New England StatNet Holds Fall Meeting on Police, Begins Plans for Winter Meeting on Public Works

The Collins Center for Public Management at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies facilitated the fall New England StatNet meeting on October 25 at the Charlton Public Library on the topic of performance management in police departments.

With approximately 120 mayors, managers, senior police officers, and other state and local officials in attendance, this meeting was nearly three times the size of the typical StatNet meeting. The increase in size was due to funding from the Patrick-Murray Administration's Community Innovation Challenge Grant Program included in the Municipal Performance Management Program, which made StatNet participation free for Massachusetts municipalities this year. The meeting featured breakout sessions on police finance, human resources, crime analysis, and traffic issues.

StatNet is a network of municipal officials using CitiStat or other data-driven performance management approaches. The group gathers three times per year for in-depth discussion of municipal governance, and works on other collaborative efforts. Each StatNet meeting is focused on an area of municipal government, such as public works, human resources, or constituent relations.  Participants in the meetings complete a survey about the topic several weeks prior to the meeting, and center staff analyze the information and create a presentation to be discussed at the meeting. StatNet participants include mayors, city/town managers, town administrators, chiefs of staff, policy analysts, budget directors, HR directors, departments, and other municipal employees who work on management-level issues. The Collins Center coordinates the network.

Final details are still be planned for the winter meeting on December 13 which will focus on performance management in departments of public works.

For more information, contact StatNet Coordinator Amy Dain at amy.dain@umb.edu or Director of Municipal Services Michael Ward at michael.ward@umb.edu.