Important
- Essential Criteria in Government Job Applications – Job posting requirements designated as “essential” automatically screen out applicants who answer “no”, making it critical for candidates to draw comprehensively from education, work, and volunteer experience to demonstrate eligibility.
- Strategic Wording in Application Prompts – Application criteria containing “and” require applicants to provide concrete examples for every listed requirement, whereas “or” indicates that an example for only one item in the list is sufficient.
- Policy Change as Knowledge Mobilization – Embedding research evidence directly into organizational policy creates mandatory operational mandates across an entire police agency, serving as the most direct and comprehensive knowledge mobilization mechanism.
- DEPICT Study De-Escalation Insights – Operational research evaluating officer de-escalation via ride-alongs and body-worn cameras reveals that many calls for service resolve upon police arrival without requiring formal investigation or physical force.
Core concepts
- Government Job Application Crafting: The specialized technique of applying for public sector positions by precisely addressing essential and asset criteria, matching exact phrasing (“and” vs. “or”), and detailing dated, concrete examples [2–5].
- Applied Police Briefings (APB) & Briefing Notes: Practical course deliverables where students condense 20-to-30-page academic journal articles into accessible two-to-three-page summaries with visual layout design and peer track-changes editing for potential publication [12, 13, 20–22].
- Building Bridges Evidence-Based Policing Conference: An annual Canadian conference bringing together police executives, academics, researchers, and students to share empirical studies, discuss knowledge mobilization, and address operational policing challenges.
- Canadian Policing Problem Book: A CACP research initiative surveying police chiefs across Canada to identify top operational priorities—such as the toxic drug crisis, violent crime, recruitment, trust, and policing economics—to direct future academic research [43–46].
- DEPICT Study & Ride-Along Evaluation: An empirical research project analyzing officer de-escalation through hundreds of hours of frontline ride-alongs and body-worn camera reviews, identifying operational realities and measurement challenges in the field [32–37].
- Gender Differences in Police Use of Force: Research findings showing that female officers engage in fewer use-of-force incidents, cause fewer injuries, and rely more frequently on intermediate weapons (such as Conducted Energy Weapons or OC spray) rather than physical hard control.
- Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Channels: Multi-faceted communication strategies—including open-access journals, podcasts, trade publications, mandatory training, conferences, social media, and policy directives—used to translate research into frontline police operations.
- RCMP Police Dog Injury Reporting Mandates: Administrative reporting guidelines requiring all police dog bites to be transported to a hospital, inflating official injury statistics due to mandatory policy compliance rather than actual injury severity.
Theories and Frameworks
- Spacing Effect: A cognitive learning model where educational concepts are reinforced at spaced intervals across different formats (e.g., full journal articles, podcasts, applied briefs, and group discussions) to enhance long-term retention and practical application.
- Interleaving: A pedagogical framework that alternates diverse topics and knowledge mobilization formats throughout a curriculum to improve learning transfer and recall.
- Nurture & Socialization Model of De-Escalation: A sociological framework proposing that gendered differences in police force outcomes stem from social communication norms, de-escalation tendencies, and differential subject responses to female officers [81–83, 90, 91].
- Return on Investment (ROI) Model of Policing: An economic framework derived from UK research demonstrating that every dollar invested in policing generates $4.11 in economic return and public safety value.
Notable Individuals
- Dr. Bill Bozeman: Medical physician and researcher who conducted studies demonstrating the low injury rates associated with vascular neck restraints and intermediate force tools.
- Dr. Craig Bennell: Forensic psychology researcher at Carleton University and co-founder of Applied Police Research Briefs.
- Dr. Kurt Luther: Co-founder of Applied Police Research Briefs who collaborates on knowledge-mobilization platforms for law enforcement.
- Cynthia Lum: Criminology professor specializing in evidence-based policing implementation and knowledge translation.
- Lawrence Sherman: Criminologist and pioneer of evidence-based policing, hotspot policing, and the Triple-T framework.
- Alex Murray: Police executive and evidence-based policing leader who presents on translating research into operational practice.
- Greg Taylor: Police research collaborator involved in publishing applied research briefings and policy-translation tools.