Are the police embracing evidence-informed practice? A view from England and Wales

Abstract

The What Works Centre for Crime Reduction (WWCCR) in the UK's College of Policing has a key role in promoting the use of research in policing. Since 2014, the WWCCR has aimed to review-and make accessible-research to better inform and target crime reduction and to build police capacity to identify, evaluate and apply research evidence to practice. This comes amidst significant changes to entry requirements for policing in the UK as part of efforts to further professionalise the service and prepare for future challenges in policing. We report findings from in-depth interviews with senior police officers from forces across England and Wales, conducted as part of a three-year evaluation of the WWCCR. These interviews explored the traction of 'evidence-based practice' among senior officers and showed shifts over time in their accounts of the value placed on research and how it is promoted and used within their force. Additionally, an online survey across policing ranks, conducted in 2016, found differences by seniority in perceptions about the relevance of research for policing, and the level of organisational support for it. Findings are used to consider the status of research evidence in policing and its development within a policing profession.

Views from the Frontline: Graduate Police Recruits on the Status of Evidence-based Practice

“…The most commonly reported experience for the interviewees here was one where EBP rarely featured. This is not surprising given what we know about commitment to EBP across the service: That it is patchy, with support for it much more likely to be found among senior staff than operational officers (Hunter, May and Hough, 2019;Lumsden and Goode, 2016).…”

“…Further, there are well-documented and continuing organisational impediments to the assimilation of research into policing (e.g. Lumsden and Goode, 2016;Fleming and Wingrove 2017;Hunter, May and Hough, 2019) and some cynicism from officers about the likely longevity of evidence-based practice in the litany of police reforms (Hunter, May and Hough, 2019).…”

“…An evaluation of the What Works Centre for Crime Reduction (WWCCR) showed positive shifts over time in chief officers' accounts of the value placed on research, how regularly research evidence (of varying types) was being promoted and used within their force, and the involvement in research partnerships with universities. However, survey data from more junior officers and staff suggested they were less convinced by the relevance of EBP or the organisational support for it (Hunter, May and Hough, 2019). Fleming and colleagues (Fleming, Fyfe and Wingrove, 2016 a-c;Fleming and Wingrove, 2017) reported similar concerns expressed by staff and officers across three police forces participating in pilot training about EBP.…”

Fragile alliances: culture, funding and sustainability in police–academic partnerships

“…EBP, in other words, demands at minimum research for the police, though ideally research with the police. From its origins in the US, it is now a global movement, with much of the impetus coming from government agencies and police themselves, in part through Societies of Evidence-Based Policing which have been established in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US (Hunter et al 2019). Importantly, the expansion of EBP has been facilitated not just by rationalist lesson drawing between these countries, but also by common background factors in the Anglosphere such as: shared political economic ideologies; complementary electoral patterns; and the prevalence of 'epistemic communities' and thinktanks (Greene 2014).…”

“…In most countries, police do not see the funding of research and evaluation as their responsibility. Unlike in commercial manufacturing, their core budgets do not contain a general proportion for 'research and development' -though forces in countries which value EBP are increasingly building their 'in force' research capability and employing 'evidence champions' to promote the value and use of research (Hunter et al 2019). Police have instead tended to see those costs as falling elsewhere, in particular upon government (as in England & Wales, France, the Netherlands or the US) and universities (Fleming 2010).…”