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Introduction
Police departments train both new recruits and seasoned veterans to help shape how police officers do their jobs. Recruits are enrolled in basic training with the hope that they will acquire both the knowledge and the skills necessary to meet the expectations of their profession. Veteran officers may return to training while “in service” to refresh their knowledge or learn new skills. Less often, newly promoted supervisors and senior leaders receive specialized training in management or supervision or in specific areas of expertise that they are expected to pass along to those they supervise.
Foreign assistance donor organizations, like the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL),1 provide training to police officers as part of their assistance efforts overseas. Such training has varied in form and dosage. It covers a range of purposes: demonstrating police tactics, sharing community-oriented policing practices, developing managerial skills in senior officers, preparing front-line officers for specific deployment, and building greater training capacity within a country. Where possible, INL aims to provide training from the top, focused on senior leadership, down through managers, supervisors, and then entry-level personnel to ensure that all levels are prepared to employ as well as support the use of essential knowledge and skills (U.S. Department of State, 2016).
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1 The mission of INL is to help “partner governments assess, build, reform, and sustain competent and legitimate criminal justice systems, and [develop and implement] the architecture necessary for international drug control and cross-border law enforcement cooperation.” See https://www.state.gov/about-us-bureau-of-international-narcotics-and-law-enforcement-affairs/.
Training programs can be an important mechanism in donor nations’ efforts to reform and develop police organizations around the globe. Ensuring a return on investment from these efforts requires attention to training effectiveness and the sustainability of the knowledge and skill transfers from such training. As discussed in this report, a central goal for police training is to transfer the knowledge and skills necessary for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population (see Box 1-1 for the committee’s perspective on rule of law and protection of the population).
THE COMMITTEE’S CHARGE
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine assembled the Committee on Evidence to Advance Reform in the Global Security and Justice Sectors (“the committee”) to identify the best available research evidence on how police reform can promote the rule of law (including human rights) and protect the public. The committee comprises experts in criminology, economics, international and organized crime, law, policing, and political science and brings knowledge and experience from a portfolio of work that spans four continents. Such experience includes conducting research as well as advising governments on police policy in several countries including but not limited to Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, India, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States (see the Appendix for more details).
The committee was charged with producing a series of five reports, each addressing areas of interest to INL (see Box 1-2). To assist with this assignment, the committee developed a series of five public information-gathering sessions to bring together researchers and practitioners with experience in each subtopic to be examined. This report is the second in the series, addressing the second question in the committee’s charge:
What are the core knowledge and skills needed for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population? What is known about mechanisms (e.g., basic and continuing education or other capacity building programs) for developing the core skills needed for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population?2
Approach to the Study
Like the others in the series, this report reflects the development of consensus advice to address the questions in the charge. The committee
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2 Each consensus report in the series of five reports will be released as a PDF in sequence of completion.
was tasked to carry out the entire study within a year and a half and to release each of the five reports separately and sequentially during this time period. In forming its advice, the committee draws specifically on information from prepared papers and a single workshop on the topic of the second question as well as its years of experience investigating policing policies and practices.
The public workshop entitled Assessing International Police Training to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population, held virtually on May 24 and 27, 2021, was designed to gather information on the state of research evidence around police training. Workshop participants included members of the committee, representatives from INL, and international researchers and practitioners in police training and development. An effort was made to assemble a diverse set of participants who work with and study policing in several different contexts such as those in Africa, Australia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States.
The workshop discussions were framed around commissioned papers prepared by Lorraine Mazerolle, The University of Queensland, Australia, and Tamara Herold, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Mazerolle paper provided an assessment of the existing evidence supporting the core knowledge and skills that need to be included in police academy training to promote the ROL and the protection of the public. The Herold paper examined existing training methodologies deployed in support of training curricula. Both papers assessed the strengths and limitations of the evidence and data for these practices. The committee relied on the assessments and analyses presented in the papers to inform its deliberations and draws heavily from them throughout this report.3
The workshop examined what is known, unknown, or untested regarding police training internationally, as delivered both in-country in police classroom settings for new recruits and in-service officers and during the ad hoc training opportunities provided by members of the international donor community in and outside of recipient countries. Workshop panelists were invited from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the U.S. Department of Justice International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program, the Nigerian Police Force, and academic institutions with expertise in researching these themes and experience in designing and delivering police training. Discussions at the workshop, including those about the commissioned papers, were a primary source of information for the committee’s deliberations. Speakers were identified based on the relevance of their work to the study question.
After the workshop, the committee met three times virtually over a period of two months to deliberate on what it learned from the papers and
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3 The commissioned papers are available on the project website.
heard at the workshop in order to reach a consensus on conclusions and recommendations for its report. The committee’s draft report was subsequently reviewed by a set of similar subject matter experts and revised in response to review in accordance with National Academies’ procedures before being finalized for release.
