Targeting community beat officers:‐ Organisational constraints and resistance

An initiative undertaken in a large metropolitan police force in the UK to target the work of community beat officers on “hotspots”, faced resistance from the police personnel involved and other organisational constraints. Constables were intended to set objectives and supervisors were required to review and report upon their performance at regular intervals. The article discusses traditional techniques of information control used by the lower ranks to reduce the system's potential for increasing accountability. The limitations imposed on the scheme by paperbased data systems for crime and incident analysis are identified. The analysis also demonstrates that the introduction of computer‐based information systems needs careful planning and preparation if they are to be effective. Meetings at which objectives were set and performance was systematically reviewed proved to be particularly relevant to the use made of the computer on the police division where the initiative worked as planned.