February 17-19, 2021
Conference Presented by: 
About CGI
Evidence-Based Policing (EBP) is a way of looking at police decision-making that moves beyond traditional police assumptions about what works in carrying out policing duties and activities. Just as the Community Safety and Well-Being Planning framework guides us in strategically planning how to better invest resources to maximize returns when it comes to public safety, EBP provides a toolkit to support police professionals in designing the most effective crime prevention, disruption, and reduction services to fight crime, violence, and victimization.
As police professionals navigate in today’s complex and challenging socio-political climate, influential police leaders at every rank and position need to understand how EBP can expand their thinking and collective mindset to inspirationally and organizationally move law enforcement organizations from outputs- to outcomes-driven work.
During this conference, you will join with other police professionals and gain expert insights on the evolution of EBP from prominent Canadian and international speakers and police leaders about the latest cutting-edge evidence-based policing research and strategies to reduce crime and disorder, enhance community-well-being and police legitimacy in supporting the communities we serve.
Who should attend?
If you are passionate about community safety and well-being and want to learn why EBP is emerging as a major influential change agent in Canadian policing, this conference is for you. Whether you’re a senior police leader, police manager, front-line Police Officer, or policy-maker, this conference will equip you to think critically about the EBP issues shaping law enforcement today.
Registration:
$125.00 + HST*
Registrants will receive:
- Full access to all conference sessions
- Access to recording of all sessions
- Exclusive access to EBP resources
* Only those that register to attend will be permitted access. The conference will be held via the Zoom platform. A joining link will be sent to all registered participants less than 24 hours prior to the conference.
Speaker Line-up:
Wednesday, February 17
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jerry Ratcliffe
A former British police officer, Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University, Philadelphia, and host of the Reducing Crime podcast.
Why Evidence-Based Policing Matters
Policing is under greater scrutiny than ever before. Law enforcement tactics, budgets and legitimacy are in the public eye and increased access to police and crime data has enabled a new industry of amateur and professional critics. In a democracy, much of this scrutiny should be welcomed; however, it also places an onus on police leaders to be answerable to tax payers and citizens for the deployment and tactical choices they make. This presentation examines why a more evidence-based approach to the business of policing can help commanders defend their operational decisions in this new world.
Dr. Rylan Simpson
Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University
Officer Appearance and Perceptions of Police
As an institution, the police are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to public opinion. The current presentation draws upon experimental data from the Police Officer Perception Project (Simpson, 2017; 2019; 2020a; 2020b) to explore the effects of officer appearance on perceptions of police. Specifically, the presentation demonstrates how simply seeing officers in different aesthetic capacities (e.g., occupying different styles of police vehicles, wearing different types of uniform accoutrements, exhibiting different facial expressions, etc.) can impact whether citizens perceive them as aggressive, approachable, friendly, respectful, accountable, and competent. The presentation also describes the relevance of such findings for both policy and practice. The presentation concludes with an opportunity for questions from the audience.
Meme Styles
President & Founder, MEASURE Inc.
Evidence Based Policing Is A Movement
A person's most admirable ability is their capacity to drive social change. Throughout history, movements that promote good and awareness have been driven by passionate leaders and fed-up loyalists to the cause. In this session I offer the suggestion that Evidence Based Policing is also a movement driven by the communities unwillingness to accept the status quo and a commitment to evidence and data-driven conversations that are at times, difficult.
Thursday, February 18
Presented by: 
Dr. Cynthia Lum
Professor, Department of Criminology, Law and Society
Director, Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy
George Mason University
What Research Tells us About Body-worn Cameras
Many jurisdictions and municipalities have looked to body-worn cameras to strengthen police accountability, reduce use of force, improve police-citizen relationships, or even to help fight crime. In this session, Dr. Lum will discuss what we know from the large body of research in this area, and what more we still need to know so that agencies can decide whether they should acquire them, or if they already have them, how they might optimize their use.
Dr. Renee Mitchell
Senior Police Researcher with RTI International, author of countless books and articles on EBP, and a former 22-year member of the Sacramento Police Department.
