Examining Research-Practice Partnerships in Policing Evaluations

Using survey findings conducted among policing scholars with evaluations in the Evidence-Based Policing Matrix, we examine research–practitioner partnerships from the researcher perspective. The use of the Matrix offers the ability to compare researcher responses with information already collected on various attributes of each evaluation, and we find several relationships between the partnership and evaluation characteristics. Responses suggest that researchers are doing the majority of initiation of these evaluations, and the majority of evaluation products are scholarly in nature. Additionally, funding is central to the initiation of research, indicating that research–practitioner partnerships are likely lopsided, generated often from researchers rather than their policing counterparts. If partnerships are to increase the use of research in policing, more attention should focus on follow-through and the continuance of their relationship, as well as offering the department practical recommendations in addition to research outcomes.