The Evaluation of I. R. of Iran's Police Performance in Restoring Law, Order and Security in the City of Bam: With Reference to the Approach of Crisis Management

Police have a basic role in restoring law, order and security at times of crisis. The present study sought to evaluate the I. R. of Iran’s police performance in restoring law, order and security in the aftermath of the earthquake with a special focus on police response and relief aids. Using the survey method and a questionnaire, 501 participants (288 citizens, 163 police officers and 50 government executives) were selected as the sample. They were asked to pass judgments on the performance of police force. Cronbach alpha was used to establish the reliability of the questionnaire. The coefficients of Cronbach alpha response units for the police force, commissariat and the traffic police were 0.9631, 0.9430 and 0.9584, respectively. The results of a single sample, using t-test showed to the respondents that, the performance of response units, the commissariat and the traffic police was higher than average. The results of the ANOVA test showed that the respondent groups had different impressions of the performance of police in restoring law, order, and security in the aftermath of the Bam earthquake. The results of the Tukey (HSD) test showed that there is a significant difference (P<0/01) between evaluation of police officers and executives, and also between evaluation of executives and citizens, about police performance, while there is no significant difference between the evaluation of citizens and police officers. Moreover, the results of the ANOVA test showed that police performance for restoring the order and security in the aftermath of the Bam earthquake in the response units, commissariat and traffic police at the stage of responding and relief aids was higher than average, as the viewpoints of all responders (people, officers, executives and employees). Comparing the evaluation of the people, employees and executives indicate that the maximum score for police performance in restoring the order and security in Bam earthquake was respectively for employees, people and executives.