Developing the SAPS website for optimal service delivery
5 Best practices
In Sonderling 2003 the best practices of a number of police
agency websites are evaluated in detail. In this regard Gurton
(1998/99:24) states that when implementing processes and systems,
it pays to look at what has succeeded – and failed – in the past.
This is what constitutes best practices.
An evaluation of online best practices of other police agencies
is of substantial value in developing the SAPS website, in terms
of both requirements for an effective website in general and also
the broad policing purpose, i.e. service delivery. Based on such
evaluation a further evaluation framework was subsequently
designed to evaluate the SAPS website.
To determine best practices of the websites, the evaluation
focused on their content, architecture, technology, style, and
service delivery. Service delivery includes the strategy of the
website, i.e. whether the website meets its objectives – stated
implicitly or explicitly – concerning the target audience.
To set about this, the following was done:
- The list of websites selected for evaluation is given;
- A website evaluation framework was applied to seven police
agency websites; and
- A questionnaire was compiled for the police agency
webmasters.
Subsequently a descriptive evaluation of each website and its
best practices derived from the evaluation and the questionnaire
were set out.
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The objective of the evaluation was to determine best practices
for an effective police agency website. The evaluation was
summative. Morris, Fitz-Gibbon and Freeman (1987:27) describe
summative evaluation as “(nearly always) written and detailed with
charts and graphs to deliver a clear, precise message”.
Four of the seven websites selected for evaluation represent
the UK Police Services, namely Essex, the Metropolitan Police
(London), Lothian and Borders (Edinburgh) and Strathclyde
(Glasgow). The reason for this was the close working relationship
between the UK Police Services and the SAPS. The two police
services have numerous co-operation agreements and exchange
programmes for police members.
While there are hundreds of police services in the world, from
small to very large, the examples selected offer a cross-section
of services that have to cope with similar situations as the SAPS.
Regarding the UK sites it was possible to have personal
discussions with the webmasters of three of those websites, as one
of the researchers visited the United Kingdom in June/July 2002.
The last three, the Australian Federal, the Hong Kong and the
Princeton Borough police agency websites were selected because of
their locations; being from different continents. Princeton
Borough, specifically, was selected because it has received five
awards for excellence (cf.
http://www.princetonboro.org).
The URLs of the police agency websites selected for evaluation
are as follows:
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The evaluations took place July – October 2002.
Based on the findings of the Ask Africa survey, the literature
review, common sense observations, information gleaned by visiting
various police agency websites and working on the SAPS website and
various website evaluation criteria and sources, a websites
evaluation framework was compiled to assist in assessing the best
practices of police agency websites.
The justification for consulting the specific evaluation
criteria and sources was their clarity and the comprehensiveness
of their evaluation scope. The limitation of these criteria for
this study was that they were designed to evaluate websites in
general – they were not tailor-made to evaluate police agency
websites. In an attempt to overcome this shortcoming, additional
elements (among others, police-specific elements) that seemed to
have become apparent in practice were addressed in the evaluation
framework.
Based on the best practices derived from the evaluation of the
seven websites, the interviews with the webmasters and the
findings in the foregoing chapters, an instrument was designed to
assess the SAPS website.
5.1 Findings: Evaluation of best practices of other police
agency websites
Best practices for a police service agency website – based on
the seven websites evaluated – included the following:
5.1.1 Content
- Website strategy. A website strategy, which determines the
overall putting together of the website, should be available.
- Audience-specific content. Content should be compiled for
the specific target audience(s). It therefore follows that there
should be clarity on who the target audience(s) is(are).
- Cultural sensitivity. Police agency websites serve
communities with different cultures and needs. Catering for
different language groups is an example. This should be a major
consideration in putting content together.
- Logo significance. The logo on the home page should spell
out what the police and the website are striving for. The
content should further be in line with the mission of the police
service agency. This implies that the mission should also appear
on the website. It should communicate with the audience defined
as its target audience.
- Breadth and depth of information. Information should be
broad and cover as many aspects of the police agency as
possible. Information should also have sufficient depth to
satisfy users’ need for specific information.
- Source reference. There should be reference to the sources
from which the material is gained. Further, authors should be
mentioned and contactable to verify content. Dates should be
given.
- Police-specific content should include the structure,
leadership and history of the police service agency. Media
releases, crime statistics, and details of campaigns, launches,
successes, employment opportunities and conferences, etc. should
be posted on the website. The Australian Federal Police website
also publishes national news pertaining to law enforcement on
the site. This is something to be considered.
- Contact details. Extensive and adequate contact details
should be provided. This includes contact details for emergency
and non-emergency situations.
- Availability of publications. Various police agency
publications, e.g. the annual reports, should be available on
the website.
- Guidelines. The web developers should adhere to strict
guidelines in designing the website and content.
- Surveys. Usability studies and surveys of user needs should
be undertaken.
- Digital divide. A strategy for bridging the digital divide
should receive attention.
- Comment and feedback. Interactivity should be encouraged.
- Community participation. This should be encouraged.
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5.1.2 Site Architecture
- Location. The location should be easy to find. The URL
should be clear. It should also be available on search engines.
- Overall layout. The overall layout should be simple and
uncomplicated.
- Site organisation. The site should be organised logically.
- Consistency. It should have a consistent look and feel
throughout.
- Information chunking. Matching information should be chunked
together in digestible blocks.
