Evidence based practice

INNOVATION: Inspired by ‘café scientifiques’, the team from the Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) have been working with forces across England and Wales to hold a series of ‘evidence cafés’ – informal gatherings designed to increases two-way dialogue between academics and practitioners and explore how research findings relate to real-world policing practices – as the CPRL’s Dr Keely Duddin, Kendal Wright, Frances Wright and Dr Nicky Miller explain.

INTERVIEW: Having embarked on a policing career out of a strong desire to be “the person who helped”, Barrie Police Service Chief Rich Johnston found that evidence-based policing (EBP) instilled a real passion to make policing smarter, safer, and more transparent; and as he explained to Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood, while adopting and implementing an EBP philosophy has its challenges, it offers significant potential for positive transformation.

FEATURE: Police leaders, academics and stakeholders gathered in Ontario recently for Canada’s first in-person evidence-based policing (EBP) conference, exploring a range of topics including overcoming barriers and normalizing EBP within law enforcement, the importance of leadership in embedding the approach, and turning research into action; Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood looks at the main themes and debates emerging from the Building Bridges event.

OPINION: The latest figures for gun crime in parts of Canada make for worrying reading, with shootings in Toronto increasing by 58% on last year, and the average age of those involved dropping to 20; Professor Ardavan Eizadirad of Wilfrid Laurier University argues that the best way to tackle the issue is through a data-driven public health approach that addresses the root causes of violence using evidence-based interventions.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: We have sold out Building Bridges at Blue - Canada’s first in-person Evidence-Based Policing Conference taking place November 7 & 8, 2024, at the iconic Blue Mountain Resort, in Collingwood, Ontario. This event is drawing attendees from post secondary institutions, police agencies and industry stakeholders across Canada.

ANALYSIS: A new study by the N8 Policing Research Partnership has found a lack of effective evaluation of police activity to tackle drugs markets, leading to responses built on an evidence base that is “distressingly weak”, a “whack-a-mole” approach to police operations, and forces resorting to short termism, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new personal safety training programme which focuses on scenario-based learning and decision-making to reduce police injuries and the use of force has been developed in a ‘pracademic’ partnership between the College of Policing and Loughborough University; the package is now being rolled out to officers across England and Wales after a successful pilot with Avon and Somerset Police, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons report

FEATURE: Last week’s Global Evidence-Based Policing (EBP) Conference, supported by Policing Insight as media partner, saw pioneers of the evidence-based approach gather in Melbourne to share insights and best practice, as well as signing a new memorandum of understanding between EBP societies in six countries that could lay the foundations for greater global collaboration and co-operation, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ANALYSIS: Football and other public order events inevitability lead to officers being drafted in from other units but research undertaken by Keele University's Dr Mike Hope, Project Leader for ENABLE UK, and Professor Clifford Stott as part of the ENABLE project reveals how greater use of Operational Football Officers reduces abstraction rates as well as disorder and anti-social behaviour.

INTERVIEWS: Ahead of the Global Evidence-Based Policing (EBP) Conference, Mark Evans, NZ Police Executive Lead for Future Policing and the Vice-President of the Australia New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing, spoke to fellow EBP pioneers about the growth, opportunities and challenges around the approach; in this second of two features, he explores the future of EBP over the coming decade, and how to increase understanding among the public as well as convincing the sceptics.

INTERVIEWS: Ahead of September’s Global Evidence-Based Policing (EBP) Conference, Mark Evans, NZ Police Executive Lead for Future Policing and the Vice-President of the Australia New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing, spoke to fellow EBP pioneers about the growth, opportunities and challenges around the approach; in this first of two features, he looks at advice for agencies embarking on EBP, and where should efforts be focused – leaders, front-line officers, or both?

