Policing Drug Markets: Evaluating the Impacts
(Ended 5th Sep 2024)
Online
5th Sep 2024 to 5th Sep 2024
Thu, 5 Sep 2024 13:30 – 14:30 BST
Research on drugs policing is surprisingly sparse and underdeveloped, leading to police responses built on a ‘distressingly weak’ evidence base (Babor et al. 2018). There are long-standing calls from government for research to address these knowledge gaps and investigate responds to government calls for urgently-needed research to address knowledge gaps on the impacts of policing drug markets and the potential for innovative approaches within the existing legal framework (Home Office Evaluation of 2010 Drug Strategy, 2017).
Working with South Yorkshire Police, Dr Matthew Bacon and Dr Xavier L’Hoiry (University of Sheffield) have taken an innovative approach to evaluating the impact of policing drug markets, applying a harm-reduction framework to understand the aims and outcomes of policing interventions. Based on 44 interviews, document analysis, and a co-production workshop, this project analyses how police perceive and prioritise the harms of drug markets, how success is defined and evaluated, and how performanc metrics can be improved.
In this webinar organised by N8 Policing Research Partnership, Dr Bacon and Dr L’Hoiry present their findings and discuss the implications for police practice and further research.
The report is available on the N8 PRP website.