The Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University held its annual symposium on August 13-14, 2012. Its emphasis was the center’s work on research-based evidence and its collaboration with police departments and other agencies that put the research to practical use.
More than 250 people registered for the free conference. The attendees included Mason faculty, staff and students, along with representatives from more than 100 organizations, including other universities, non-profits, federal agencies, city governments and police departments.
Cynthia Lum, deputy director of the center, noted that the presentations focused on results, data and analysis of policing projects involving research-based assistance.
“With this symposium, we are advancing the idea of translating research into practice, and at the same time showing how research can be useful to practitioners,” Lum said. “Agency officers presented policing workshops and a number of experts produced papers on place-based policing. We had presentations on crime studies in New York, Canada, Amsterdam and Philadelphia. In all cases, we wanted to make research more meaningful for the decision maker.”
Lum and Christopher Koper, both faculty members in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, led a 6-hour policing workshop for representatives from departments in Baltimore, Richmond, Minneapolis, Jacksonville, Sacramento, and even retired chief constable Peter Neyroud from the University of Cambridge in the U.K.
A concurrently running session on evidence synthesis training featured David Wilson, chair of the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, Catherine Gallagher, director of the Cochrane Collaboration College for Policy, and Charlotte Gill, senior research associate in the center.
David Weisburd, director of the Center, thought the symposium was beneficial to all its attendees. “We had a really great mixture of researchers, policy makers and practitioners who got to interact with each other,” he said. “Nowadays, many agencies and organizations are using or exploring evidence-based approaches in order to be more effective with declining resources. There is a hunger for evidence-based policy.”
Major Ted Arnn, of the Fairfax County Police Department, agrees. A Mason alumnus (BS ’93, law enforcement), Arnn attended the symposium to learn more about policy practices for police deployment strategies.
“The recession has brought cuts to law enforcement agencies around the nation, including here in Fairfax County, so we must explore deployment strategies that maximize the patrol officer’s time and effort,” Arnn said. “The Center’s symposium has provided valuable and implementable ideas from both academics and practitioners around the world.”
Peter Harris, a legislative analyst for the Seattle City Council, traveled across the country to learn about evidence-based techniques: “My motivation was to learn more about the implementation of hot spot policing,” he said. “What do we know about which specific policing activities are most effective in hot spots?”
John Kapinos, works in the Fairfax County Police Department Chief’s Office of Research and Support, and has been involved with the Center as a partner for several years. He is pleased to see the symposium grow and expand.
“I am gratified to see each year that more police practitioners are taking part in the Center’s symposium, particularly the policing workshop,” Kapinos said. “This exposes more police agencies to the work that is being done at the Center, and also gives the Center the opportunity to identify more professional research partners.”
He added, “And for those of us in the police profession, the symposium is a great opportunity for professional networking, personal growth and learning as well.”