The framework of evidence-based policing and how it can be beneficial to the criminal justice field.

The framework of evidence-based policing and how it can be beneficial to the criminal justice field.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the literature review on the framework of evidence-based policing and how it improves the field of criminal justice. Most of the police departments and other law enforcement agencies have embraced the use of evidence-based policing to improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system. The literature shows there is great interconnectedness between evidence-based policing and advanced technology. This is because evidence-based policing leads to the evaluation of scientific methods and information to base their evidence. Policies use evidence-based in conducting an investigation, evaluating physical and forensic evidence, and connecting with offenders, which is beneficial to both policing department and field of criminal justice. Another scholar has established the link between criminal justice and evidence-based policing practices by ensuring there is substantial evidence presented in the court. It has led to a more effective way of conducting an investigation, presenting evidence and store of evidence for future relevance and retrieval. Other scholar focuses on the integration of evidence-based policing in changing the traditional culture through training to adopt the new culture of using evidence-based research. The literature also reviews some of the shortcomings of using evidence-based policing, such as lack of time, limited resources, lack of technical skill to utilize scientific method and data, and lack of support from management.

Introduction

Over the past decades, the issues of evidence-based policing have gained more support from a scholar on ways to improve their roles and duties based on collected evidence to improve the criminal justice field. Some of the features that have emerged recently are the positive partnership, interaction, and problem-solving as the essential tactical elements of policing to support the criminal justice system. The government needs to depend on available literature to provide a working framework of evidence-based policing that will improve the current image of the police and be beneficial to the criminal justice field. This paper focuses on scholarly literature review for evidence-based policing and its beneficial impact on the criminal justice field.

Literature Review

Recently, technology accelerating at a high pace through innovation of mobile phone, wireless technology, visual and audio technology, data computing, advanced analytical, increase internet usage, and other advanced technology. According to Chapman (2016), policing and technology have been interconnected for a decade that has been used to promote the collection and presentation of crime evidence. Many policing departments have adopted the latest technology to improve efficiency and outcome, mostly when the policing departments have limited resources (Chapman, 2016). The integration of technology with policing activities has been used to enhance public attention and scrutiny of law enforcement tactics and outcomes.

According to Chapman (2016), find that the link between advanced technology and policing strategies improve policing activities through enhancing zero tolerance in policing. According to Chapman (2016), more than two hundred and fifty departments of the police in the United States have improved their agencies through the adoption of technology. It has led to the adoption of hot spot policing philosophies and intelligence-led policing. It has improved policing strategies to emphasize problem-oriented policing leading to evidence-based.

According to Chapman (2016), technology can be used to improve the criminal justice system by ensuring the evidence can be automated and stored as long as the court needs it. Technology such as computer-aided dispatch and automated management systems have been used to improve the policing system to enhance the policing agencies national wide (Chapman,2016). It is vital for generating the information that human beings can not be achieved by our hands or eyes to improve the efficiency of collecting evidencing and presenting materialized evidence in the criminal justice system.

The current technology that has improved evidence-based policing activities include body-worn cameras used as a video recording system to promote policies activities transparency and accountability (Chapman,2016). According to Chapman (2016), it accumulates video evidence that can be used in the court of law while ensuring law enforcement agencies are accountable for their wrongdoing. Car cameras are used to collect evidence during a police car patrol. According to Chapman (2016), technology has been used to prioritize in the criminal justice system since it provides knowledge used in understanding nausea related to upcoming surveillances and event capture systems.

Other technologies that advance evidence-based policing include data mining tools that can recover evidence data lost in computers and other electronics. Crime mapping that uses an information technology system and other software by law enforcement agencies to map and location of crime areas visualize, and analyze crime incident (Chapman,2016). License plate readers who are a type of surveillances mount in highways and bridges to control passing motor or track vehicles.

According to Tilley & Laycock (2018), there is continuous effort to improve the knowledge-based activities of law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system to reduce illegal activities in society. According to Tilley & Laycock (2018), one of the methods that promoted evidence-based policing is through the implementation of crime reduction programs that were launched two decades ago. The program has positively impacted the criminal justice field by reducing the number of crimes activities.

According to Tilley & Laycock (2018), since the introduction of crime reduction programs in the policing agencies, the criminal activities had reduced from forty percent in 1993 to fifteen percent in 2017. It provides evidence of the appropriate method that should be used to promote evidence-based policing and improve the criminal justice system by achieving three significant goals of the program (Tilley & Laycock, 2018). It includes achieving a sustainable reduction in crimes, improves knowledge accessibilities of police, and maximize the use of cost-effective crime reduction techniques such as technology.

According to Tilley & Laycock (2018), the effectiveness of crime reduction programs depends on how they are integrated with other law enforcement programs, strategies, and the criminal justice system. The success of the program has been embedded with other applications and aspects of innovation. According to Tilley & Laycock (2018), it has have shown substantial evidence when integrated with technology, crime prevention programs, randomized controlled trials, and economic, social, and research council that has been used to provide a scientific understanding of crimes.

According to Johnson, Lebold, & Elam (2018), there is a big gap between the uses of research evidence in the policing making and criminal justice system and practices by criminal justice professionals. It has led to ineffective policy implementation in law enforcement agencies since most of them are not based on research evidence but rather assumption. According to Johnson, Lebold, & Elam (2018), most of the case in the court has been based on unsubstantial evidence collected by the policy. The criminal justice system fails to provide effective strategies in the use of evidence-based research in their practice.

According to Johnson, Lebold, & Elam (2018), the criminal justice administration and practitioner in the field criminal justice and law enforcement have failed to incorporate scholarly evidence in determining policies, programs, strategies, practices of their agencies. According to Johnson, Lebold, & Elam (2018), incorporation of evidence-based is essential in improving policing-based policymaking and practices while establishing a partnership with the partnership.

