Interesting. The latest evaluation of the Neighbourhood Policing Programme has just been published and it shows...well it shows that there has been no statistically significant change in outcome measures at BCU level. that's what it shows. Or to put it another way, we think it works, we've invested heavily in it, we are inspecting the hell out of it, but we really don't know...yet.
The Home Office Research Report (here and in the sidebar under Home Office), most of it waaaay beyond my understanding) says that:
The Neighbourhood Policing Programme (NPP) was officially launched in April 2005, with every neighbourhood in England and Wales having a dedicated neighbourhood policing team by April 2008.
The primary aims of the NPP were to increase confidence and satisfaction, reduce the fear of crime and resolve local problems of crime and anti-social behaviour. Good outcomes all.
Results from the first year (‘Year 1’) of the NPP were inconclusive in terms of impact: although there were some positive changes in selected outcome measures, these were not statistically significant.
Analysis of the Year 2 data focused on the impact of neighbourhood policing on key outcome measures at Basic Command Unit (BCU) and Force level. Overall, there was some evidence that neighbourhood policing was beginning to have a positive impact on outcome measures at BCU level, but none of the changes were statistically significant. No positive changes were found at Force level.
Trying to explain the lack of significant outcome evidence the report argues that 'the lack of significant change may be a result of the early stage of implementation covered by the analysis (the second year of a three-year programme) when implementation of neighbourhood policing was neither comprehensive or consistent. This is reflected in the HMIC thematic report ‘Serving Neighbourhoods and Individuals’ which found that forces have not yet fully implemented the ‘problem-solving’ aspect of neighbourhood policing. It is likely that all three neighbourhood policing ‘delivery mechanisms’ (visibility, community engagement and problem solving) need to be delivered together in the right ‘dose’ before improvements are realised. So. It's a good thing but forces haven't got all the parts in place yet.
Or...it could be that the evaluation mechanism is wrong. The report states that 'Neighbourhood policing is deliberately designed to be responsive to the individual needs of local communities. As a result, it might not be possible to identify the impact of a diverse locally delivered programme such as this, using a national-evaluation approach. Another type of evaluation with a more qualitative, local focus may be better suited to measuring the impact of the NPP.
So. If I've got this right. Not sure if it works. Could be that forces haven't got it all together, could be that we need a different evaluation model. Meanwhile.....keep investing.
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