Institutional Modifications of Evidence-Based Policing

Research findings are presented from detailed study of the texts produced through the development of evidence-based policing (‘EBP’) discourse. The focus of this chapter is on institutional changes produced through the progression of EBP discourse. The chapter describes and discusses changes in academia, operational policing, political governance of policing and special interest groups. (Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse, Oxford University Press, 1995) suggests that discourses can be judged to have become hegemonic when policy begins to be conducted according to the rules of that dominant discourse: ‘discourse institutionalisation’. The chapter catalogues institutional changes observable through the EBP texts, and examples are provided of institutional reforms. The chapter argues that EBP has influenced institutional changes in British policing and academic research on policing that now mutually reinforce EBPs continued progression. Furthermore, that the impact of the extension of EBP discourse through these institutional changes are deleterious to police-academic research, British policing and ultimately the public. This chapter concludes the research findings of the book, drawing together the genealogy of EBP in Britain.