New book provides research-based strategies for law enforcement

In an age of intensified public debate about the role of police officers, more law enforcement agencies rely on evidence-based policing to help officers perform their duties.

In a new book written by faculty members, alumni and current and former doctoral students in Arizona State University's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, authors offer fresh, research-based perspectives to help law enforcement officials make better-informed decisions about running their agencies and best apply strategies and tactics.

Each of the book’s 13 chapters is followed by a response essay written by leading police executives.

"Transforming the Police: Thirteen Key Reforms," published by Waveland Press, is edited by ASU criminology professors Charles M. Katz and Edward R. Maguire. 

ASU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice offers some of the nation’s most highly ranked programs of criminology study, according to U.S. News & World Report. The authors provide keen insights based on social science and medical research evidence’s response to the major changes policing has undergone in recent years.

“The school has attracted some of the top police researchers in the world in its efforts to deliver policy-relevant or ‘use-inspired’ research that makes a difference not just in the ivory tower of academia, but in the real world,” the editors write in the book’s prospectus. “This volume draws on the expertise of not only the school’s faculty, but also its alumni and doctoral students, to take stock of policing and police reform 50 years after the creation of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.”

In the book, authors recommend that law enforcement agencies:

• Adopt evidence-based policing.
• Implement collaborative strategic crime control strategies.
• Institutionalize procedural justice.
• Reduce unnecessary use of force.
• Reduce racial inequities in police practices.
• Consider options for increasing civilian oversight of the police.
• Implement a body-worn camera program.
• Improve prevention of police-involved harm through sentinel event reviews.
• Build police-research partnerships to advance policing.
• Build momentum for police reform through organizational justice.
• Improve officer health and wellness.
• Improve the policing of crowds.
• Increase efficiency of police response to sexual assaults.

ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is within the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. The 271-page book (ISBN: 978-1-4786-3998-5) is available in paperback for a $34.95.