Evidence-based policing

Evidence-Based Policing (EBP) is an approach to policy making and tactical decision-making for police departments. It is an extension of evidence-based medicine, evidence-based management and evidence-based policy.

Advocates of evidence-based policing emphasize the value of statistical analysis, empirical research and ideally randomized controlled trials. EBP does not dismiss more traditional drivers of police decision-making, but seeks to raise awareness and increase the application of scientific testing, targeting and tracking of police resources, especially during times of budget cuts and greater public scrutiny.

Experimental criminologist Lawrence Sherman is acknowledged as the founder of evidence-based policing. To some, he is known as the "father" of evidence based policing.

With support from a U.S. Department of Justice grant to the Police Foundation, and with fellow criminologist Richard Berk, Sherman, serving as the Vice President for Research at the Police Foundation, published the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of arrest on repeat offending. With fellow criminologist David Weisburd, Sherman conducted a ground breaking study in 1995 which showed the efficacy of focusing police crime prevention resources on small hot spots of crime.

In a 1998 Police Foundation "Ideas in American Policing" lecture, Sherman outlined the concept of "evidence-based policing". His core idea was that police practice can be made far more effective if tactics proven to work during controlled field experiments are prioritized. In February 2000, Sherman co-founded the Campbell Collaboration's Crime and Justice Group, which has pursued the synthesis of research evidence on the effectiveness of policing and other crime prevention practices.

In 2013 Sherman established the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing as a global police training and research consultancy service for members, and in 2017 he launched the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing as the membership journal of the Cambridge Centre. The Journal's priority is to publish original, applied research led by "pracademic" police officers, with many articles based on master's degree theses completed under supervision of Sherman and his Cambridge colleagues, Heather Strang and Sir Denis O'Connor, by police leaders who were mid-career, part-time students in the Cambridge Police Executive Programme.

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