TQM in public administration organisations: an application of data envelopment analysis in the police service

Performance measurement is an increasingly important and ever more frequently monitored measure of excellence in public sector organisations. For this purpose, public sector organisations employ excellence models such as the European Foundation for Quality Management model, Common Assessment Framework (CAF), Business Scorecard, etc. With the support of European Institute for Public Administration and the national organisations responsible for the development of quality/excellence, many European public administration organisations, including the Slovenian Police Service, use the CAF model as a basis for developing and improving both the enablers and results of their operations. In this respect, the main purpose of the paper is to present and apply a non-parametric methodology for measuring police performance results. The analysis shows that the data envelopment analysis scores and the rankings vary significantly across the police stations. In general, most police stations in the country could attain better results by fully implementing the enablers suggested by the CAF model. Consequently, the empirical results of the paper can serve as a guide for police management when further investigating how to enhance the performance results of police stations.