- Intuitiveness. The site should be designed in such a way
that the search for information follows an easy-to-understand
pattern.
- Menu bars must be understandable and guide users to where
they want to be on the site.
- Home page: The home page must be informative, inviting,
concise and easy-to-read. The identity of the police service and
the type of services offered must be immediately visible to the
user.
- Search facility. A search facility should support a
user-centric approach.
- Restrained use of graphics: Content should be given priority
over flashiness and cumbersome graphics that slow down
downloading. An uncluttered appearance promotes usability.
- Consistent use of menus: A side, top and (sometimes) a
bottom menu bar should be used to ease navigation, especially in
large websites.
- Site maps/indices. This feature adds value. It makes
browsing much easier for the user.
- Updates. There should be an indication when the website was
last updated.
5.1.3 Technology
- Click-throughs. It should not take too many mouse clicks to
get to required information.
- Links. Both external and internal links should work well, be
useful and be designed in such a way that the user can easily
return to the originating location.
- Documents on the website – such as annual reports – should
be downloadable.
- Where scrolling is required, pages should have adequate
navigation within leading to the top/end of the document.
- Investment in technology. Police service agencies should
invest in appropriate technology to develop their websites. They
do not seem to regard this as a priority yet.
- Privacy and security. The privacy of users and
confidentiality should be ensured.
- Visual aspects. Graphics must not slow down downloading
time.
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5.1.4 Style
- Consistency. Layout and language style should be consistent
throughout.
- Text. Text should be interesting, appealing, readable and
legible.
- Visual aspects. Graphics add to the attractiveness of the
page.
5.1.5 Service Delivery
- e-Government principles. Certain governments provide formal
guidelines for the development of governmental websites, and the
use of these guidelines is enforced. This includes accuracy and
completeness of information, usability, and transformation of
online services to a full e-Government model. There should be
evidence that e-Government principles are coming into play.
- Welcoming and fun. These are worthy elements recommended for
a police agency website. Welcoming users to a website creates a
sense of community. The Princeton website manager states that
the website should be fun. Fun brings lightness – the more so
with regards to matters as serious as policing. It also helps
attract and keep the attention of the youth – a major segment of
police agencies’ target audience.
- Latest policing news. The latest policing news, new
campaigns and launches should be available.
- Forms and processing. The website should provide easy access
to forms, which could be submitted electronically.
- Publications. Important and updated
publications/bulletins/leaflets/posters should be placed on the
website and should be downloadable.
- Identification: The website URL should be easy to identify.
- Appeal to a universal audience. Cultural sensitivity should
be present.
- Contact details. Users should have access to contact details
of the persons/departments in the police service agency they
would need to contact.
- Benefits. The benefits that the specific police service
offers to the community should be made clear in the content.
- Language and language usage should be clear and error free.
- Mission, vision and strategy of police agency and website.
The latter supports the former. Both should be published on the
website.
- Logo on home page. This makes it clear how the police agency
and website are pursuing its goal of service delivery. It
effectively “builds the brand” for the website.
- A dedicated community relationship section. Police agencies
worldwide are emphasising the need for partnership policing. It
is a requirement today that the community needs to be involved
in policing.
- Multicultural diversity section. Communities are becoming
increasingly diverse. For a website to render optimal service,
this must be taken into consideration. The Lothian and Borders
websites, for example, accommodates groups from ethnic
minorities by informing them of the official interpreters and
language lines that are available.
- Accessibility for disabled persons. This is an e-Government
principle in most governments. Police agencies as part of
government need to consider the universal accessibility
principles.
- Youth focus. Most of the websites have dedicated specific
sections to young children and to the youth. In this age of
serious concern about juvenile crime, the electronic media has a
definite role in the education of children and getting a higher
level of involvement in crime awareness and crime fighting.
- Education. A police service agency website should play a
strong role in educating people on issues such as drug abuse.
- Research: Ongoing research should be conducted in order to
develop the website.
- Complaints. Users should be informed how to lodge complaints
against the police service. This enhances community
participation.
- Website feedback. Users should be able to give feedback.
This is a valuable way of assessing user needs and opinions.
- Surveys. Surveys on user needs as well as usability studies
should be undertaken. This is valuable in gauging user needs and
opinions.
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5.1.6 Aspects not always present on websites, but which could
add value
- Glossary. Given the numerous policing-specific terms, a
glossary could be helpful for most users.
- A to Z (alphabetical) index. This could add value.
- Updated information. Furnishing of an update notice that
indicates the freshness and currency of the published
information. It should clearly identify news or information that
has been added in the past two weeks.
- References and author. References and indications of the
author(s) make content on the web more credible because it can
be verified. Contact details will also be useful.
- Usability testing. Usability testing will point out
shortcomings that website developers could then rectify.
- Section on missing/wanted persons. Some websites have such
sections, while some do not. This is a contentious issue.
Placing details of a wanted person on a website, and not
removing it when s/he is no longer being searched for, could
result in legal proceedings against the police service.
Feedback – as reflected in the questionnaire for webmasters –
from webmasters indicated that websites and online services have
gained in importance in the past few years.
Formal processes for site maintenance and content management
were usually employed.
A website team had mostly been described in the responses.
There were, however, distinct roles defined for the information
owner, the webmaster, the web author, and supporting roles such as
graphics designer.
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