Performance Metrics: Arrest Counts or Community Outcomes?
A police department is evaluated by arrest counts, and officers make arrests to meet the numbers that determine their evaluations, and communities bear the consequences of enforcement that serves metrics rather than safety. A city measures policing success by crime rates, and when rates fall the police take credit, and when rates rise they demand more resources, and no one asks whether police activity actually caused the changes being measured.
Alberta
Topic Introduction: Community Safety Performance: Prioritizing Arrests vs Community Impact
This thread documents how changes to Performance Metrics: Arrest Counts or Community Outcomes? may affect other areas of Canadian civic life.
Share your knowledge: What happens downstream when this topic changes? What industries, communities, services, or systems feel the impact?
Guidelines:
- Describe indirect or non-obvious connections
- Explain the causal chain (A leads to B because...)
- Real-world examples strengthen your contribution
Comments are ranked by community votes. Well-supported causal relationships inform our simulation and planning tools.
Alberta
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