Improving police productivity represents a conundrum every police manager must confront at one time or another. Every police department is expected to provide more services than the budget allows. Therefore, the police manager must learn to obtain the greatest results for each dollar spent. All aspects of the department should be examined when attempting to improve productivity, and efforts to make improvements should be systematic, touching all parts of the department.

If you were a police chief, what techniques and strategies would you use to improve productivity and maintain it at a high level? How would you get your mid-level managers to agree to your plans, and how would they, in turn, motivate their officers to increase productivity?