Performance contracts for police forces

In 2003, the government will enter into performance contracts with each of the 25 regional police forces. The performance contracts establish a direct link between meeting a number of quantitative performance targets and financial incentives. A major improvement in police performance is necessary to meet the objective of 20 to 25 percent less criminal and disorderly behavior by 2006. A closer look at the performance contracts learns that they may not be the most appropriate policy instrument to achieve this objective. The nature of police work does not allow for advance planning of outputs. The police consist of professionals who need a high degree of discretion to do their work. The targets invite adverse behavioral effects. Management could become focused on 'meeting the numbers' rather than on delivering results. Because of the wide variety in police tasks and the low measurability of quality, there is a wide gap between performance measures and results. The financial incentives make it worse, by forcing a yes/no decision based on weighing multiple, non discrete performance measures. Moreover, the targets are likely to be off since the government does not have the information to set them at the right level. Less financial resources for poorly performing forces also adversely affect citizens. They cannot choose between providers of police services as in the case of hospitals or schools. Experiences in Australia and the United Kingdom suggest an alternative approach. They focus on benchmarking of police forces without direct financial incentives. Both countries have invested many years in improving the quality and comparability of police data as well as methods for fair comparisons between forces. Based on these comparisons, police forces are hold accountable. Consequently, the police are being forced to develop a clear picture of the effects of their approach in terms of the region's specific problems. The Dutch government could follow a similar approach. A system of peer review and customer satisfaction surveys can be instrumental in assessing a force's performance and in providing ideas for improvement. Critical assessment of performance data by knowledgeable people is a necessary ingredient to a policy of holding the police accountable to results. It stimulates a culture of experimenting, data collection and analysis, and singling out and sharing best practices. Such a change is necessary to bring about the desired improvement in police performance.

Evaluating the push for tougher, more targeted policing in the Netherlands; evidence from a citizen survey

In this study, we estimate the effects of a tougher, more targeted police response to criminal and disorderly behaviour ('proactive policing'). We use a citizen survey providing unique data on hard-to-observe dimensions of police work for every single municipality in the Netherlands. We relate variation in local policing strategies to individual data on victimisation of crime and experience of disorder and fear of crime over the period 1993-2001. The sample includes some 370,000 residents randomly selected from the Dutch population. We control for individual background characteristics and fixed municipality characteristics. We find evidence that stricter law enforcement is effective in reducing disorder, fear of crime, violent crime and property crime. Concentrating visible police presence at 'hot spots' is effective in combating disorder, fear of crime, and property crime. As a result of proactive policing during the period 2003-2005, crime and disorder went down substantially. Fear of crime has been reduced as well.

Police numbers up, crime rates down. The effect of police on crime in the Netherlands, 1996-2003

We present evidence on the effect of greater numbers of police personnel on crime and nuisance reduction in the Netherlands. We use a multiple time series design with police regions as the unit of analysis, covering the period 1996-2003. During this period, police resources increased substantially. The growth in additional resources differed greatly between regions, allowing us to use this policy intervention to identify the effect of police on crime and nuisance. We control for regional economic, social and demographic factors and for national trends that might obscure the effect of police on crime. We find significantly negative effects of higher police levels on property crime, violent crime and nuisance. Our estimates suggest that a substantial proportion of the decline in crime and nuisance during the period 1996-2003 is attributable to the increase in police personnel.police, crime, nuisance, effectiveness, victimisation survey

Nautical Patrol and Illegal Fishing Practices

We uncover a hidden illegal fishing practice: the use of fishing nets with illegally small mesh size. The small mesh prevents nearly all fish of saleable size from escaping the net, but also traps a large number of fish which are too small to be sold on the market and are therefore discarded at sea. Our approach relies on readily available data on reported fish landings rather than on data from inspections, which are rare, and which tend to be anticipated by fishermen. We focus on bottom trawling, the world's most widely used fishing method. We exploit the fact that using illegally small mesh size strongly increases the share of small fish in the catch. Using quasi-random variation in nautical patrol as a source of variation in the incentive to comply, we show that in weeks without patrol the share of small fish in the landed catch is systematically larger than in adjacent weeks with patrol. Our results are in line with widespread use of illegally small mesh

