- Statistics are of great value to inspecting officers, and specially to Superintendents, indicating as they do the officers whose work needs special scrutiny, and the areas and kinds of crime on which they should concentrate their energies. But to go further than this and to use them as the chief means of appraising work is deceptive, and teaches subordinate officers to believe that credit can only be gained by the maintenance of a high ratio of convictions to cases and a low return of crime. In the inspections of small areas, such as police-stations especially, the award of praise or blame on the basis of percentages and comparisons of figures is dangerous, and may be unfair. An officer's merits can be gauged effectively only by a careful scrutiny and testing of work actually done.
