Translating Police Research Into Practice by Cynthia Lum
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Ideas in POLICE American FOUNDATION Number 11 Policing August 2009 Translating Police Research into Practice by Cynthia Lum Introduction what we know are effective from information and based strategies that reduce or prevent in scientific knowledge about Eleven years ago, in one of the crime? A number of benefits effectiveness are more likely first Ideas in American Policing could be reaped from such a to reduce crime when they lectures, Lawrence Sherman rational approach. Strategies are employed. Similarly, if advocated for evidence-based and tactics that are generated interventions have been policing, that is, “. police practices should be based on scientific evidence about what Ideas in American Policing presents commentary and insight from leading crimi- works best” (1998, 2). Like nologists on issues of interest to scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. The papers published in this series are from the Police Foundation lecture series of the other police researchers and same name. Points of view in this document are those of the author and do not innovative police practitioners necessarily represent the official position of the Police Foundation. The full series at the time, Sherman believed is available online at http://www.policefoundation.org/docs/library.html. that information generated from © 2009 Police Foundation. All rights reserved. systematic or scientific research, Cynthia Lum, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Administration as well as rigorous in-house crime of Justice Department at George Mason University and the analysis, should be regularly deputy director of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. used by the police to make both Her research areas include policing, evidence-based crime strategic and tactical decisions. prevention, evaluation research and methods, democratization and The idea of evidence-based justice systems, place-based criminology, and counterterrorism. policing seemed logical and Dr. Lum is a member of the Police Foundation’s Research advantageous. Why wouldn’t Advisory Committee. police tactics be based on shown to have harmful effects, amorphous cultural norms a number of innovations that police policies might explicitly of quasi-military hierarchy or reflected its principles had already discourage their deployment. adherence to a reactive standard been implemented or were Evidence-based policing also operating procedures manual. being considered (see generally, seems more justifiable in Evidence-based policing Weisburd and Braga 2006). supporting police practices could also have a broader impact Examples include the diffusion of than other, much less scientific on transforming cultural forces crime analysis and computerized methods, such as best-guessing, that strongly influence a reactive mapping in medium to larger emotional hunches, or anecdotal approach to police operations, police agencies (Weisburd and reflections on single cases. In which oftentimes paralyzes crime Lum 2005); the acceptance turn, information-based decision prevention efforts and change. and use of some principles making can provide legitimacy, Although its conceptualization of Compstat by a number of transparency, and structure to and implementation seem agencies (Weisburd, Mastrofski, police-citizen communications scientific or academic, evidence- McNally, Greenspan, and and interactions, all of which based policing could increase Willis 2003; Willis, Mastrofski, are important requirements for the motivation of patrol officers and Weisburd 2003; Willis, effective policing in modern and supervisors in their daily Mastrofski, and Weisburd 2007); democracies. activities. Reducing crime by and at least an interest and Perhaps less obvious but using strategies more likely to sporadic efforts in conducting equally important benefits be effective can reduce workload problem-oriented policing and could include advancing police and make efforts more rational. hot-spot patrol. Additionally, information and management Information-based approaches by the time of Sherman’s systems that improve efficiency. can also be problem oriented lecture, Sherman, Weisburd, Evidence-based approaches rely and require a team effort, giving Mazerolle, and others had on the consistent and speedy further meaning, logic, and already evaluated hot-spot patrol collection, management, analysis, motivation to everyday routines. using randomized controlled recording, and turnaround of Evidence-based policing requires experiments (see Sherman and crime data. This reliance can police to look outward for Rogan 1995a, 1995b; Sherman force improvements in police information as well, opening and Weisburd 1995; Weisburd information technology systems, officers and command staff to and Green 1995), showing its which, in turn, have the potential different ideas and worldviews, clear advantage over existing of strengthening and making and providing new challenges, methods of random, preventive, more tangible accountability interactions, and relationships beat-based, reactive patrol (a systems that facilitate managerial that could make any workplace conclusion recently reached by a practices, of which information more interesting. Police culture 2004 National Research Council is a central component. These has generally resisted change report). More than policing include innovations such as and external influence (O’Neill, paradigms of the past, evidence- Compstat, problem-oriented Marks, and Singh 2008), and an based policing and its associated policing, and intelligence-led evidence-based paradigm might tactics and tools have shown the policing (see Ratcliffe 2008). aid in mollifying this resistance. promise of both intuitive appeal Such a system seems more Thus, at least in theory, and scientific credibility. promising than what police evidence-based policing holds leaders have previously relied much promise. Indeed, by the upon to establish accountability— time of Sherman’s Ideas lecture, —— 2 —— Pessimism Regarding strategies—beat-based patrol by analytic intelligence, crime Evidence-Based Policing and rapid response to 911 analysis and maps, systematically calls—indicate that the police collected observations, or Despite its potential, however, do the exact opposite: patrol performance measures related to evidence-based policing has not officers continue to be assigned crime prevention outcomes but rapidly diffused into American to random, reactive, preventative instead by a procedural reaction policing. There is little indication patrol within single police beats to 911 calls. Further, the context that most American police leaders no matter the spatial distribution of that reaction is based not in and their agencies systematically of crime. preventative principles but more or regularly use tactics that are Similar concerns about the informally in idiosyncrasies of the evidence based. Instead, they disconnect between research incident, anecdotes and stories, continue to rely on strategies and practice have already been officers’ experiences, political and and tactics that are widely voiced throughout the Ideas in social crises, standard operating known to be ineffective or not American Policing series. When procedures, moral panics, political based on systematic assessment. he gave the first Ideas lecture ideology, pressure-group interests, Innovations in evidence-based in 1997, David Bayley stated police organizational, strategic, policing and research are that “. research may not have and tactical culture, and other less the products of agency made as significant, or at least whims, hunches, feelings, and initiatives and more the result as coherent, an impression on best guesses. More generally, of special, esoteric, and isolated policing as scholars like to think. decision making at the command projects between researchers . Nor has research led to and agency levels is often and agencies in funded grant widespread operational changes motivated by many other political situations, overtime schemes, even when it has been accepted and organizational considerations and specialized unit operations. as true” (1998, 4–5). Stephen (Willis et al. 2007). While there are exceptions to this Mastrofski in 1999 emphasized To break these non-evidence- generalization, those exceptions that the challenge was not only based habits is a monumental are neither agency-specific nor to generate more research about undertaking involving the institutionalized and sustained. useful interventions but also changing of organizational Indeed, the best example of “. to figure out how to get culture, structure, rules, and the absence of evidence-based police to do them more often” norms. There is also a mythology approaches in policing continues (1999, 6). of policing that insulates and to be, as David Weisburd pointed From the perspective of a cloaks almost every aspect of out in his Ideas monograph practitioner,1 it is not surprising the profession, distorting both (2008), the almost complete that the factors that go into the officer and citizen expectations absence of regular use of hot- vast majority of police decisions about what police can and spot patrol. Although agencies on the street and at the level of should deliver. The principles of have answered affirmatively to high command are not evidence an evidence-based approach are using hot-spot patrol in various or science based The daily not part of these expectations surveys (see Koper 2008; Police activities, strategies, and tactics and beliefs about the functions Executive Research Forum 2008; of the