The Power of a Bad Example - A Field Experiment in Household Garbage Disposal

Field-experimental studies have shown that people litter more in more littered environments. Inspired by these findings, many cities around the world have adopted policies to quickly remove litter. While such policies may avoid that people follow the bad example of litterers, they may also invite free-riding on public cleaning services. This paper reports the results of a natural field experiment where, in a randomly assigned part of a residential area, the frequency of cleaning was reduced from daily to twice a week during a three-month period. Using high-frequency data on litter at treated and control locations before, during, and after the experiment, we find strong evidence that litter begets litter. However, we also find evidence that some people start to clean up after themselves when public cleaning services are diminished

Publiek – private samenwerking bij combinatie projecten

Publiek-private samenwerking (PPS) krijgt veel aandacht als wijze van uitvoering van projecten waarin investeringen in infrastructuur (bijvoorbeeld in een station voor de hogesnelheidslijn) gecombineerd worden met stedelijke vernieuwing en investeringen in vastgoed. Het gaat om zogenaamde Combinatieprojecten. Doel van dit onderzoek is bij te dragen aan inzicht in de voorwaarden waaronder de mogelijke voordelen van PPS bij Combinatieprojecten zijn te realiseren. De focus hierbij is hoe publieke belangen het best gerealiseerd kunnen worden. We richten ons daartoe op het Rijk en de gemeenten. Deze keuze impliceert geenszins dat de problematiek benaderd wordt vanuit het idee dat het de ´goedwillende overheid´ tegen de ´gehaaide private partijen´ is. De doelstelling van private partijen is in de regel overzichtelijk: het maximaliseren van winst. Daartegenover staat een complexe verzameling mogelijk tegengestelde publieke belangen. De vraag is hoe de kracht van private partijen benut kan worden om die complexe verzameling publieke doelen te realiseren. Daarbij liggen de kansen van PPS vooral in een hoger maatschappelijk rendement door uitruil van prestaties en een betere risicoverdeling tussen de partijen. De risico's van PPS zitten vooral in de afhankelijkheid van andere partijen. De twee vragen die in dit onderzoek centraal staan zijn: Welke afwegingen zijn voor het Rijk en de gemeenten van belang bij het kiezen voor PPS bij Combinatieprojecten? Gegeven een keuze voor PPS, welke factoren dragen bij tot coöperatief gedrag van alle betrokken partijen in de diverse fasen van een Combinatieproject

Evaluating differences in the clinical impact of a free online weight loss programme, a resource-intensive commercial weight loss programme and an active control condition: a parallel randomised controlled trial

Background Finding effective intervention strategies to combat rising obesity levels could significantly reduce the burden that obesity and associated non-communicable diseases places on both individuals and the National Health Service. Methods In this parallel randomised-controlled trial, 76 participants who are overweight or obese (50 female) were given free access to a fitness centre for the duration of the 12-week intervention and randomised to one of three interventions. The commercial intervention, the Healthy Weight Programme, (HWP, n=25, 10/15 men/women) consisted of twelve 1-hour nutrition coaching sessions with a nutritionist delivered as a mixture of group and 1 to 1 sessions. In addition, twice-weekly exercise sessions (24 in total) were delivered by personal trainers for 12 weeks. The NHS intervention (n=25, 8/17 men/women) consisted of following an entirely self-managed 12-week online NHS resource. The GYM intervention (n=26, 8/18 men/women) received no guidance or formal intervention. All participants were provided with a gym induction for safety and both the NHS and GYM participants were familiarised with ACSM physical activity guidelines by way of a hand-out. Results The overall follow-up rate was 83%. Body mass was significantly reduced at post-intervention in all groups (HWP: N=18, -5.17±4.22 kg, NHS: N=21 -4.19±5.49 kg; GYM: N=24 - 1.17±3.00 kg; p < 0.001) with greater reductions observed in HWP and NHS groups compared to GYM (p<0.05). Out with body mass and BMI, there were no additional statistically significant time x intervention interaction effects Conclusions This is the first study to evaluate the efficacy of both a free online NHS self-help weight-loss tool and a commercial weight loss programme that provides face-to-face nutritional support and supervised exercise. The findings suggest that both interventions are superior to an active control condition with regard to eliciting short-term weight-loss

