POLICE AUDITING: Standards and Applications (2nd Ed.)

Book excerpt: Police auditing merits the attention of both practitioners and academicians for two primary reasons. First, police auditing meets the need of police administrators to know about the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of their organization and operations. Second, it provides an important mechanism for the public and its elected officials to fulfill their oversight responsibilities. This book provides a comprehensive examination of theories, standards, procedures, applications, and evaluations of police audits to allow the reader to obtain a detailed understanding of different aspects and types of police audits and apply the principles of auditing and data collection to various police programs. The book is readable for different audiences as it provides a review of police auditing along with discussions of planned change and incorporates standards and procedures in police auditing into social scientific research process and methods. The book is aimed at three types of readers. First, it provides police executives and managers with a timely and necessary understanding of police auditing as they conduct budget reviews and organizational diagnoses. Second, it serves as a valuable source of information for auditors and researchers who are either charged with the responsibility to perform police audits directly or engaged in evaluating audited police programs. Third, students in criminal justice programs will benefit from this book in courses that address research methods and police accountability issues.