Creating a ‘what works’ translational tool for police: a researcher-city government partnership

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a number of translational tools have been developed in policing to make the growing research evidence base more accessible and useful for practitioners and policymakers. Here we focus on the creation of the ‘What works in policing?’ website, which resulted from a collaboration between a government agency in Seattle, Washington and researchers at George Mason University and Arizona State University. We describe the site in detail and its similarities to and differences from existing translation tools, as well as the rationale for a local government’s involvement in translational work. In particular we focus on efforts to link the site with the work of the Seattle Police Department through a case study approach. We review indicators that suggest the site is being well-utilized and close with thoughts on the future of translational work in policing and efforts to ensure translational tools are useful to practitioners.

KEYWORDS:

• Effectiveness
• evidence-based policing
• translation tool
• what works

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See http://cebcp.org/tcmagazine/.

2. See http://whatworks.college.police.uk/toolkit/About-the-Crime-Reduction-Toolkit/Pages/About.aspx .

3. See http://www.policingmatrix.org .

4. See http://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/the-matrix/matrix-demonstration-project/.

5. Reports from the Office of City Auditor are available at: http://www.seattle.gov/cityauditor .

6. See http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2012/03/29/spd-2020-a-vision-for-the-future/.

7. See http://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/.

8. See http://www.rb-safeplaceforyouth.com/.

9. See https://www.bja.gov/funding/PSNFormula18.pdf .

10. See http://www.ncats.nih.gov/.

Additional information

Funding

The creation of the website described in this work was supported by the City of Seattle Office of City Auditor under agreement number OCA-2016-01.

Notes on contributors

Cody W. Telep

Cody W. Telep is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University, where he worked at the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. His research interests include the impact of police practices on crime and disorder, assessing the relationship between police activities and perceptions of legitimacy, understanding how to advance the use of evidence-based policies and practices in policing and criminal justice, and using experimental methodologies in evaluation research. He is the 2018 recipient of the Early Career Award from the Division of Policing in the American Society of Criminology.

Claudia Gross Shader

Claudia Gross Shader is an Assistant City Auditor and Research Liaison for the City of Seattle’s Office of City Auditor. In addition to conducting performance audits, she oversees and conducts evaluations of City programs and legislation in areas including: public safety, public health, and economic security. She also works to improve the capacity of City departments to incorporate the best available research into practice in City government.