Customer-Based Policing

Key Elements and Characteristics

The adoption of customer-based policing includes all three of the key elements of community policing as defined by the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office: community partnerships, organizational transformation, and focus on problem solving. In transforming the organization, police leadership is challenged to overcome the resistance to yield more influence to the consumers of police services. In customer-based policing, consumers play a role in organizational processes such as selection of officers and supervisors and evaluation of organizational effectiveness.

The characteristic most identified with customer-based policing is that of building community partnerships. As police shift from working only with traditional partners (governmental social service agencies, hospital emergency rooms, etc.) to connecting with nontraditional partners (Boys & Girls Clubs, neighborhood-based, nongovernmental social service agencies, etc.), a focus on customers requires the use of new methods. Input from community members guides the prioritization and delivery of services.

Empowered line-level police officers serve more as a direct link to the customers in a community policing agency. As the officers take increasing ownership of their geographically defined area, they are better able to glean subtle information from residents that sharpens their ability to identify and analyze problems. This accompanies a shift of the planning and establishment of the street officer’s priorities from internal sources to be more inclusive of external customer input.

Police agencies that have adopted customer-based policing share several characteristics. First, they employ multiple means of collecting feedback and input on services, such as customer satisfaction. Multiple methods are necessary to get the broadest perspective. For example, if an agency handed out satisfaction response cards only to everyone who received a speeding ticket, the confrontational nature of enforcement tasks would likely bias the response information. Examples of feedback methods used would include the following:

• Callbacks of crime victims. Agencies use volunteers and employees to telephone persons listed on crime incident reports to both inquire about any additional information that could be helpful to the case and receive feedback on the quality and nature of the service received.
• Website-based response and feedback methods. Consumers of police services can go to the agency’s website and leave direct feedback.
• Community surveys. This can be a police standalone survey or part of a larger survey on all city services or community quality-of-life indicator surveys. After developing a representative sample, a survey is mailed out requesting that respondents provide input on services and list their priorities.
• Feedback response cards. Officers may distribute such cards every time they have contact with a customer, or the cards may be clearly identified in a display placed at the front desk of police stations or at other public locations.
• Social media. Agencies are increasingly using social media as a means to connect with community members. Comments left on social media sites provide insight into what some members of the community think about police services.

Customer-based police agencies may conduct periodic meetings, geographically disbursed across the community, to reassess priorities with direct input from customers who drive the discussion. Representatives of a customer-focused police agency might be regular guests on radio or television talk shows, not only to educate the audience, but to solicit customer input and ideas. Employees throughout an agency that embraces customer-based policing demonstrate that they are accessible and eager to hear from the consumers of their service.

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