ABSTRACT

Analysts working within police services play a key role in translating data into usable and understandable forms of knowledge for police personnel. Despite the increased focus on data and research in policing, we know little about the everyday data work of police analysts. In this article, we review the literature on analysts’ experiences and draw on survey data from analysts working in police services across Canada to examine the types of data work they routinely engage in and the value placed on their work by police personnel. Our findings suggest that analysts are underutilized and spend much of their time reporting descriptive statistics rather than performing more sophisticated analyses. While analysts perceived their work as being valued by police personnel, they did not think it was understood or used to its full extent. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications of these findings on the move towards evidence-based policing.

摘要

在警察部门工作的分析师在将数据转化为可供警察人员使用和理解的知识形式方面发挥着关键作用。尽管警务领域越来越关注数据和研究，但我们对警察分析师的日常数据工作知之甚少。在本文中，我们回顾了有关分析师经验的文献，并利用加拿大各地警察部门工作分析师的调查数据来检查他们经常从事的数据工作类型以及警察对其工作的重视。我们的研究结果表明，分析师没有得到充分利用，他们将大部分时间花在报告描述性统计数据上，而不是进行更复杂的分析。虽然分析人员认为他们的工作受到警察人员的重视，但他们并不认为它被充分理解或使用。