The Need for Standards of Evidence Within Evidence-Based Policing

An early starting point in our survey design on receptivity of evidence-based policing was how we went about describing what evidence was and the different shades of evidence that we could present to staff. We took a broad approach in attempting to establish evidence as a type of information (Briner and Rousseau 2011) that people use to inform their decision-making. Our survey listed concepts from ‘professional experience’ to ‘academic journals’ to ‘web-blogs’ to ‘The Home Office Website’. All of these to a degree are evidence, but the quality varies and there lays the rub. As we saw, one of the most striking findings from the survey was the daily use of professional experience, and regular use of newspapers and public opinions to make decisions. More formal types of evidence (e.g.) bespoke problem profiles and in-house research were used, but less frequently. Academic journals, the UK’s College of Policing’s knowledge sharing portal POLKA, Home Office and Ministry of Justice websites were very rarely used.