Knowledge Management in Law Enforcement: Knowledge Views for Patrolling Police Officers

This paper describes and classifies different types of knowledge that are a part of police patrol officers' practice. Even though an intervention usually forces a police officer to apply several different knowledge types, this paper discusses different forms of professional knowledge separately to enable categorisation. In general, a large part of police officers' professional knowledge, as well as professional knowledge in many other contexts, is complex and difficult to describe and explain in words. The police profession is distinguished by the broad range of knowledge types that are required and by the time pressure under which actions often must be taken. This paper presents a polarisation into two knowledge management perspectives: the theoretical knowledge view and the street-level knowledge view respectively.