Heed the evidence: Cops need more than common sense

THE fight against crime is like a bottomless pit, one into which we could keep throwing resources without ever noticing much difference. That is an especially big problem now that police departments around the world are being forced to make cuts in the wake of the global recession. The squeeze on police budgets will worry many of us, yet there are those who see it as an opportunity.

"There's nothing quite like 30 per cent less funding to drive innovation and a desire to do things differently," says Peter Neyroud at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology. A former chief constable of one of the UK's regional police forces, Neyroud is an ardent advocate of evidence-based policing ? the idea that policing strategies should be guided by research into which crime prevention and detection measures work best. Until now, few police forces have shared his enthusiasm. But as cuts ...

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