Affective and perceptual responses during reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT)

We have previously demonstrated that reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT) is a genuinely time-efficient exercise strategy for improving cardiometabolic health. Here, we examined the affective and perceptual responses to REHIT. Eight young men and women (age 21 ± 1 y, BMI 24.9 ± 2.1 m/kg2, V̇O2max 39 ± 10 ml/kg/min) and 11 men with type 2 diabetes (T2D; age 52 ± 6 y, BMI 29.7 ± 3.1 m/kg2, V̇O2max 29 ± 5 ml/kg/min) took part in three-arm crossover trials with RPE and affective valence measured during, and enjoyment and exercise preferences measured following either: 1) REHIT (2 × 20-s sprints in a 10-min exercise session), 2) HIIT (10 × 1-min efforts) and 3) 30 min MICT. Furthermore, 19 young men and women (age 25 ± 6 y, BMI 24 ± 4 m/kg2, V̇O2max 34 ± 8 ml/kg/min) completed a 6-week REHIT intervention with affective valence during an acute REHIT session measured before and after training. Affect decreases (briefly) during REHIT, but recovers rapidly, and the decline is not significantly different when compared to MICT or HIIT in either healthy participants or T2D patients. Young sedentary participants reported similar levels of enjoyment for REHIT, MICT and HIIT, but 7 out of 8 had a preference for REHIT. Conversely, T2D patients tended to report lower levels of enjoyment with REHIT compared with MICT. The decrease in affective valence observed during an acute REHIT session was significantly attenuated following training. We conclude that affective and perceptual responses to REHIT are no more negative compared to those associated with MICT or HIIT, refuting claims that supramaximal sprint interval training protocols are associated with inherent negative responses

Decreasing sprint duration from 20 to 10 s during reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT) attenuates the increase in maximal aerobic capacity but has no effect on affective and perceptual responses

Purpose: Recent studies have demonstrated that modifying the ‘classic’ 6x30-s ‘all-out’ sprint interval training (SIT) protocol by incorporating either shorter sprints (6x10-s or 15-s sprints) or fewer sprints (e.g. 2x20-s sprints; reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT)) does not attenuate the training-induced improvements in maximal aerobic capacity (V̇O2max). The aim of the present study was to determine whether reducing the sprint duration in the REHIT protocol from 20 s to 10 s per sprint influences acute affective responses and the change in V̇O2max following training. Methods: Thirty-six sedentary or recreationally active participants (17 women; mean±SD age: 22±3 y, BMI: 24.5±4.6 kg·m-2, V̇O2max: 37±8 mL·kg-1·min-1) were randomised to a group performing a ‘standard’ REHIT protocol involving 2x20-s sprints or a group who performed 2x10-s sprints. V̇O2max was determined before and after 6 weeks of 3 weekly training sessions. Acute affective responses and perceived exertion were assessed during training. Results: Greater increases in V̇O2max were observed for the group performing 20-s sprints (2.77±0.75 to 3.04±0.75 L·min-1; +10%) compared to the group performing 10-s sprints (2.58±0.57 vs. 2.67±3.04 L·min-1; +4%; group×time interaction effect: p<0.05; d=1.06). Positive affect and the mood state vigour increased post-exercise, while tension, depression and total mood disturbance decreased, and negative affect remained unchanged. Affective responses and perceived exertion were not altered by training and were not different between groups. Conclusion: Reducing sprint duration in the REHIT protocol from 20 s to 10 s attenuates improvements in V̇O2max, and does not result in more positive affective responses or lower perceived exertion