Introducing Smart Policing: Foundations, Principles, and Practice

Abstract

Smart Policing represents an emerging paradigm in American policing that stresses crime reduction and promotes improvement of the evidence base for policing. Smart Policing emphasizes effectively using data and analytics as well as improving analysis, performance measurement, and evaluation research; improving efficiency; and encouraging innovation. This introduction defines Smart Policing in historical and contemporary contexts and discusses several important and emerging characteristics in the local Smart Policing sites, namely, the need to improve the evidence base for policing, the police agency-research partnerships that are emerging in Smart Policing, the type of problems identified and approaches undertaken by the SPI sites, and future issues for Smart Policing.