Combining data envelopment analysis and Malmquist Index for evaluating police station efficiency and effectiveness

A new measure for evaluating and ranking police stations by performance and by improvement trends over time is presented. The measure, which is identified as DEA/MI, combines data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology with the Malmquist Index (MI). The DEA component measures the relative efficiency of the DMUs, while the MI component measures the improvement or decrease in efficiency of a DMU over a specified period of time. A case study of all 13 police stations in the south of Israel shows that according to the DEA/MI measure a police station with relatively low efficiency can be ranked high if it has a high improvement index.