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ABSTRACT
Research conducted in the United States (U.S.) suggests that many police professionals are unaware of, or resistant to, empirical research, and see little value in adopting evidence-based approaches for tackling policing issues. To determine whether similar views are held by Canadian police professionals, 598 police professionals (civilians and officers) from seven police services across Canada were surveyed. The survey was designed by Lum and Telep (n.d. Officer receptivity survey on evidence-based policing. Fairfax, VA: Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, George Mason University) to determine respondents’ knowledge of, and support for, evidence-based policing (EBP). Using their survey allowed us to compare our results to the data they collected in the U.S. Although Canadian respondents had similar concerns regarding EBP as those in the U.S., in several ways, Canadian police professionals were more open to the idea of EBP. The results are encouraging, but still suggest a lack of buy-in from some police professionals in certain regards. Potential reasons for the cross-national discrepancies, and the consequences of the findings, are discussed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Indeed, currently, there are four Societies of Evidence Based Policing, comprised of over 5,000 members, across the U.K., Canada, the U.S., and Australia-New Zealand. These societies produce and disseminate research, act as a resource for police practitioners, and advocate for evidence-based decision-making to better inform policies and practices. There are also two, recently established, peer-reviewed journals dedicated to publishing articles related to targeting, testing, and tracking police practices as well (The Cambridge Journal of Evidence Based Policing and Police Science).
2 To ensure anonymity, participating police services they are only referred to by their province of origin.
3 Police professionals in Quebec were not included in the study due to language barriers (i.e. Quebec is predominantly French speaking); the data is thus limited to only English speaking and bilingual participants.
4 Because not all participants chose to answer all the questions, the category breakdowns may not add to the total (N = 598).
5 The changes followed consultation with a large Canadian police organisation that did not participate in the current study.
6 Hub models are ‘ … a form of community mobilization that brings together various social service resources to address the needs of high risk individuals within the community’ (Public Safety Canada Citation2015, p. 6).
7 Only options which could be directly compared to those in Telep and Lum’s (Citation2014) paper are referred to throughout this paper. Responses specific to Canadian respondents only are not discussed in the current paper (e.g. the number of participants that chose the ‘Royal Canadian Mounted Police’ as their answer for the question ‘In the last six months, have you read any formal or written information provided by the following organisations specifically about the effectiveness of particular tactics or strategies?’ is disregarded). Readers can contact the first author for this information if they are interested.
8 It is important to note that all questions were voluntary and, as such, there was a high percent of missing data for some of the questions. Given the small sample sizes acquired from certain services, the data was combined and is presented in aggregate form (i.e. as an overall ‘Canada’ variable). Only when the pattern of results varied notably by province, are the results described individually.
9 Of the five sources included in Telep and Lum’s (Citation2014) paper, most Canadian police professionals selected ‘None of the Above’ or ‘Other.’ However, relative to all the sources (a possible nine sources including those that were only relevant for Canadian respondents), most Canadian respondents indicated that they read Blue Line (58%, n = 347) and/or policeone.com (22.9%, n = 137). Blue Line is a practitioner-oriented magazine and policeone.com is a practitioner-oriented website.
10 Of the 12 categories included in Telep and Lum’s (Citation2014) paper, most Canadian police professionals selected ‘PERF’ or ‘The Police Foundation’ (both U.S. based organisations) However, relative to all the sources (a possible 16 categories including those that were only relevant for Canadian respondents), most Canadian respondents indicated that they read information provided by The Department of Justice Canada (46.2%, n = 276) and/or the U.S. COPS Office/Centre for Problem-Oriented Policing (19.6%, n = 117).
11 Recall that officers and civilians were combined in all the analyses conducted by Telep and Lum (Citation2014), so potential differences between these groups in the U.S. sample is unknown.