Question

. The following evaluation project should be clear in “causality” or “causal effect” between the policy and the outcome. Develop and provide three best questions that can effectively evaluate if the policy has had a real impact on the outcome.

"In 2009 ABC University adopted a student patrol program in which trained students patrol the campus instead of police officers to prevent crime on campus, and at the same time to create more on-campus jobs for students. The program was initially proposed as the university considered freezing the new hiring of campus police officers due to budget shortfall. Some successful outcomes have been reported from other universities where the program had been implemented earlier than ABC University. Preparing a new five-year plan for campus safety, the ABC University police chief wants to evaluate if the student patrol program has actually contributed to the safer campus environment.

Answer 1

1. The first question that we need to ask whether the crime rate has actually come down or not after the implementation of the student patrol program in the other universities.

2. Compare the crime reduction rate in the universities in which the plan has been implemented vs crime reduction rate in the universities where the plan has not been implemented at the same time. Crime should have reduced more in the universities who have implemented a student patrol program.

3. As the university considered freezing the new hiring of campus police officers due to budget shortfall, we need to check if spending on training the student is less than the money needed to hire the campus police officer.