Arie van Sluis

Results-based agreements for the police in the Netherlands

– The purpose of this article is to present the findings of research into the impact of a new performance system for the police in The Netherlands., – For this research, the international literature about the effects and side effects of performance steering in the public sector was scanned and more than 150 local stakeholders in five Dutch police regions were interviewed in semi‐open interviews, using a checklist. The study analyzed the specific impact of the results‐based agreements in various branches., – On the whole, the police do not get isolated as a consequence of the results‐based agreements and they do not disassociate themselves from the societal networks they participated in before. The authors offer several explanations why many of the expected negative effects have not occurred., – Valuable in this article is the focus on the situational context and the implementation context for an adequate assessment of the significance of performance‐based steering of the police in practice. It gives an update of the Dutch state of affairs and recommends another starting point for police performance measurement in the near future.

Managing Local Intervention Teams in Rotterdam

This chapter describes the introduction of intervention teams that were set up to tackle problems of public safety, order and social problems. This innovative coordination practice originated in the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Since 2001, local intervention teams have been operating in the city in order to strengthen public safety and social cohesion and to provide services to citizens. The assumption is that public safety problems can sometimes be better tackled if the private situations of people that have trouble organizing their lives or cause nuisance are taken into account. A typical strategy to tackle such problems is through house calls (Istha, 2009). During such house calls several aspects are investigated in an integrated approach. Besides checking on the situation, care is also offered when necessary. This means that law enforcement and care are practiced in combination. The intervention teams are part of the so-called Collaborative Approach Enforcement Property & Person (CAE), which gathers several services of Rotterdam: Public Affairs, Social Welfare, City Development, Customs, City Surveillance and the Safety Directorate.