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: This year's Global Collaboration of Evidence Based Policing , supported by media partner Policing Insight, runs from 2nd to 4th September in Melbourne, Australia and is followed by the UK Society of Evidence Based Policing annual conference 11th to 12th September. Mark Evans highlights the themes with the Australia & New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing (ANZSEBP) President Dave Cowan and UK Society of Evidence Based Policing (SEBP) Chair Alex Murray.

ANALYSIS: New research by community safety professional Abu Ullah into the incidence of violence against women and girls in the London Borough of Sutton has highlighted the need for an evidence-based approach targeting hotspots to gain the most effective outcomes from overstretched police resources and reduce the threat to females, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: Victoria Police Detective Sergeant Peter Romanis believes that ‘compassion fatigue’ – a combination of accumulated secondary traumatic stress and burnout – poses the most significant threat to the mental health of emergency services workers, and hope a new report detailing the findings of his research into the issue will prove beneficial to officers and staff, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: In the latest in the new series of The Police Student focusing on Criminology in Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly looks at the New Penology approach, which highlights the role of measurement and the rise in metrics in responses to crime, but also underlines some of the dangers of focusing solely on risk and harm when allocating resources.

FEATURE: An evaluation report into the UK Government-funded Grip programme and hot spot policing initiative designed to tackle serious violence has highlighted significant reductions in crime and potential savings, but has also warned that the approach is not a “quick fix” and requires commitment and buy-in from forces and leaders, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: In January the Global Law Enforcement & Public Health Association (GLEPHA) published a series of reports as part of the ‘Envisaging the future of policing and public health’ project, covering a range of topics including harm reduction, diversion, and policing mental health; in the sixth in a series of seven articles, Policing Insight’s Thomas James looks at GLEPHA’s report on policing key populations.

FEATURE: Speaking at a recent Police Foundation event, Mark Evans – Executive Lead for Future Policing at New Zealand Police – explained how forces can build effective partnerships and take steps to improve trust and confidence, the benefits of listening to ‘angry friends’, and what senior officers must do to change the organisations they lead, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: A joint approach between New Zealand Police and multi-agency partners to fast track action plans for young offenders and provide wrap-around support has led to significant reductions in some crimes, stronger police-community relations, and improved youth engagement, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With the Metropolitan Police having come under significant pressure over the past week to ban the planned pro-Palestinian protest in the capital tomorrow (Armistice Day), Edge Hill University Senior Policing Lecturer Owen West, a former chief superintendent and public order specialist, argues that history suggests prohibiting the march is likely to result in widespread violence, with dialogue and facilitation of a peaceful demonstration a much-preferred alternative.

ANALYSIS: Ahead of this week’s UK Society of Evidence-Based Policing (UK SEBP) Conference, National Crime Agency Temporary Director of Investigations John Denley, Keele University Academic Policing Collaboration Professor of Practice Marcus Beale, and Cambridge University Professor of Experimental Criminology Barak Ariel, highlight some of the key findings from their latest research drawing on police information and intelligence and the views of police professionals to explore new ways to prevent organised crime (the focus of an SEBP Conference session).

ANALYSIS: Ahead of next week’s UK Society of Evidenced-Based Policing (SEBP) Conference, Simon Rose, CEO of the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing, and Detective Inspector Mark Brennan of Leicestershire Police outline the background, delivery and interim results from a police and third sector outreach project targeting violence hot spots in Leicester city centre, which early findings suggest could cut crime and crime harm by more than a third.

FEATURE: Ahead of next month’s UK Society of Evidence-Based Policing (UK SEBP) Conference, Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Ralph – who heads up the South West Police Collaboration and is South West Regional Lead for the UK SEBP – looks at the evolution of evidence-based policing, the value it brings both to law enforcement and communities, and the aims of the SEBP that will underpin this year’s event.

INTERVIEW: In the final part of our extended interview series with Professor Laurence Sherman, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland sought the views of the Metropolitan Police Chief Scientific Officer on misconduct, making tough choices, and how artificial intelligence and live facial recognition might transform the nation’s largest police force.