Back to the classroom:

Back to the classroom:  Evidence based Policing(EBP) getting credits Context

• Exposing police officers to the concept of EBP would make them more professional, something that would certainly enhance the Indian police’s image, which is currently dismal.

Status of police

• People are dissatisfied with the quality of service they are getting from the police.
• They are frustrated with the same old alibi trotted out by the police: political interference.
• The system therefore needs drastic restructuring, beyond cosmetics, in order to make policing more professional and more acceptable to the common man.
• There are several efforts initiated by a few dynamic IPS officers in the larger cities, there is an overall reluctance to experiment with measures that could upgrade delivery of its service.
• Some fresh thinking into the twin problems of maintaining public order and combating conventional crime will be beneficial.
• Even in countries that have a strong legacy of clinical public administration, there is increasing disappointment with the way the police handle major crises.

Fundamentals of Evidence-Based Policing (EBP)

• The congregation of academics and active police leaders at Cambridge endorsed the imperative to fine-tune traditional styles, which placed a stress solely on the mechanical use of police resources rather than an intelligent application of available skills.
• There are two areas in which EBP could deliver. These are prediction and prevention.
• The strategy is one of recognizing ‘hot spots’ of crime and spotting problematic individuals in a community.

Prediction and Prevention

• The former task requires a scrutiny of events which are either crimes by themselves or border on crimes defined by law.
• There are certain geographic areas in each police jurisdiction which report more incidents than others.
• EBP goes beyond statistics and pinpoints the time and opportunities presented to a potential offender.
• EBP studies phenomena and highlights findings that are appropriate to crime prevention.
• Similarly, monitoring patterns of behaviour of a class of individuals who had come to the adverse notice of law enforcement is a logical way to predict whether they will again lapse into crime.
• Despite the unfairness in targeting those who had indulged in anti-social behaviour in the past and keeping a tab on their day-to-day activities, there is an expected benefit of being able to predict future criminal behaviour.
• It is not as if every convict will go back to crime once set free.
• Several studies have strengthened the belief that repetition is not uncommon, and that many future crimes can be foiled by pinpointing who, more than others, could be expected to offend once more.