessment and Evaluations -
Who Are Our Customers?
Develop and implement a process that regularly evaluates both internally and externally a
law enforcement agency’s operating environment and determines the pertinent “communities”
the agency interacts with in achieving its mission.
Background
Law enforcement does not operate in a vacuum. Its programs, namely traffic safety operations, have an impact on many “customer groups.” Motorists, local schools, emergency services groups and organizations, automobile and commercial vehicle associations, and elected officials are but a few of the customers whose goals and needs are affected by law enforcement operations. Customers also include internal entities. Identifying and working cooperatively with these varied groups to determine how best to serve their needs will, in turn, win their support for an agency’s mission, goals, and objectives. Feedback and change are essential steps in the process of self-examination.
Actions
- Identify pertinent community groups and develop an action plan for establishing a credible and visible presence among them.
- Instill accountability among law enforcement managers by tracking the success of community assessment efforts developed by those managers.
- Develop feedback mechanisms (e.g. surveys, focus groups, and community meetings).
- Institute a “key contact” program that encourages frequent contact with local, state, and national representatives, community leaders, and other stakeholders.
Benefits
- Through positive community involvement, a wide base of support is generated for the agency’s mission, goals and objectives.
- A deeper understanding of communities served will allow managers to make more effective use of limited resources.
- Effective cooperation among client groups will allow the agency to utilize resources of client groups to “publicize” and help law enforcement achieve its public safety mission.
- Valuable feedback from respondents who know the operation well.
- Consensus-building prior to organizational changes.
- Elimination of some employee frustrations.
- The input of the stakeholders and partners will help the agency prioritize its goals and apply its resources
- Inclusive actions will help the agency better serve all of its constituents
Other Considerations
- Focused attention on the needs of other groups may spread other agency resources too thin.
- Competition among client groups for limited law enforcement resources could lead to discord between customer groups and the agency.
- Adequate resources are essential to properly conduct assessments and evaluations.
- Without management’s commitment to change, surveying the public may be of little value.
- Surveying is part of a process of feedback, change, and reassessment that is ongoing.
- Even more than with surveys of external customers, the organization will lose credibility if it does not address issues identified by an internal survey.
- Employees may believe they are voting when they participate in an internal survey and expect any management decisions to support the popular survey result.