Embedding Evidence-Based Policing in an Organization
This session will describe a framework for embedding evidence-based policing into an organization. It will introduce the idea of mental models – a simple representation of how something works. The mind cannot remember every detail of the world thus it creates models to simplify the complex into understandable and organizable chunks. Embedding evidence-based policing into an organization becomes easier once you understand the theoretical and critical thinking mental models that establish the foundation from which to build an evidence-based organization.
Dr. Hina Jawaid Kalyal
Policy Analyst, London Police Service and Part-time faculty, King's University College and Fanshawe College
Barriers to EBP in Policing
Despite the noted importance of evidence-based policing (EBP) strategies, police organizations have been slow to adopt them. Based on qualitative interviews with 38 police executives across Canada, my research has identified internal and external organizational factors that lead to resistance towards EBP. Results reveal that resistance towards EBP is mainly due to organizational factors that arise from within the organization as well as external factors that are political in nature.
Friday, February 19
Presented by: 
Inspector Dan Jones
Edmonton Police Service
Universal Precautions for Trauma: The Way Forward for Human Centered Design
The concept of Universal Precautions is taught in first aid classes across the globe and requires people to treat all blood and bodily waste as contaminated with a virus such as Hepatitis C or HIV. This allows the first aider to remain safe when administering the needed help to the injured individual and in turn protects the injured individual from potential contamination from the first aider. The concept of trauma is not new to the police or the criminal justice system, but a true understanding of trauma is. A real understanding of who the police interact with is also very limited. The vast majority of incarcerated people, both men and women have experienced victimization prior to their first detected offence (Jones et al 2020, Jones, Bucerius & Haggerty 2019). Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are also prevalent in incarcerated populations (Finkelhore et al 2015). Having traumatic experiences is not the cause of offending but is often present in the offending population. The fact that trauma is so prevalent amongst the offending population, and often these individuals have traumatized their victims suggests a much-needed change in how police are trained to interact with the justice clients. These data are from the University of Alberta prison project which has qualitatively interviewed 800 incarcerated individuals.
Constable Maria Wright
London Police Service
Tracking the Accuracy of Assessing High Risk Offenders for Intimate Partner Violence: A Ten Year Analysis
The key research question in this study examines the accuracy of the current process of predicting IPV high risk offending in London Ontario in a list of 1314 identified offenders. Additionally, what other possible predictors could be used to enhance the accuracy in targeting high risk IPV.
Key findings illustrate that the forecasting model predicts any recidivism in two-thirds of cases. However, 71% of high harm offenders are not classified as high risk (false negatives). Improving tracking and implementing procedures in regards to identifying individuals with suicidal ideations could be used to enhance the accuracy.
This research is a key element to satisfy the requirements of a Master Degree in Applied Criminology and Police Management with Cambridge University.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Lawrence Sherman
Director of the Cambridge Police Executive Programme and Director of Research, Jerry Lee Centre for Experimental Criminology, whose ground-breaking work on EBP continues to guide police leaders around the world.
Racial Equity and Evidence-Based Policing
The killing of George Floyd poses a severe challenge to police around the English-speaking world. Responding to that challenge might be more effective with evidence about race and policing—especially the idea of “over-policing.” Equally important is the issue of “under-policing,” with higher rates of murder against blacks than whites. What EBP offers is a pathway to “balanced policing,” as a strategy that uses Canadian crime severity scores to allocate resources based on risk of harm—especially by area, rather than by race or ethnicity. With a common metric of risk, issues of racial equality in policing can be based on historical inequalities in criminal victimisation by race, class, or other illegitimate hierarchies of power. As Sklansky has argued, the mission of police in a democracy is to level illegitimate hierarchies. EBP can help target those patterns, starting with offenders taking greater advantage of more vulnerable victims.
Evidence-Based Policing Round Table
Moderated by: Dr. Sara Thompson
Professor of Criminology, Ryerson University
Commissioner Thomas Carrique
Ontario Provincial Police
Chief Kimberley Greenwood
Barrie Police Service
Chief Nishan Duraiappah
Peel Regional Police
Commander Alex Murray
Metropolitan Police Service
