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Dataset

Description

This study sought to evaluate efforts by the Madison, Wisconsin, Police Department to create a new organizational design (both structural and managerial) to support community-oriented and problem-oriented policing that would result in better, more responsive service to the community. The department's plan was a sequential one: internal organizational changes were necessary before the external goal of improved service could be accomplished. One-sixth of the organization serving approximately one-sixth of the community was used as a test site for the new approach. This Experimental Police District (EPD) was charged with implementing "quality policing," which emphasized quality of service delivery, quality of life in the community, and quality of life in the workplace. The first objective of the Madison Police Department was the implementation of three conditions: (1) quality leadership, emphasizing the role of managers as facilitators whose job was to improve systems, involve employees in decision-making, employ data-based problem-solving approaches, promote teamwork, encourage risk-taking and creativity, and give and receive feedback from employees, (2) a healthy work environment, treating employees as "internal customers" whose problems should be identified and resolved, and (3) physical decentralization, creating a small work group to improve conditions in the workplace and, at the same time, obtain closer physical proximity to citizens to get to know them and become aware of their problems. The researchers' task was to: (1) document the process of developing the Experimental Police District, (2) measure any attitude changes of the police personnel during the experimental period, and (3) measure the effects of change on the community.
Date made available1996
PublisherICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research
Date of data productionJan 1 1987 - Dec 31 1990
Geographical coverageWisconsin

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