Designing a Best Practice Early Intervention System

The literature on EI systems set out in this book identified a variety of surveys, guides and critiques, and empirical case studies across 12 police departments involving the introduction of new systems with before- and after-intervention data. The findings are largely supportive of the potential benefits of systems to reduce adverse indicators of police conduct and improve the welfare of police officers and non-sworn staff. As noted however, while numerous examples exist of reductions in measures of conflict between police and citizens, the potential welfare benefits for officers are yet to be clearly demonstrated in practice. This situation entails a challenge to police departments around the world to engage in better implementation, evaluation and reporting. Even where police departments have been through extensive reform programs, EI systems provide an important means of guarding against the potential for lapses in standards and slippage in integrity management. The evidence also suggests that EI systems are most likely to work best in tandem with a comprehensive state-of-the-art set of integrity management strategies. The remainder of this chapter develops a more detailed set of principles that should be applied when designing or upgrading systems.