Performance appraisal system in the Turkish National Police: the case of Ankara Police Department

Abstract

This study examines the performance appraisal system and particularly the problem of the ‘secret appraisal system’ in the Turkish National Police. Using a survey conducted at the Ankara Police Department in 2001, this study explores the raters’ and the ratees’ opinions about the existing performance appraisal system. Multivariate regression analyses show that district captains and lieutenants, in contrast to non‐ranking police officers, are less concerned about the secret appraisal system because these ranks are in the position of rating their subordinates. More educated officers and female officers are more likely to be concerned about the secret appraisal system because the officers cannot learn the evaluation results. Finally, this study makes recommendations to improve the current appraisal system, and it also yields important findings and valuable insights for other police organizations.

Keywords:

• police
• performance
• evaluation
• appraisal
• performance appraisal
• Turkish National Police

Notes

1. Basically captains and district captains are at the same rank but generally captains work under majors whereas district captains work independently. This means district captains are at the evaluator position while captains, like other officers, are evaluated by their superiors such as majors. However, being at the rater position does not mean the rater officers are not evaluated by their superior officers.