Title

Evaluating US State Police Performance using Data Envelopment Analysis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2008

Publication Source

International Journal of Production Economics

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the efficiency of state police services in the continental United States using a multiple-stage data envelopment analysis model. Using multiple inputs and multiple outputs to characterize police service provision, technical and scale efficiency are calculated for the 49 continental states. Given the complex nature of service provision, we allow for environmental factors of production and control for these non-discretionary inputs. Our results indicate that most states are technically efficient, but nearly half are operating at less than optimal scale size.

Inclusive pages

1031–1037

ISBN/ISSN

0925-5273

Comments

Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

113

Issue

2

Peer Reviewed

yes

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS