{"id":20625,"date":"2016-08-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iacpmag.wp.matrixdev.net\/accessing-the-evidence-in-policing-six-helpful-websites\/"},"modified":"2025-03-04T15:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T20:28:14","slug":"accessing-the-evidence-in-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.policechiefmagazine.org\/accessing-the-evidence-in-policing\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessing the Evidence in Policing: Six Helpful Websites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name=\"landslide\"><\/a><br \/>\nOne of the key assumptions of the evidence-based policing movement is that police will be inclined to adopt a research-informed approach to policing practices if they access, read, and digest what they discover from the research evidence.<a href=\"#1\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a> Providing easy access to the research evidence is thus a fundamental starting point for widespread adoption of the evidence-based policing paradigm.<a href=\"#2\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a> To that end, herein is insight into six different open-access websites (see call-out box) that collectively offer police comprehensive information about what is known, globally, about the effectiveness of police practices.<\/p>\n<p>The authors used a number of workshop forums to ask middle manager-level police officers to select different types of crime problems and assess the accessibility and usefulness of the six websites using predetermined criteria. Managers were asked to take 10 minutes to familiarize themselves with the websites and then answer questions about each site\u2019s ease of navigation, access to \u201cplain English\u201d summaries, links to the original research evidence, and relevance to policing policies and practices.<\/p>\n<table style=\"float: right;\" cellpadding=\"5\" bgcolor=\"navy\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th><b>SIX OPEN-ACCESS WEBSITES:<\/b><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"ffffff\">\n<p style=\"margin-left: .5in;\"><span style=\"color: navy;\"><b>&#x2197; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.campbellcollaboration.org\">Campbell Collaboration<\/a><br \/>\n&#x2197; <a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a><br \/>\n&#x2197; <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">Global Policing Database<\/a><br \/>\n&#x2197; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crimesolutions.gov\">CrimeSolutions.gov<\/a><br \/>\n&#x2197; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/research\/crime-reduction-toolkit\">Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/a><br \/>\n&#x2197; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popcenter.org\">Center for Problem-Oriented Policing<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><big><b>Open-Access Evidence-Based Policing Websites<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n<p><big><i>Campbell Collaboration, Crime and Justice<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.campbellcollaboration.org\">Campbell Collaboration<\/a> works with researchers around the world to produce systematic reviews of the effects of crime and justice interventions, along with other interventions in the domains of education, international development, and social welfare. Systematic reviews bring together scientifically rigorous evaluation studies to synthesize the results of multiple studies that use similar intervention methods.<a href=\"#3\"><sup>3<\/sup><\/a> Of the many reviews currently published in the Crime and Justice Campbell library, more than half are about policing interventions, including reviews of domestic violence second responder programs, hotspots policing, police-led restorative justice, legitimacy policing, problem-oriented policing, and pulling-levers policing.<\/p>\n<p><i>Global Policing Database<\/i><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">Global Policing Database<\/a> (GPD) is an initiative of the University of Queensland, Australia, and the London\u2019s Mayor\u2019s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC), United Kingdom, with funding support from the Australian Research Council and the UK College of Policing.<a href=\"#4\"><sup>4<\/sup><\/a> The beta version of the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a> has been released on the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD website<\/a>, exhibiting the foundations for what will ultimately be a web-based and searchable database that captures the corpus of published and unpublished experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations of policing interventions conducted since 1950. The University of Queensland research team continues to systematically search, retrieve, and screen published and unpublished studies that report impact evaluations of any type of policing intervention from January 1, 1950, to the current time. There are no restrictions on the type of policing technique, type of outcome measure, or language of the research, which distinguishes the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a> from other repositories. For example, \u201cpolicing intervention\u201d is defined as any type of strategy, activity, campaign, directive, funding, or organizational structure or procedure that involves police in some way. \u201cPolice involvement\u201d is also broadly defined to include police initiation or leadership, delivery of the intervention by police, or use of police as participants. Using systematic search methods, the GPD team has identified 375,607 records of which, for the period 2006 (partial) through June 2014, 9,886 documents have been deemed eligible due to their (a) relevance to police or policing and (b) presence of a comparative statistical analysis (preliminary indicator of an impact evaluation). The beta version of the GPD contains 80 quantitative impact evaluations of policing interventions. This subset of the final corpus includes a range of interventions, such as interventions to improve police well-being, police investigative techniques (e.g., interviewing), and other proactive policing interventions (e.g., police-led restorative justice conferencing and hotspots policing). Upon completion, the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a> is expected to include more than 5,000 eligible studies that quantitatively assess the impact of policing interventions using robust research methodologies.<\/p>\n<p><big><i>Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a>, developed by Cynthia Lum, Christopher Koper, and Cody Telep at George Mason University\u2019s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, offers a visual tool for viewing research on policing interventions that seek to control crime and disorder problems, including studies through December 2014. The matrix categorizes the studies that evaluate a range of police tactics across three dimensions: \u201cthe nature of the target, the extent to which the strategy is proactive or reactive, and the specificity or generality of the strategy.\u201d<a href=\"#5\"><sup>5<\/sup><\/a> The matrix presents a three-dimensional cluster of effective tactics that can be used by police agencies to guide policies and practices.<\/p>\n<p><big><i>Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/research\/crime-reduction-toolkit\">Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/a> is a product of the What Works Centre for Crime Reduction, which is part of a network of What Works Centres created in the United Kingdom to provide robust and comprehensive evidence to guide decision-making on public spending. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/research\/crime-reduction-toolkit\">Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/a> draws from over 300 systematic reviews, covering 60 different crime reduction interventions.<a href=\"#6\"><sup>6<\/sup><\/a> To date, the first 14 topics have been released on the toolkit website, with many scheduled to be added over the next few years. The toolkit is focused on crime reduction, not necessarily policing, including a wide variety of strategies that facilitate the reduction of crime such as CCTV, drug courts, police patrols, neighborhood watches, restorative justice, and sobriety checkpoints.<\/p>\n<p><big><i>CrimeSolutions.gov<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crimesolutions.gov\">CrimeSolutions.gov<\/a> website is a product of the U.S. National Institute of Justice that uses research to rate the effectiveness of programs and practices that have shown promise to reduce crime and improve criminal justice outcomes. The purpose of the website is to assist evidence-based decision-making and program implementation. The website includes research on the effectiveness of programs and practices as reviewed and rated by expert reviewers, using easily understandable ratings based on the evidence that indicates whether a program or practice achieves its goals.<\/p>\n<p><big><i>Center for Problem-Oriented Policing\u2013POP Center<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popcenter.org\">POP Center website<\/a> is a U.S.\u2013based \u201cnonprofit organization comprising affiliated police practitioners, researchers, and universities dedicated to the advancement of problem-oriented policing.\u201d<a href=\"#7\"><sup>7<\/sup><\/a> The website includes a wide range of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popcenter.org\">POP<\/a> guides that can be downloaded free of charge, with more than 900,000 copies of the POP guides and other POP Center publications distributed since 2001 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) to individuals and agencies throughout the world. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popcenter.org\">POP Center website<\/a> also offers curriculum guides, teaching aids, and problem analysis tools.<\/p>\n<p><big><b>Resource Assessment<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n<p>To assess these six evidence-based policing websites, nine managers each selected three policing issues or problems of interest to them. Officers selected topics such as investigations, patrols, community engagement, drug law enforcement, organized crime, domestic violence, use of force, and police leadership. With nine officers rating the six websites on three different types of issues, 162 assessments were generated for analysis. Participants were asked about four areas of ratings, as well as open-ended questions about the strengths, weaknesses, and future needs of each of the six websites.<\/p>\n<p><big><i>Ease of Navigation<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>Officers were asked to spend 10 minutes familiarizing themselves with each website before starting the assessment. During the familiarization time period, officers were expected to work out how to move between webpages on each site and to click on as many menu options as possible. They rated the websites in terms of ease of navigation by considering whether they could find their way to reports or summaries of reports and the intuitiveness of navigation through the website.<\/p>\n<p>Officers found the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crimesolutions.gov\">CrimeSolutions.gov<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popcenter.org\">POP Center websites<\/a> easiest to navigate, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/research\/crime-reduction-toolkit\">Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/a> site also rating highly. Although officers found the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crimesolutions.gov\">CrimeSolutions.gov<\/a> website somewhat \u201cbusy,\u201d the search functions were intuitive. These are all websites with considerable government funding supporting the development of the websites, relative to the other three (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.campbellcollaboration.org\">Campbell<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a>), which have received very little funding. These results suggest that police would be able to find the evidence they are looking for if relatively small investments were made to make websites such as the <a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.campbellcollaboration.org\">Campbell<\/a> sites easier for police to access and navigate. A clear priority for peak policing bodies (and individual agencies) is not to develop new evidence-based resources or clearinghouses, but rather to invest in these existing sites to upgrade the websites and communicate to police around the world about their existence.<\/p>\n<p><big><i>Value of Summary Information<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>One of the challenges in making evaluation evidence available to police is translating the dense language of research into simple take-home messages that offer police operational insights. Officers were thus asked to explore the websites for their plain English summaries of the research results, whether or not they understood the summaries, and if the summaries made any sense to them as police managers. Police stated that they valued the investments made by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crimesolutions.gov\">CrimeSolutions.gov<\/a> websites to produce plain English summaries of the research evidence. Putting resources into translating the research evidence into language that can be widely understood is seen, by police, as a crucial investment. Despite large monies spent to generate the research evidence, the failure to spend a fraction of the evaluation cost to translate dense research evidence into one- or two-page plain English briefing notes is a major stumbling block for police in their efforts to put research evidence into practice. Multiple factors contribute to this problem: failure of researchers to produce summary briefing notes, failure of funders to demand plain English summaries, lack of access to in-house summary reports, and lack of funds to support some of the featured websites to produce the summary reports.<\/p>\n<p><big><i>Links to the Original Research<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>For those evidence-based policing websites that do contain summary reports or statements, a potential stumbling block for users can be absent (or difficult to find) links to the original research material. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.campbellcollaboration.org\">Campbell Collaboration<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crimesolutions.gov\">CrimeSolutions.gov<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popcenter.org\">POP Center websites<\/a> all offer police relatively easy navigation through to the original research documents. (For the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.campbellcollaboration.org\">Campbell<\/a> website, the original document is defined as the systematic review final report.) Campbell titles, protocols, and final reports are open access, making it straightforward for the original source material to be easily accessible. One of the biggest problems faced by other websites, particularly the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a>, is that the original source journal article often sits in bibliographic databases that are subscription based and often not accessible without membership in an academic library. This creates an obstacle for police in accessing the original research information that is often insurmountable. In the long run, these barriers are likely to be removed, with funders providing resources for researchers to purchase open access to their published works. Retrospective purchases on past works, as well as collective deals with publishing houses, might be the best way forward to moving the policing evidence into wider understanding and application.<\/p>\n<p><big><i>Relevance for Policing Policy and Practice<\/i><\/big><\/p>\n<p>Police managers were asked about the relevance of each website content for policing policy and practice, exploring whether or not police gleaned insight into their management of policing resources from the evidence provided by the six websites. Police rated the content from all six websites quite highly in terms of relevance to their own jurisdiction\u2019s policing policies and practices. They found that the range of different, diverse topics made exploration of the research evidence useful to them in their management roles. For example, officers commented that the presentation of clusters of studies in the <a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a> clearly shows that the preponderance of individual-focused interventions show little evidence of success. Conversely, they found that the way the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/research\/crime-reduction-toolkit\">Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/a> presents summary information about the mechanisms that generate a successful intervention, coupled with information about costs, is highly relevant in their efforts to translate research into practice. Overall, the authors suggest that when police are introduced to these websites and have the opportunity to navigate the sites and peruse the research evidence, they see the relevance of the material for their own working environments.<\/p>\n<p><big><b>Summary<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n<p>The six websites discussed herein all offer police access to extensive collections of the international policing evidence base. They are comprehensive sites that are dedicated to putting sound, scientific evidence in the hands of police practitioners and policy makers. However, considerable investments are still needed to further develop the websites and bridge the gap between police aspiring to adopt evidence-based practices and their having ready access to the existing evidence base. For the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.campbellcollaboration.org\">Campbell website<\/a>, police managers found the site confusing to start with, requiring time to navigate to the relevant pages. The recent introduction of a few, select plain English summaries of the systematic reviews was appreciated by the police managers. Expanding the number of these summaries is clearly a priority for the Campbell group.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">Global Policing Database<\/a> offered good search functions and plain English summaries with the capacity to download a database summary of studies meeting the user\u2019s search criteria, which was seen as a useful tool. Yet, at the current time, the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a> is populated only with studies back to 2014, clearly limiting the corpus of studies included in the beta released version. With UK College of Policing support, the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a> is expected to grow the number of studies available in the database to over 5,000 scientifically rigorous evaluations of a wide range of policing topics. This will make the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a> the largest repository of policing studies in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a> is unique in providing visualization of how research evidence clusters across three different dimensions (proactive-reactive, unit of intervention, and specificity of prevention mechanism); providing video presentations for some topics; and offering useful information that police need to consider when implementing different policing interventions to control crime and disorder problems. Similarly, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/research\/crime-reduction-toolkit\">Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/a> offers considerable implementation information under what is known as the EMMIE, an acronym for rating across the following five components: Effect\u2014the impact on crime; Mechanism\u2014how it works; Moderators\u2014where it works best; Implementation\u2014how to do it; and Economic assessment\u2014what it costs. Unlike the <a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/gpd.uq.edu.au\/\">GPD<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/research\/crime-reduction-toolkit\">Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/a> has received extensive funding from the UK What Works Centre for Crime Reduction to gather the evidence together and develop the website\u2019s interfaces.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S.-funded <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crimesolutions.gov\">CrimeSolutions.gov<\/a> website was also highly ranked by the participating police managers. Although the police managers found the website to be \u201cvisually busy,\u201d they found the plain English summaries easy to access and straightforward for translating the findings into local practice. The topic button is particularly useful for finding relevant information. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popcenter.org\">POP Center website<\/a>, funded for many years by the U.S. Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, offers police a good variety of research that police managers found to be easy to interpret into practice.<\/p>\n<p>These six websites offer police extensive and growing access to the policing evidence base. Yet much more can and should be done to put the evidence into the hands of police. Investments in the websites to upgrade their search facilities, offer plain English summaries (especially information about how to implement different strategies along the lines of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.college.police.uk\/research\/crime-reduction-toolkit\">Crime Reduction Toolkit<\/a>), and secure open access to the original research material will be instrumental in advancing the ability of police around the world to adopt evidence-based approaches in policing. &#x2666;<\/p>\n<table width=\"80%\" cellpadding=\"5\" align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"navy\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th><b>IACP\/UC CENTER FOR POLICE RESEARCH AND POLICY<\/b><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"ffffff\">\n<p>The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), University of Cincinnati (UC), and Laura and John Arnold Foundation have created the IACP\/UC Center for Police Research and Policy. The center will engage in rigorous research that has practical implications for the field and is intended to serve as a national model for the way law enforcement agencies and researchers work together to help protect communities, safeguard citizens\u2019 rights, and ensure the fair treatment of all individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Led by Robin S. Engel, PhD, UC\u2019s Vice President for Safety and Reform, the center will have staff at both UC and the IACP headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The center will build an experienced, credentialed team to rigorously evaluate policing practices in order to identify those that are effective and fair, and will facilitate the exchange of data and research between the policing community and academia.<\/p>\n<p>During the first three years of operation the IACP\/UC Center for Police Research and Policy will do the following:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: square;\">\n<li>Create and disseminate a national policy for conducting police research and police\/researcher collaborations<\/li>\n<li>Launch at least three research projects, such as randomized controlled trials, targeting urgent policing issues<\/li>\n<li>Translate research reports written for an academic audience into sets of actionable items that practitioners can easily implement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iacp.org\/research\">More information <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><b>Notes:<\/b><br \/>\n<a name=\"1\"><\/a><sup>1<\/sup> But see Joshua Newman, Adrian Cherney, and Brian W. Head, \u201cPolicy Capacity and Evidence-Based Policy in the Public Service,\u201d <i>Public Management Review<\/i> (February 2016): 1\u201320.<br \/>\n<a name=\"2\"><\/a><sup>2<\/sup> See Cody W. Telep and Cynthia Lum, \u201cThe Receptivity of Officers to Empirical Research and Evidence-Based Policing: An Examination of Survey Data from Three Agencies,\u201d <i>Police Quarterly<\/i> 17, no. 4 (2014): 359\u2013385.<br \/>\n<a name=\"3\"><\/a><sup>3<\/sup> Mark W. Lipsey and David B. Wilson, <i>Practical Meta-Analysis<\/i> (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001).<br \/>\n<a name=\"4\"><\/a><sup>4<\/sup> See Angela Higginson et al., <i>The Global Policing Database<\/i> (Launch presentation at the Mayor\u2019s Office for Policing and Crime, London, UK, June 2015).<br \/>\n<a name=\"5\"><\/a><sup>5<\/sup> Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/cebcp.org\/evidence-based-policing\/the-matrix\">Evidence-Based Policing Matrix<\/a>\u201d (accessed July 5, 2016). See also Cynthia Lum, \u201cTranslating Police Research into Practice,\u201d <i>Ideas in American Policing<\/i>, no. 11 (August 2009): 1\u201316; Cynthia Lum, Christopher Koper, and Cody W. Telep, \u201cThe Evidence-Based Policing Matrix,\u201d <i>Journal of Experimental Criminology<\/i> 7, no. 1 (2011): 3\u201326; Cynthia Lum et al., \u201cReceptivity to Research in Policing,\u201d <i>Justice Research and Policy<\/i> 14, no. 1 (2012): 61\u201395.<br \/>\n<a name=\"6\"><\/a><sup>6<\/sup> See Shane D. Johnson, Nick Tilley, and Kate J. Bowers, \u201cIntroducing EMMIE: An Evidence Rating Scale to Encourage Mixed-Method Crime Prevention Synthesis Reviews,\u201d <i>Journal of Experimental Criminology<\/i> 11, no. 3 (2015): 459\u2013473.<br \/>\n<a name=\"7\"><\/a><sup>7<\/sup> Center for Problem-oriented Policing, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.popcenter.org\/about\">Mission<\/a>\u201d (accessed July 5, 2016).<\/p>\n<p>Please cite as<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: .5in;\">Lorraine Mazerolle and Peter Martin, \u201cAccessing the Evidence in Policing: Six Helpful Websites,\u201d <i>The Police Chief<\/i> 83 (August 2016): 62\u201366.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"#landslide\">Top<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the key assumptions of the evidence-based policing movement is that police will be inclined to adopt a research-informed approach to policing practices if they access, read, and digest what they discover from the research evidence.1 Providing easy access to the research evidence is thus a fundamental starting point for widespread adoption of the evidence-based policing paradigm.2 To that end, herein is insight into six different open-access websites (see call-out box) that collectively offer police comprehensive information about what is known, globally, about the effectiveness of police practices.<\/p>\n<p>The authors used a number of workshop forums to ask middle manager-level police officers to select different types of crime problems and assess the accessibility and usefulness of the six websites using predetermined criteria. Managers were asked to take 10 minutes to familiarize themselves with the websites and then answer questions about each site?s ease of navigation, access to ?plain English? summaries, links to the original research evidence, and relevance to policing policies and practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-evidence-based-policing","category-technology"],"acf":{"post_author":"<strong>Lorraine Mazerolle, PhD, Professor, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Australia<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Peter Martin, PhD, Assistant Commissioner, Brisbane Police Region, Queensland Police Service, Australia, Adjunct Professor, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Australia<\/strong>","legacy_article_id":"4234","legacy_issue_id":"82016","main_category":"Research & Evidence-Based Policing"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Accessing the Evidence in Policing: Six Helpful Websites - Police Chief Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.policechiefmagazine.org\/accessing-the-evidence-in-policing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Accessing the Evidence in Policing: Six Helpful Websites\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the key assumptions of the evidence-based policing movement is that police will be inclined to adopt a research-informed approach to policing practices if they access, read, and digest what they discover from the research evidence.1 Providing easy access to the research evidence is thus a fundamental starting point for widespread adoption of the evidence-based policing paradigm.2 To that end, herein is insight into six different open-access websites (see call-out box) that collectively offer police comprehensive information about what is known, globally, about the effectiveness of police practices.  The authors used a number of workshop forums to ask middle manager-level police officers to select different types of crime problems and assess the accessibility and usefulness of the six websites using predetermined criteria. 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