Policing to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population: An Evidence-based Approach

By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

The movement for evidence-based policing in the 1990s came on the heels of the concept of evidence-based medicine in the same decade, but with far less clinical research to apply in policing practices. Since then, police research findings have been growing at a rapid rate and have been reviewed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on repeated occasions in the last two decades. However, scant research findings have been reported at the country level, examining differences in police systems and policies across nations. In an era when the U.S. Congress has mandated better evidence to support public expenditure, the application of that mandate to overseas police development requires two responses. One is to do the best translation possible from existing research comparing differences between and within countries. The other is to map out research and action agendas that will promote the growth of new evidence to provide better guidance to policing in the international context. This report is the first of five by a committee with diverse kinds of policing expertise assembled for the task by the National Academies. All five of these reports will be completed at the request of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) Bureau of the U.S. Department of State. The committee was charged by INL to identify good practices in police reform. INL’s goal is for our reports to help ensure that ongoing U.S. foreign assistance for organizational police capacity building is informed by research. At the same time, INL seeks guidance from lessons learned from practitioners. Linking the two kinds of knowledge is an ongoing challenge in policing. Addressing this challenge requires a consensus-building process that identifies and then weighs the strength of relevant evidence, debates the conclusions, and engages a wide group of users to ensure that its presentation is relevant and accessible to them. The project, beginning with this report, offers a unique opportunity to unite the research and practitioner perspectives for actionable recommendations that can strengthen the assistance provided for international policing.

Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2022. 120p.