Measuring Progress Toward a Victim-Oriented Police Department
The adoption of a community policing approach by many departments symbolizes a commitment to granting residents a larger say in guiding the opera- tions and policies of a branch of local government that is supposed to protect and serve them. Com- munity policing also has opened the door to a more
V I C T IMS AND THE P OL I C E 201
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victim-oriented approach within law enforcement. What would a “consumer-centered” or “user- friendly” model entail? What performance measures indicate that a department is effectively carrying out its mission to protect and serve the residents of its jurisdiction?
First of all, a victim-oriented department would extend outreach efforts to neighborhood residents to build their confidence that they get an appropriate reception if they bring their problems to a police station. A user-friendly department would facilitate the process for lodging complaints, making it as stress free and as streamlined as possible. Complaints about very minor matters might even be taken over the phone or by filling out a form online. If a greater proportion of victims become encouraged to come forward, an indicator of success would be a tempo- rary rise in the crime rate because a higher percent- age of incidents would be reported and recorded. (A localized version of the NCVS could be used to discover what percentage of victims still are not reporting various types of crimes, and why.)
When victims come forward, they expect to be handled with care. To achieve this goal, a depart- ment would have to train its officers to deliver death notifications with compassion, to better com- fort traumatized persons, to provide physical and psychological first aid, and to avoid inflicting sec- ond wounds in the form of victim-blaming accusa- tions. The particular needs of children, battered women, rape victims, and disabled persons also would be addressed effectively by specialized squads of highly trained detectives (see Chapters 9 and 10). Officers could also be better trained to spot a com- plainant who is making a false charge, so that all complainants would not be greeted with skepticism as possible fakers and liars, and detectives would not subject them to needless accusatory questioning. Customer-satisfaction surveys could be an appropri- ate way to measure whether complainants felt departments were handling their cases with care.
A victim-oriented department would dispatch officers quickly to 911 calls for help. Statistics showing downward trends in response times to emergencies would indicate progress along this front. Presumably, police forces constantly work to solve as many crimes
as possible. But victim-oriented forces would not only seek to make arrests in high-profile cases that merit intense media coverage, but also in the much more common minor cases that revolve around stolen property. Clearance rates should rise in departments that are becoming more user-friendly, indicating that victims and witnesses are cooperating with investiga- tions to a greater degree, sharing all they know, look- ing at mug shots, and picking suspects out of lineups. Similarly, local law enforcement agencies would make greater efforts to recover stolen property and return it to its rightful owner after it is no longer needed for court proceedings. Officers and detectives would gather evidence properly so that it can be entered as a prosecution exhibit against the accused. Court records about the percent of charges at the time of arrest that are later dropped by the prosecutor, or dismissed by the judge, or that are dramatically reduced because of improperly obtained evidence can be examined to monitor progress along this front. All these performance measures reporting rates, average response times to emergencies, clear- ance rates, and stolen property recovery rates— would be published and posted on the department’s website each year, reflecting its commitment to trans- parency and accountability.
A victim-oriented department would also set up a victim advocacy unit. The advocates would pro- vide guidance and support for complainants as their cases are processed through the system, refer them to counseling, walk them step by step through the proper channels to obtain orders of protection or emergency shelter or compensation from a state fund, and make sure that they are safe and reasonably satisfied with the way they were treated (Duncan, 2014). Besides potentially achieving higher reporting rates, more tips from the public, greater levels of cooperation from witnesses, and better clearance rates, a victim-friendly department might benefit in an additional way. Its officers might enjoy higher morale and enhanced job satisfaction (IACP, 2009).
A key criterion for evaluation could be this: Does a department that claims to be victim-oriented do all that it can to provide the same high-quality services to the public as it delivers to fellow officers and to mem- bers of their families whenever they are directly
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harmed by criminals? If the department falls far short on this bottom-line performance indicator, then it
needs to re-examine its priorities and revamp its operations.
SUMMARY
In their pursuit of justice—whether the goal is pun- ishment of or treatment for the offender or restitu- tion for their losses—victims might find themselves in conflicting rather than cooperative relationships with police officers and detectives.
When they report crimes, victims want the police to respond quickly, administer psychological and physical first aid effectively, believe their accounts, apprehend suspects, gather evidence that is admissible in court, and get back any property that was taken from them. However, uniformed officers and
detectives might be slow to arrive, handle victims insensitively, consider their versions of events unbe- lievable or exaggerated, fail to solve their cases, and be unable to recover their stolen goods. Various statistical measures collected by the NCVS and the UCR (such as reporting rates, response times, clearance rates, and property recovery rates) can be used as performance indicators to provide some rough estimates about how often victims receive the services and assistance they seek from their local police and sheriff’s departments that pledge to serve and protect them.