The measure of English and Welsh police force efficiency: a comparison of distance function models

Since the Labour government came to power in 1997, it has introduced a regime whereby public services are accountable in respect of best value performance indicators (BVPIs). A recent Public Services Productivity Panel (PSP) (2000) report has developed a set of criteria whereby the economic analysis of police force efficiency by the Home Office is to be made standard. In this paper we utilise an innovative distance function strategy in contrast to the standard efficiency techniques (Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic cost Frontier Analysis) advocated in PSP (2000). We present results from four different distance function models; Data Envelopment Analysis; Free Disposal Hull; Super- Efficiency; and Stochastic Frontier Analysis; in order to assess police force efficiency during the sample period 1996 – 1999.