The report presents the committee’s assessment of the information it has gathered and provides guidance for police training based on the state of research evidence in this area. It does not contain complete workshop proceedings, but instead draws on resources and descriptions from the workshop discussion as relevant.4
As a project commissioned to conduct five workshops and produce five reports in a rapid production process, the committee’s methods differ somewhat from the single consensus report model, such as the report recently prepared by the ad hoc consensus committee on proactive policing (see NASEM, 2018c). The breadth of the current assignment and the speed with which it was required led the committee to rely more on its pre-existing knowledge of the research findings than on systematic reviewing of all available studies—even as new research was published while the project was underway.
The Committee’s Interpretation of Its Charge
The committee recognizes that basic, entry-level training and ongoing training are crucial for police officers, given the varied demands, stress, and specialized tasks of the profession. In this report, the committee does not attempt to assess all of the work demands, tasks, and requirements necessary to carry out the essential responsibilities of policing. Instead, it focuses on what is currently often absent in training that is likely to be productive toward promoting the rule of law and protecting the population.
As discussed in Chapter 2, the committee emphasizes that training should only be considered one part of any reform effort. What makes police organizations successful at promoting the ROL and protecting the population will depend on how well training is integrated with organizational policies, systems, and incentives that are also aimed at the goal of promoting the rule of law and protecting the population.
The committee acknowledges the complex challenges of translating knowledge from research into “what works” in the Global North into police reform in the Global South. While the study of policing outcomes
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4 Full recordings of the workshop are available at https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/05-27-2021/evidence-to-advance-reform-in-the-global-security-and-justice-sectors-workshop-2-public-session-1 and https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/05-27-2021/evidence-to-advance-reform-in-the-global-security-and-justice-sectors-workshop-2-public-session-2.
has increased in recent years, it still remains limited in context, with much of the research conducted on policing taking place in the Global North5 (e.g., the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia). Such studies also are limited in purpose, with much research focused on examining changes to the crime rate instead of examining the harms to the public as the result of crimes, violence, and any consequences of policing activities. Real impediments to transferring what is known about policing from one context to another can include “differences in cultures and language, political regimes, legal systems, and the extent of political corruption” (NASEM, 2021, p. 2).
Nonetheless, this report is written with the premise that there is an opportunity in many global contexts to build on existing evidence. Digesting that evidence can help to generate new knowledge aimed at promoting the rule of law and protection of the population. This opportunity is afforded by an evidence-based approach to policing and policing reform. The committee details the framework for evidence-based policing in its first report (NASEM, 2021) and identifies, in this report, five principles from that framework for training. In the committee’s opinion, following these principles to shape, implement, and evaluate police training will be productive toward transforming not only police training but ultimately policing.
EVIDENCE-BASED POLICING: FIVE PRINCIPLES FOR TRAINING
As described extensively in the committee’s first report (NASEM, 2021), the committee’s organizing framework stems from an evidence-based approach to policing. Evidence-based policing (EBP) is an approach to police practice and management that uses scientifically derived information to strengthen police departments’ decision-making, tactics, strategies, and overall agency functioning. An EBP approach requires a reliable body of knowledge about myriad police practices for both internal organization and external activities; the ongoing practice of targeting, testing, and tracking these activities against legitimate outcomes; and the institutionalization and implementation of knowledge in police practices (Lum and Koper, 2017; Sherman, 1998, 2013).
An evidence-based conceptual framework suggests five principles for training. These principles are:
- Ensuring that training does no harm;
- Selecting training content by relying on (and translating from) what is known about effective policing from police science;
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5 The terms Global North and Global South have come to label countries along socioeconomic and political characteristics and less so on geographical positions.
- Deploying training methods that have been scientifically tested for successful training outcomes;
- Continuously gathering new evidence to test and track ongoing training for outcomes in each training institution; and
- Delivering training in ways that are flexible and contextualized.
As with an evidence-based approach to policing as discussed in the committee’s first report (NASEM, 2021), these principles are not often used by leaders to guide police training. The majority of basic training programs, both globally and within the United States, have focused on performing specific tasks, rather than on integrating scientifically based knowledge about effective policing into a wide range of activities that improve cognitive and decision-making abilities (Bradford and Pynes, 1999).
The first principle of an evidence-based conceptual framework for training is that police agencies need to implement training with an emphasis on the fundamental theory that police must do no harm. Training must not only focus on the evidence about what is effective in protecting the public and promoting the ROL, but it also must not contribute to negative consequences, abuses, or harms. The uses of training must be monitored for positive outcomes, negative consequences, and misuses. The remaining principles operationalize this goal.