According to Johnson, Lebold, & Elam (2018), there is a need to identify the problem that policy marker and practitioner in the field of criminal justice experience in utilize research-based evidence to improve the policing system. Most criminal justice professionals and polices officer fail to use evidence-based research in their daily operations due to lack of time and limited job duties and responsibilities. According to Johnson, Lebold, & Elam (2018), there need for more research to identify the barriers to the effective utilization of evidence-based policing and its impact in the criminal justice field.

According to Posick & Hatfield (2017), human error assessment and reduction techniques are one of the best evidence methods used in law enforcement agencies in evaluating human error in the criminal investigation. The model has been in the front line in restraining the community- policy relationship. According to Posick & Hatfield (2017), the human error assessment and reduction techniques have to increase police-citizen interactions since it promotes fairness and legitimacy of the police officer and police departments.

According to Lum & Koper (2015), evidence-based policing is one of the essential activities through the use of research, evaluation, analysis, scientific process in the criminal justice system to make an informed decision. According to Lum & Koper (2015), there two vital techniques of using evidence-based policy to improve law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system. First is the use of scientific methods and results in the evaluation of law enforcement techniques and strategies to guide decision making.

The second techniques focus on generating and applying analytical knowledge gotten form the law enforcement agencies analysis for both internal and external issues and crime problems. According to Lum & Koper (2015), the use of scientific information and strategies to inform the public policies and law agencies’ decision making reflects a standard value in the field of criminal justice. It promotes the values and ethics of modern democratic governance through transparency, accountability, and reduced harm in the field of criminal justice and law enforcement agencies.

According to Lum & Koper (2015), most of the research supports the use of evidence-based policing that was established a decade ago. This is because since the evidence-based policies were established, it has provided a positive impact in the police department and the criminal justice field. It has positively benefited the criminal justice system in making an informed decision in various criminal cases since evidence submitted in court is based on facts or scientific interpretations.

According to Fleming & Rhodes (2018), the use of a variety of knowledge and evidence-based policing have been of great impact in decision making by the police department and other law enforcement agencies. The United Kingdom has demonstrated a great impact on the use of evidence policing in making informed decisions and policymaking, which impact the department of criminal justice (Meško, 2018). The use of scientific knowledge has been embraced in many countries as they to remove the human error in decision making and formulation of effective strategies.

According to Fleming & Rhodes (2018), there two factors that affect the utilization of evidence-based policing. First is the limit to social science knowledge, such as lack of time, incomplete information, limited cognitive, and techniques skill affects the effectiveness and efficiency use of evidence used in policing. Policymakers in law enforcement agencies suffer from this limitation when using evidence-based policing (Sherman & Murray, 2015). The complex and ambiguous policy process limits the use of evidence-based use in police and criminal justice.

The second factor is the experience of using evidence knowledge in the police department. Factor affecting the experience of use evidence base includes occupational cultures that affect organizational socialization and professionalization of police. According to Fleming & Rhodes (2018), the traditional culture in the police affects the use of evidence-based practice in modern police practices. Experience as local knowledge that has developed in the police community of practitioners and law enforcement agencies that affect the common use of evidence-based policing (Lum & Koper, 2014). Lastly is the institutional memory that entails collective knowledge and learning experience in the police department and law enforcement agencies.

According to Telep, & Lum (2014), police officer expresses their willingness to adopt the new system of evidence-based policing strategies to make the decision. Empirical research shows that the use of evidence-based policing has advanced the way policies officer conduct their duties and responsibilities while improving the qualities of evidence presented in the criminal justice system. According to Telep, & Lum (2014), advance in evidence-based policing has led to valued experience in the research in guiding the police department and criminal justice.

According to Telep (2016), researcher and scholars should expand their evidence-based policing through training and education to change their traditional cultures and adopted a new method of investigation. The scope of evidence-based policing has proven to be effective in improving the criminal justice system and decision making in policing decisions. According to Telep (2016), the scholar should think more broadly about the future of evidence-based policing by integrating new strategies of moving forwards.

According to Parker (2017), the way to improve criminal justice work through the integration of evidence-based policing and advanced technology. It focuses on the application of theories and evidence to change the culture of the criminal justice workplace (Lum & Koper, 2014). Evidence-based policing improves the organizational culture through the change of occupation, organizational behavior, and management of worker heaths as they depend on scientific evidence and technology to make a decision.

According to Bowers, Tompson, Sidebottom, Bullock, & Johnson (2017), there needs to shift our focus on experience in traditional evidence-based policing to the modernized evidence-based practices that focus on improving the whole criminal justice system. The new experience should focus on looking for evidence in the scene of the crimes, developing practitioner reports, and promoting primary investigation and evaluation to benefit the criminal justice field (Lum & Koper, 2014). It is the primary way policing can encourage significant support in the court system through substantial evidence presentation.

According to Heaton & Tong (2016), the use of evidence-based policing can lead to cost-effectiveness through the improvement of current practices of the police officer and reducing the time spent collecting evidence and presenting to the court. Cost-effectiveness had been witnessed in the United States and the United Kingdom through the implementation of randomized control measures. It has also led to quality-adjusted life years through the improvement of realist evidence in the police department (Annie, 2020). It has led to the development of principle to police, leading to quality policies services such as interaction with citizens and change of police perspective toward crimes.

Conclusion

The primary way to improve the body of knowledge, mostly in policing department and criminal justice area, is through adopting evidence-based policing. The benefits of integrating advanced technology and evidence-based practice have been proven by many scholars in improving the criminal justice system as well as the policing department. The review of literature has reviewed some limitations that exist when utilizing evidence-based policing, such as lack of time, resources, support from management, and techniques tool to utilize scientific evidence.