A Study on Police Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration in Korea

This study examined the level and influencing facors of collaboration between researchers and practitioners in Korean police activities based on literature review and data collected through a survey of university professors(N=83) and police officers(N=395). The main research results are as follows. First, the dominant form of interaction between police and researchers in Korea is simple cooperation centered on researchers. In the case of police officers, regardless of the size of their police station, they had little experience participating in collaborative activities with reseachers or research organizations. This reality was also reflected in the police and researchers’ evaluations of mutual collaboration activities, resulting in a low level of collaboration awareness. Second, both police and researchers evaluated the value of collaboration in police activities slightly higher than the average level, and these evaluations appeared to be slightly different depending on backgroudn characteristics and working environment. Third, for police officers, ‘research familiarity’ and ‘researcher trust’ had a significant impact on the value of collaboration, and for researchers, ‘participation in cooperation’ and ‘police trust’ had a significant impact on the value of collaboration. The simple form of cooperation that researchers experienced in real life had a negative impact on the value of collbaoration. Fourth, the level of awareness of the value of collboration among police officers had a significant positive effect on their job satisfaction, and this effect was maintained even after background and work environment variables were controlled. For the knowledge police and scientific police activities pursued by the Korean police, collaboration between police and researchers must be more activated, and for this to happen, awareness of the value of collaboration must be further enhanced. For this purpose, policy suggestions and tasks for follow-up research were presented.