Article

Fragile alliances: Culture, funding and sustainability in police-academic partnerships

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Abstract

Background Police–academic partnerships have developed significantly over the past decade or so, spurred on by the expansion of the evidence-based policing movement, the increasing value attached to impactful research in the academy, the ascendance of the professionalisation agenda in the police, and the growing necessity of cross-sectoral collaborations under conditions of post-financial crisis austerity. This trend has given rise to a burgeoning literature in the discipline of criminology which is concerned with charting the progress of these partnerships and setting out the ideal conditions for their future expansion. Aims and objectives we advance a sympathetic critique of this literature, adding a note of caution to its largely optimistic outlook. Methods we do this by combining a narrative review of the literature on police–academic partnerships with insights from elsewhere in the social sciences and observations from our experience of running the International Strand of the N8 Policing Research Partnership. Findings and discussion while we recognise that police–academic partnerships have certainly come a long way, and have the capacity to make important contributions to police work, we argue that they remain ‘fragile’ alliances, beset with fractious occupational cultures, unreliable funding streams and unsustainable inter-institutional relationships. We also reason that the structures underpinning this ‘fragility’ do not represent problems to be overcome, for they help to protect the integrity of the two professions. Conclusion we conclude by offering pragmatic measures for sustaining police–academic partnerships during those difficult periods characterised by cultural dissonance, a paucity of funding and the turnover of key personnel.

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... For example, the partnership between practitioners and University of Chicago researchers in early 1900s Chicago laid the foundation for one of criminology's core theoretical frameworks -social disorganisation -and also created the Chicago Area Project, which continues today (CAP, 2022). In the mid-20 th century, initiatives by Berkley Police Chief August Vollmer connected police officers with University of California academics to improve officer education and professionalise the service (Bacon et al., 2021). These early partnerships helped to build connections between the often-siloed researcher and practitioners and eventually became the foundation for future policing research, including guiding the creation of the American Society of Criminology's Division of Policing in 2016 (Bacon et al., 2021;Telep, 2014). ...
... In the mid-20 th century, initiatives by Berkley Police Chief August Vollmer connected police officers with University of California academics to improve officer education and professionalise the service (Bacon et al., 2021). These early partnerships helped to build connections between the often-siloed researcher and practitioners and eventually became the foundation for future policing research, including guiding the creation of the American Society of Criminology's Division of Policing in 2016 (Bacon et al., 2021;Telep, 2014). ...
... However, these partnerships did not involve any combination of resources or skills to address social problems together. By the 1970s, many of these partnerships were shifting to police research agencies and national initiatives including the Police Foundation (Bacon et al., 2021). ...
... To facilitate the use of evidence • how knowledge brokers can help facilitate the use of knowledge in policy and practice (Waring et al, 2021); • how knowledge brokers operate in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), in a context where global north countries tend to dominate evidence, theories and frameworks (Norton et al, 2021); • how academic-practitioner partnerships can be maintained and expanded (Bacon et al, 2021); • how to solve the 'transdisciplinary problems' that arise when researchers and practitioners collaborate to address 'wicked' policy problems (Neely et al, 2021). ...
... • clarifying the role of key actors, such as by categorising different 'epistemic communities' and identifying the multiple types of required knowledge brokerage to help those communities interact (Waring et al, 2021); • making sure that knowledge brokers maintain close and frequent contact with research producers and users, such as by being 'embedded' in practice, which allows them to tailor evidence to context and influence practitioner receptiveness to research (Norton et al, 2021); • providing a realistic assessment of academic-practitioner partnerships, identifying not only their value but also the factors that cause their 'fragility' (Bacon et al, 2021); • using general insights from 'systems thinking' and specific models (such as 'collaborative conceptual modelling') to help 'translate' insights between participants (Neely et al, 2021). ...
