Police Auditing: Theories and Practices

There are two primary reasons why police auditing merits the attention of both practitioners and academicians. First, police auditing meets the need of police administrators to know about the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of their operational programs. Second, police auditing provides an important tool for the public and its elected representatives to fulfill their oversight responsibilities. This book provides a comprehensive view of police auditing by examining the theories, standards, procedures, practices, and evaluations of police audit. The purpose of this coverage is to enable the reader to obtain a general understanding of different aspects and types of police audits and learn to apply the principles of police auditing to a particular police department. This very readable book is not designed like an accounting text but instead has combined descriptions of police auditing with discussions of planned change, and integrated standards and procedures of police auditing with principles of social science research to explicate a viable approach to changing the police. The book is aimed at three types of readers. First, it is intended to provide police executives and managers with a timely and necessary understanding of police auditing. Second, it serves as a valuable source of information for researchers and academicians who evaluate police programs. Third, students in criminal justice programs will find the book helpful in courses that address police budget review, police accountability, performance evaluations, as well as general police organizational diagnoses.