In recent years, more emphasis is being placed on the urban police department's role in handling social conflict situations, such as domestic disturbances. As a result, many police departments have adopted training in the area of family crisis intervention but have lacked a reliable and systematic means of assessing the efficacy of such training. The Behavioral Scale for Measuring Police Effectiveness in Domestic Disputes (BSDD) measures the effectiveness of police intervention in a domestic dispute by defining specific officer behaviors which have been identified to be most beneficial when dealing with this type of disturbance. Included are appropriate safety procedures, defusing techniques, assessment skills, mediation skills, and referral strategies. The BSDD scoring system is a one-to-five rating continuum with specific behavioral guidelines for rating each of the 10 items. Validity was established by three experts in the field of family crisis intervention: two police officers and a psychologist with extensive experience in training police officers in handling disturbances. The BSDD behavioral items have also been emphasized as important in police literature. Rater reliability was determined by having two judges rate videotaped role playing exercises. The results indicated an acceptable level of agreement. The instrument has proven to be both an effective evaluation tool and a valuable teaching resource at the Miami Police Department. The instrument and a five-item reference list are included.