... Although we can identify some good practice and success, there is a major lack of a supportive structure for routine knowledge brokering (Norton et al, 2021). Partnerships between academics and practitioners are possible, but different cultures and uncertainty about funding always cause them to be fragile (Bacon et al, 2021). Indeed, it may even be difficult to secure the participation of practitioners in the workshops and training necessary for 'translation' exercises (Neely et al, 2021). ...
... Bradley and Nixon (2009) distinguish between researchers who are critical of the police, and those who work with them. Recent discussion of impact creation notes a further shift in police-academic relationships towards the co-production of knowledge and shared crime reduction initiatives (Crawford 2017, Bacon et al. 2021). We propose a more nuanced set of distinctions in police-researcher relationships and argue that whilst there may be shifts over time, each furnishes a distinctive context, facilitating greater (or lesser) impact through differing mechanisms. ...
... Research council funding, and the independence researchers are often able thereby to maintain, tends to lead to published research outputs and scholarly dissemination of the work. Bacon et al. (2021), however, question the sustainability of any research partnership funded through external grants with a limited time frame. But such partnerships may be sustainable after initial start-up funding if members work together to bid for more money. ...
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The transition from ‘Mode 1’ to ‘Mode 2’ knowledge-production has created an explicit focus on research impact which is reflected in the funding and organisation of research, the relationships between research and users, and the focus of research studies. It has also led to efforts to understand pathways to impact, although these studies have so far had little to say specifically about crime-related research. This paper comprises an effort to address this gap and explore variations in research-user relationships within research into policing and crime prevention. An ESRC-funded project researching the crime consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, of which we were team members, faced several challenges in terms of data access, data collection and the need to deliver strong academic research outputs, as well as maintaining a clear focus on real world research impacts. This led to a co-productive relationship between the researchers and a range of external partners. There is a dearth of literature theorising the nature of such researcher-user relationships, despite some rich accounts of individual experiences. This paper uses examples drawn from the writings of those who have been involved in research impacts (or who have been thwarted in their attempts), to set alongside the project on which we have been working. From this we present a typology of researcher-user relationships, that we hope will further theoretical discussion in the field and might usefully be applied more broadly to other areas of criminological interest.
... De complementariteit tussen politie en wetenschap die resulteert in een wederzijdse versterking van beide sferen, wordt de afgelopen jaren steeds meer erkend op het internationale niveau. De afgelopen 20 jaar is er een opmerkelijke toename van het aantal partnerschappen tussen politie en kennisinstellingen (BaCon et al., 2020;fleming, 2010). Ook in Nederland en België zien we een gelijkaardige toenadering tussen politie en wetenschap en zien we het afgelopen decennium ook de opzet van triple-of quadruple helix partnerschappen tussen overheid (waaronder politie), bedrijven, kennisinstellingen en burgers op het domein van innovatie, technologie en veiligheid. ...
... Uit deze literatuur blijkt onder meer dat partnerschappen cruciaal zijn om de relatie tussen politie en wetenschap te versterken. Hierbij moeten zowel de wetenschappelijke wereld, de politiepraktijk als het beleid inspanningen leveren om de dialogue of the deaf te nivelleren en mogelijke culturele breuklijnen te overstijgen(BRaDley & nixon, 2009).BaCon et al. (2020) wijzen erop dat de financiering, de institutionele inbedding en culturele verhoudingen zoals hierboven toegelicht maken dat de Angelsaskische strategische partnerschappen die zij bestudeerden (en die elk op deze drie elementen een eigen invulling kennen) bijzonder kwetsbaar zijn. Zij beschouwen ze dan ook als fragiele allianties. In wat ...
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Belgian reflections on the dialogue of the deaf The relationship between police practitioners and researchers has been described as a ‘dialogue of the deaf’ (MacDonald in Bradley, 2005), a ‘dialogue of the listening’ (Johnston & Shearing, 2009) or a ‘dialogue of the hard-of-hearing’ (Bronitt, 2013). Relying on their experiences into research on, for, by and with the police in the last decade, Easton & De Vlieger recount their Belgian reflections on these dialogues. Their experiences in the research related to these partnerships are described and the key barriers and essential enablers for nurturing these partnerships discussed.
