Selling the Idea of ‘What Works’ as Everyday Business: Reconciling Evidence-Based Policing With Traditional Tradecraft

In recent years, we have seen the emergence of the concept of Evidence-Based Policing (EBP), a concept developed under the general banner of best available evidence or ‘what works’. It has achieved relative academic acceptance and has been afforded increasing importance by the College of Policing (and policing in general) which is reflected by its place at the core of the current policing curriculum. The EBP purist may suggest that proven facts achieved by a rigorous scientific approach are of overriding importance in identifying ‘what works’. They may go onto suggest that tradecraft, sometimes gained by decades of practical policing, may simply be opinion and not fact, and as a result this type of knowledge may be perceived to be flawed. Ultimately this approach may alienate the scores of police officers with often valid contributions to make to developing knowledge and practice. This chapter will consider the dichotomy between EBP and tradecraft, consider barriers between possible solutions in resolving the two and will examine how these challenges have been addressed within the current curriculum. It will further outline how policing students at the University of the West of England are helped to understand the relative importance of either ethos but are also given the tools by which to recognise the benefits of each in any given situation, in order to identify ‘what works’.