Traditionally, police performance has been largely assessed in terms of statistics, such as crime rates and community satisfaction. While these approaches can provide an indication of what police may spend their time on, they do not directly indicate what they do spend their time on. It is widely recognized that traditional indicators of police performance are insufficient. In October 1999, the South Australia Police (SAPOL) showcased the “activity measurement” approach by which police time spent on certain activities can be measured. The paper reports the type of information that can be elicited from the data using the SAPOL experience. Improved knowledge of how police spend their time through “activity measurement” provides management information that has the potential to support many critical decisions and processes affecting police agencies. All police jurisdictions have seen the relative benefits of this information and, as a result, most have begun to collect information on this basis, largely using activity surveys. SAPOL intends to make significant improvements to the “activity measurement” process and data integrity by shifting to an electronic survey format. The data will provide a useful tool to supplement other forms of management information. References