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Different ways of acting and different ways of knowing? The cultures of policeacademic partnerships in a multi-site and multi-force study The purpose of this paper is to add to the growing body of literature on police-academic partnerships, which has emerged over the last thirty years. Using a multi-force and multi-site study of ‘good’ police custody practices, as a case study, we examine the cultures of police-academic partnerships through the concepts of “ways of acting” and “ways of knowing” (Canter, 2004). In terms of ways of acting, we examine differences that arose whilst forming police-academic relationships and accessing multiple forces and custody facilities. In terms of ways of knowing, we examine differences in academic and police theorization about police-citizen relationships. It is argued that different ways of acting – rooted in the cultural, but also organisational and structural contexts of policing and academia – created challenges for the research and for police-academic relationships. By contrast, different ways of knowing contributed to helpful synergies between the two authors, helping the police author to see his work anew and aiding the academic author with the theorization process. One of the key lessons from this case study is that theory development should be seen as foundational to, and as strengthening of, police-academic partnerships.
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This chapter argues for a transformation in the relations between researchers and police partners in the co-production of knowledge to inform policing strategies and practices. In contrast to certain dominant models of Evidence Based Policing, co-production affords a different understanding of the generation, mobilisation and application of knowledge. It requires a fundamental refiguring of both the way researchers engage with police partners and the place and value of knowledge, data and evidence within policing. The attributes and challenges of co-production are explored and analysed drawing on experiences from existing police-university collaborations. It highlights the significant hurdles that need to be negotiated to realise the necessary structural and organisational change that co-production demands. Co-production embraces a plurality of sources of data and raises questions about the nature of power relations between partners and the dangers of collusion. The chapter advances a vision of the division of labour that is structured around the ‘independent interdependence’ of researchers and practitioners.
Article
A long tradition of research has examined the influence of organizational environments on criminal justice agencies. Based on survey data from a sample of local police chiefs, this study explores the effects of the institutional environment on police agency priorities. Specifically, we investigate how the perceived importance of different sectors of the institutional environment influences police agency priorities, as reported by police chiefs. The analyses reveal that certain sectors of the institutional environment exert greater influence on police organizational priorities than others. Moreover, the influence of institutional sectors differs according to the specific type of priority. Our findings reveal that institutional considerations exert more consistent effects on the importance of maintaining relationships with constituents than on maintaining law and order or adopting innovative practices. We draw on institutional theory in explaining the study’s findings.
Article
A focus on academic performativity and a rationalizing of what academics do according to measurable outputs has, in the era of higher education's (HE) neoliberalization and marketization, engendered debate regarding the ‘authenticity’ of academic identity and practice. In such a context, a ‘performative’ prioritization of leveraging ‘positional goods’, such as external research funds, presents a specific challenge to the construction of academics’ identity where in being entrepreneurial they are perceived to compromise traditional Mertonian edicts of scholarship and professional ideals of integrity and ‘virtuousness’. In this article, we consider how academics sacrifice scholarly integrity when selling their research ideas, or more specifically, the non-academic impact of these, to research funders. We review attitudes towards pathway to impact statements – formal components of research funding applications, that specify the prospective socio-economic benefits of proposed research – from (n = 50) academics based in the UK and Australia and how the hyper-competitiveness of the HE market is resulting in impact sensationalism and the corruption of academics as custodians of truth.
Article
Within the context of ongoing debates concerning the economics of policing in Canada, the authors address an issue which has repeatedly plagued policy makers: the lack of quality, actionable research on policing and community safety issues in Canada. Following our colleagues in the United Kingdom, Australia, United States, and elsewhere, we propose the adoption of evidence-based policing models and conclude by offering some suggestions as to how policymakers can facilitate that adoption.
