Establishing Police-Led Science in the Wauwatosa, WI Police Department

For evidence-based policing (EBP) to reach its full potential, practitioners must consult the scientific research evidence to inform policy and practice. This reflects the knowledge-to-action model popularized by implemenation science, in which a "knowledge creation" cycle is followed by an "action" cycle that applies research to practice. Partnerships with outside researchers are often seen as a way to promote EMP. However, competing interests and incentive structure of academia and policing can minimize the impact of such arrangements. In light of this, scholars have recently advocated for a move away from the current paradigm of science-led policing towards a model of police-led science, which empowers police agencies to develop and test research questions and be directly involved in knowledge dissemination. 

This project will establish an action research partnership between Wauwatosa, WI Police Department (WPD) and the Northeastern University Crime Prevention Lab. The partnership will operate with the distinct goal of moving WPD towards a model of police-led science. The action researach project will unfold over three phases. Phase one will involve a rigorous, multi-pronged evaluation of WPD's current hot spots policing invervention, which was deployed as a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in February 2024. The evaluation will involve a quantitative analysis of crime, calls for service, and police officer presence (measured via automated vehicle locator data), a USPS every door direct mail survey of community residents, and surveys/interviews with WPD police officers. Phase two will establish an internal EBP working group at WPD, which will be tasked with developing data-driven public safety solutions. The EBP working group will be comprised of anayltical, supervisory, and command-staff personnel, which positions the group to effectively implement changes. Phase three will involove the design, implementation, and RCT of a new place-based intervention. The intervention will be designed in a manner that specifically accounts for the insights gleaned from the pilot RCT and all problem analyses conducted during phase two.

The proposed project has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the EBP knowledgebase. Work from the different phases of the project will contribute the literatures on experimentation (the Phase one and Phase three RCTs), implementation science (the activities of the EBP working group in Phase two), and problem analysis (the analyses in Phase two). This project can provide a blueprint for police agencies aspiring to become more evidence-based and researchers considering how to more effectively partner with practitioners. CA/NCF