Public Perceptions of Police Service Quality: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Public sector institutions in developing countries are going through major transformations because consumers are becoming more knowledgeable and demanding. This study presents the service quality of the Punjab Police using Mastrofski's six-dimensional policing model in the non-Western context of Pakistan by explaining the extent of service quality in the Punjab police. The survey-based approach was used to collect data from 360 citizens through developing an instrument based on Mastrofski's six dimensions. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis and correlation analysis were used to empirically explain application of the six-dimensional model of policing. The findings suggest that the public are satisfied with the quality of service provided by the police, based on the six dimensions of the model used for this research. However, the research model is highly correlated in a non-Western setting. This research, for the first time, discusses the service quality of police in a Pakistani context, which will help public policy personnel to improve the overall service quality of the Punjab Police.

Evaluating the police service quality for handling traffic crash reporting

“…Framed around the Mastrofski's dimensions from the SERVQUAL scale, the integration of MCDA and LCA allowed investigating strengths, opportunities and threats for handling traffic crash reporting and highlighting avenues for improvements to the reporting rates. Findings from this study extend existing findings about police service quality (Mastrofski, 1999;Donnelly et al, 2006;Chu et al, 2010;Maguire and Johnson, 2010;Akhtar et al, 2011) and open options for service quality evaluation in other fields.…”

“…While the original framework evaluates service quality in the private sector across ten possible dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding, tangibles), Mastrofski (1999) identified six dimensions relevant to police agencies in their service provision to the general public: attentiveness, reliability, responsiveness, 4 competence, caring, and fairness. Mastrofski's dimensions have been used to evaluate the perceived police service quality in several countries, including U.K. (Donnelly et al, 2006), U.S. (Maguire and Johnson, 2010), Taiwan (Chu et al, 2010), and Pakistan (Akhtar et al, 2011).…”

“…As service quality is considered essential for establishing trust in both the private and the public sector (e.g., Brysland and Curry, 2001;Kumar et al, 2009;Catulli, 2012), police agencies have used the SERVQUAL tool (Parasuraman et al, 1985) to identify the main components of police service quality (Mastrofski, 1999;Donnelly et al, 2006;Maguire and Johnson, 2010;Akhtar et al, 2011), with the main focus on either the perceived police service quality by the general public or the difference between expected and perceived service quality.…”

“…Mastrofski's dimensions have been used to evaluate the perceived police service quality in several countries, including UK. (Donnelly et al, 2006), USA (Maguire and Johnson, 2010), Taiwan (Chu et al, 2010), and Pakistan (Akhtar et al, 2011).…”

Problems and challenges faced by Pakistani police A case study of Police in Post-conflict Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

“…Previous literature shows, inadequate training, Organizational shortcomings insufficient resources, lack of requisite funds, poor working conditions, and lack of coordination with other law enforcement agencies have been identified as obstacles to transparent and effective policing (Akhtar, et al, 2012).…”