Article
There is a growing debate concerning how and what kind of ‘science’ contributes to understanding the police and policing. A series of ‘science-advocacy’ propositions has come steadily from a relatively small, yet vocal and growing, number of police researchers who see more rigourous scientific application, generally in the form of experimental research, as the singular means of improving understanding about what the police do, especially in their crime control role. This article considers some of the upsides and downsides of the police science epistemic community movement, in the hope of constructing a bridge between the ardency of focus on experimental methods as the singular path to understanding the police to considering the expansion of what might be termed a broader police research community; that is a scientific community of interests which together with policymakers shapes police practices in their many varieties and with many constituents and through many research lenses. This addendum to the current ‘police science’ mantra recognizes that there is much information and knowledge need to effectively understand what the police are, what they do, and with what outcomes, tangible and symbolic.
Article
Embedded criminologists enhance the capacity of police departments to understand the nature of recurring crime problems through their knowledge of criminological research and high-powered analytical models and methods. In contrast to more traditional academic–practitioner research partnerships, becoming embedded within a police department involves taking the step from external partner to internal resource. Through their participation in internal strategy meetings and ad hoc research projects, embedded criminologists provide scientific evidence germane to problems, policies, and programmes that can be considered by police executives as they decide how to address pressing matters. Importantly, embedded criminologists assist police departments in determining whether implemented programmes generated the desired impacts through their training in rigorous programme evaluation methods. This article describes the experiences of the authors implementing the embedded research model in the Boston Police Department.
Article
Evidence-based policing—using research and scientific processes to inform police decisions—is a complex approach to policing that involves various challenges. One primary difficulty is how research can be translated into digestible and familiar forms for practitioners. A central part of successful translation is the receptivity of decisionmakers to research as well as how research is presented and packaged to increase receptivity. In this article we first discuss the complexity of evidence-based policing, highlighting the much-lamented gap between research and practice. We review research from other disciplines and also in policing about what contributes to research being better received and used by practitioners. We then describe our own receptivity survey, offering preliminary findings about the receptivity of officers to research, researchers, and tactics influenced by research. Finally, we conclude with examples of the types of efforts practitioners and researchers can engage in that might improve receptivity to research. Specifically, we discuss the Evidence-Based Policing Matrix as a research translation tool, as well as multiple demonstrations conducted by the authors that focus on institutionalizing the use of research into daily police activities.
Article
In October 2010, the UK Coalition government announced a 20 per cent reduction in the police budget over four years as part of its post-financial crisis Comprehensive Spending Review. In response to this new ‘politics of austerity’ many police forces began to consider outsourcing key services areas to the private sector on an unprecedented scale so as to make the required savings. However, this policy initiative was soon cut short. By March 2012 a prominent media debate on police ‘privatization’ was starting to heat up; in July 2012 the failure of G4S to meet the conditions of its Olympics security contract generated extensive negative publicity and triggered a parliamentary enquiry; and in the run-up to the November 2012 Police and Crime Commissioner elections many candidates could be found campaigning on an ‘anti-privatization’ platform – all of which had the effect of removing police outsourcing from the policy agenda. It had become too politically controversial. This article uses the multiple streams approach to explore the opening and closing of the police outsourcing window. In so doing, it contends that the dynamics of this policy area have ultimately been shaped by the liberal state-building process which emerged out of early enlightenment political thought and continues today.
Article
Objectives To discuss the character of relationships between operational and research staff and the necessary conditions for successful experiments. Methods A review of research and experience in the conduct of experiments, especially randomized controlled trials, examining the foundations for success, issues in maintaining cooperation with operational staff, implementation and leadership issues. Results The fundamental issue in successful experiments is the relationship between the operational and research entities, which most often resemble a coalition of temporary common interests rather than a partnership between parties with long-term common goals. Conclusion Experiments require close cooperation between the parties because of the need for maintenance and monitoring. Researchers who use field trials have solved many of the common problems faced by those embarking on experiments and those who do so will be rewarded by the quality of their findings. Relationships which may be characterised as temporary coalitions for a common purpose may, under the right conditions, ultimately mature into true research partnerships.
