What is evidence-based policing? What assumptions about police work have scientific studies of law enforcement called into question? What other assumptions made about police work today might be similarly questioned or studied?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Evidence-based policing is the use of the best available research on the outcomes of police work to implement guidelines and evaluate agencies, units, and officers. It really refers to how decision making, in terms of both strategic initiatives and organizational procedures, should reflect best practices supported by empirical research findings.

Police work is replete with assumptions about what works effectively and what doesn’t. Classic scientific studies designed to validate or invalidate those assumptions include the 1974 Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment, which questioned the effectiveness of routine police patrol; the 1975 RAND study on detective work; Spelman and Brown’s classic study on response time; the 1994 Kansas City Gun Experiment, which sought to determine if vigorous gun law enforcement would reduce gun-related crime; the 1984 Minneapolis study of domestic violence, which attempted to show the impact of arrest, versus other dispositions, on the reduction of crime; and the Newport News, Virginia, test, conducted during the 1980s, that compared traditional incident-driven policing to a new approach called problem-oriented policing. Potential assumptions about police work worth examining include the effects of higher minimum education standards on police violence, the effects of higher minimum education standards on police corruption, and studies related to the effectiveness of female officers. In addition, it is critical to continue to refine the evaluation of the impact of various law enforcement crime control strategies, such as directed patrol, CompStat, and undercover police work.