The second principle is the need to train officers by translating what is known from science about crime and crime prevention into their policing practice and activities. Some of this knowledge is summarized in the committee’s first report (NASEM, 2021) and is discussed here with specific reference to training in Chapter 3. While this may seem to be an obvious first principle, police agencies in both the Global North and the Global South continue to not focus on this knowledge. Instead, a great deal of time in police training is devoted to standard operating procedures, such as writing reports, submitting forensic evidence, and making arrests. Routine symbolic activities, such as marching, saluting, shoe-shining, and uniform-wearing, and technical skills, such as driving, shooting, running, and jumping, also consume substantial time. Lum and Koper (2017) note a typical consequence of this procedures-based approach: while agencies often spend a great deal of time teaching officers how to get from point A to point B they spend very little, if any, time training officers to understand how and why crime is clustered at point C and what to do about that clustering.
The third principle emphasizes that decisions about how officers are taught should be based in sound evidence about effective learning in policing. For example: Are classroom lectures less or more effective than field training at developing specific skills? Can skills-based practicing and
problem-solving exercises help to institutionalize evidence into practice? Will repetition, coaching, or mentoring by supervisors help build receptivity to this knowledge? This principle asserts that curricula should be taught using the best educational approaches for adult learners (see Chapter 4). Lecture-based learning in a classroom may not be the most effective mode of education for many critical policing skills (for example, communication skills for successful citizen interactions or analytical skills for solving recurrent problems). Decisions about how officers are taught can also include instructional “scaffolding” combined with experiential learning opportunities. Scaffolding is a process through which instruction or police training units enhance officer learning by systematically building on students’ experiences and knowledge as they acquire new skills. For example, knowledge learned in the classroom might be better translated into practice if that knowledge is coupled with practical exercises and/or reinforced through field supervision that encourages the use of training in practice. Training effectiveness may also vary across context and country, depending on the organizational infrastructure and resources available for training.
The fourth principle of an evidence-based framework for training requires ongoing testing and tracking of the training to ensure that it is connected with changes in officer behavior and outcomes (Sherman, 2013). The practice of EBP requires that agencies—including those like INL that are involved in promoting policing reform—actively and consistently account for, assess, and evaluate their practices against consistent standards, knowledge about effective police practices, and effective training approaches. This requires aligning their efforts with current knowledge about policing and actively testing and evaluating their practices to determine whether they achieve the sought-after outcomes (Sherman, 1998). It also requires ongoing evaluation of training content to determine whether it has been correctly translated into practice in ways that lead to those outcomes. Testing and tracking are also important components of police accountability—ensuring that officers are carrying out duties as trained and expected.
The fifth principle of an evidence-based framework for training requires that the delivery of training needs to be flexible and contextualized, given the resources, cultures, and capacities of different police agencies that INL supports. For example, police agencies looking to adopt training that has been proven effective elsewhere might face legal (e.g., limits on officer discretion) or financial (e.g., lack of funding) obstacles unique to their own national or local governing structures and resources. Moreover, understanding the context-specific forces that drive crime and violence in specific regions or countries and adapting training to be relevant to those factors
is important (Ratcliffe, 2016).6 There can also be cultural differences in societal expectations, perceptions of police, and differences in local customs and norms that affect how a specific form of police training will impact officers and communities. Assessment of these contextual differences and efforts to cultivate necessary implementation conditions should precede or be coupled with attempts to develop appropriate police training.
ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT
The committee’s aim for this report is to provide guidance to INL and other foreign assistance donors as they work to improve and incorporate knowledge from science into their training programs. The five principles for training presented in this chapter and the framework for EBP from its first report (NASEM, 2021) guided the committee’s review of the findings and training needs presented to them. Following this introduction, Chapter 2 presents the committee’s perspective on reform-based training. Chapter 3 outlines the core knowledge and skills police need to promote the ROL and protect the population, drawing heavily from commissioned work from Lorraine Mazerolle (2021). Chapter 4 draws from work presented by Tamara Herold (2021) to the committee and examines the training environment, including teaching methods and instructors, and a set of evaluations deployed within police academies designed to assess the effects of different methods. Chapter 5 outlines key implications from the scientific literature for police training. The Appendix provides biographical sketches of committee members and study staff.
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6 In a survey of officers from seven Central American countries, Ratcliffe (2016) found some regional commonalities but also significant local variation in numerous characteristics perceived by law enforcement as successful characteristics of gangs. The different nuances that emerged across countries suggest the importance of adaptability of training, especially when exporting training from the Global North to the Global South. Taking perspectives and priorities from officers in the Global North related to gang violence could lead to trainings that focus on areas that are of little value in understanding the situation in Honduras or El Salvador, for example.