Article
In this paper two current police research traditions are examined, the critical police research and policy police research, as they have evolved in the USA, the UK, and in Australia. Each tradition has developed a typical pattern of relationship between researchers and police practitioners, but both suffered from what we call the ‘dialogue of the deaf.’ While acknowledging the continuing importance of each approach to police research, we suggest the need for a third new approach to be developed in which academics and police work in close and continuous collaborative relationships.
Article
Police practices in most African countries are inappropriate and fall short of the norms of democratic policing and international human rights provisions. Despite the emerging studies on the problems of the police forces and policing in some of the African nations and how they may be solved or at least mitigated, police authorities have not utilized research findings to reform their policies and practices. Research on police forces and practices in Africa has also not been influenced by the operational and organizational priorities of the practitioners. Therefore, there is a gulf between police practice and police research and between police practitioners and police researchers. In this paper, we analyze (a) the evolution of police forces and nature of police practice; (b) the features of non‐state policing; and (c) the nature and state of police research and its impact on police policy and practice in Africa.
Article
The relationship between research, policy and practice remains a contested area. This article explores pressures for researchers to make their work more useful and relevant to policy and practice, and for practitioners to undertake research. Whilst there are clearly areas of mutual interest and benefit, we argue that the research, policy and practice communities also have distinct traditions, skills and obligations which should be recognised and valued rather than artificially suppressed. Narrow conceptions of research utility constrain the debate about what each community has to offer and how best to communicate with each other across borders.
Article
Policy scholarship and policy-making are, and ought to be, two distinct knowledge-producing activities whose insights may inform, but are not dependent on, each other. Criticisms that higher education scholarship is not valuable to practitioners is based on a misleading linear view of how social knowledge influences behavior. Policy interests are ultimately better served when scholars determine their own long-term research agendas, rather than attempt to respond to policy makers' current: issues.
Article
Working with others—government agencies, the commercial and not for profit sector, or voluntary groups—has become a common feature of contemporary policing rhetoric. Partnerships have increasingly become a regular theme in policy documents and in some cases this translates into policing legislation. This paper investigates the development of partnerships between agencies including the police through a study of an emerging network of service delivery. Focusing on the development of a network responding to problems on an Australian inner suburban public housing estate, it discusses how police work ‘more’ or ‘less’ effectively in this context—identifying factors that impact on their ability to develop strong channels of communication, opportunities for cooperation, and relationships of trust.
Article
The fourth edition of the popular and highly acclaimed Politics of the Police has been completely revised and updated to take into account of recent changes in the law, policy, and organization of policing. From Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry to Life on Mars, Robert Reiner explores the highly-charged debates that surround policing, including the various controversies and developments that have led to a change in the public's opinion of the police in recent years, and analyses the proposals for reform. The book sets out to analyze how the police are perceived and the impact the mass media has on the public's perception and what we can expect in the future, given current research into police working practices and proposals for reform.
Article
This article analyzes evidence from a survey of police officers who were asked about their attitudes towards police corruption, unethical behaviour and minor infringements of police rules. It reveals that most of the officers who took part in the study regard certain actions, such as those involving the acquisition of goods or money, as much worse than behaviour involving illegal brutality or bending of the rules in order to protect colleagues from criminal proceedings. It also reveals that officers who responded to the survey are relatively unwilling to report unethical behaviour by colleagues unless there is some sort of acquisitive motive or outcome predicted. Overall the findings support the existence of cultural “blue code” and “Dirty Harry” beliefs systems surrounding police rule bending, but also provide an initial study of a small sample (n=275) that point to the value of further investigation.
The Role of Competitive Research Funding in Science
  • J P Bourguignon
  • Bourguignon, J.P.
Evaluation of the Locally Initiated Research Partnership Program
  • T Mcewan
  • McEwan, T.
Impact Review: The Scottish Institute for Policing Research
  • Scottish Funding
  • Council
Evidence-based Policing
  • L Sherman
  • Sherman, L.
Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence
  • W Skogan
  • K Frydl