The Upside and Downside of the 'Police Science' Epistemic Community

Abstract

There is a growing debate concerning how and what kind of ‘science’ contributes to understanding the police and policing. A series of ‘science-advocacy’ propositions has come steadily from a relatively small, yet vocal and growing, number of police researchers who see more rigourous scientific application, generally in the form of experimental research, as the singular means of improving understanding about what the police do, especially in their crime control role. This article considers some of the upsides and downsides of the police science epistemic community movement, in the hope of constructing a bridge between the ardency of focus on experimental methods as the singular path to understanding the police to considering the expansion of what might be termed a broader police research community; that is a scientific community of interests which together with policymakers shapes police practices in their many varieties and with many constituents and through many research lenses. This addendum to the current ‘police science’ mantra recognizes that there is much information and knowledge need to effectively understand what the police are, what they do, and with what outcomes, tangible and symbolic.