Cultural heterogeneity is one of the reasons for the unclear mandate. The police meet various groups of people who may be citizens of different countries and therefore may change their roles from time to time. The immediate circumstances can also affect their roles.
The diverse array of citizens requires police to be constantly trained on how to handle the individuals in the society. If there was a clear mandate in place, then only the roles mandated could have been performed. There are some other reasonable roles not described in their duties that they can do.
Lack of a clear mandate has made the police be held liable for some actions that are beyond their mandate. They have done some roles that they are not supposed to have done due to the limitation of powers.
It has made it hard for the police to assess their performance effectively. At the departmental level, the measurement is difficult as well as at the individual level.
Lastly, the unclear mandate of the police has been an impediment to the work done by the police officers. Most officers neglect some roles claiming that they have not been mandated to do them.
The various departments of police have started the National Incidence Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which has been using the law agencies in the collection of data on various crimes which are then reported. This ensures that police can differentiate between completed and attempted crimes effectively (Department of safety and security, 1998).
The community satisfaction surveys are carried out to assess how the police are perceived by the communities that they are serving. The departments focus on the measurable outcomes so as to check on how well the police are meeting the objectives in their role and duties.
Performance evaluation of each officer is done so as to reward anyone who is showing exemplary performance at work. This ensures that officers perform their work and meet the set standards (Patterson, 1987). This depends on how well an officer meets the goals of the organization.
Peer review is done to check the standards of performance within the group of police and officers whose standards are found to be high are rewarded.
Community satisfaction at individual level involves assessing the contribution of each officer towards the community (Davis, 2000). Any officer found to be very hardworking, is rewarded.
References
Davis, R. (2000). The use of citizen surveys as a tool for police reform. New York vera institute of justice, 25 (4), 47-87.
Department of Safety and Security, (1998). White paper on safety and security. Journal on security, 23 (3), 34-78.
Patterson, T. F. (1987). Refining performance appraisal. Journal of extension. Web.