Debates and Tensions of Evidence-Based Policing

Evidence-based policing (EBP) now dominates how actors have come to think, speak and act about policing in modern Britain. This chapter uses literature drawn from a range of disciplines to analyse why the continual and unchallenged rise of EBP might be considered controversial, given the current range of crises pervading British policing. The chapter is presented in five sections examining: the development of neoliberal strategic alliances through EBP discourse; the political selection of evidence; the academic selection of evidence; and the nature of post-enlightenment knowledge. The chapter concludes by setting out seven areas of concern with the growing hegemonic position EBP has come to occupy in British policing that arises from this review.