Reducing Crime

In this episode of the Reducing Crime podcast, host Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Dr. Ian Hesketh, the Wellbeing Lead at the UK College of Policing and the Senior Responsible Owner for the National Police Wellbeing Service in the UK. They discuss the importance of officer wellness and resiliency in the face of mounting challenges in the police service. They also touch on the concept of "leaveism," where officers use their personal vacation time instead of taking sick leave, and the need for line managers to be central to officer wellbeing. The episode highlights the need for organizations to support and prioritize the mental and physical health of their officers.

Rob Briner is Professor of Organizational Psychology in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London. He tells me about the vital role of accountability in pushing evidence-based practice, the appeal of apparent simplicity and good intentions that can trap people in harmful responses, the three words managers can't seem to say, and the idea of watchful waiting.

Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Geoff Barnes, the director of criminology for the Western Australia police force. They discuss the importance of evidence-based policing and the role of senior leadership in making it sustainable. Barnes shares his experiences working with police departments and highlights the challenges of implementing evidence-based practices. He emphasizes the need for police-led experiments and the involvement of academics in supporting these initiatives. The conversation also touches on the difficulties of accessing research literature and the importance of critical thinking when reviewing studies.

Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Charis Kubrin, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, about her research on California Proposition 47. Proposition 47 is a law that reduces some non-violent, non-serious crimes to misdemeanors. Kubrin's research found that Proposition 47 had no significant impact on violent crime and may have had a small impact on motor vehicle theft and larceny. However, she emphasizes the need for further research and analysis to fully understand the effects of the law. Kubrin also discusses the controversy and criticism her research has received, particularly from law enforcement organizations and political opponents of criminal justice reform.

John Eck is a professor at the University of Cincinnati and the originator of the SARA model of problem-oriented policing. We discuss his work around investigation management, the nonsense and unreliability of clearance rates, the true value of detective work, the failings of community policing, and what he learned about place management from a cemetery.

I catch up with Geoff Alpert, professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, and a stalwart of the policing research field for over 30 years. We discuss how to get research into the hands of police officers, and what are the essential skills for a new policing researcher coming out of a graduate program.

In this episode of the Reducing Crime podcast, host Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Major Wendy Stiver, a commander in the Dayton Ohio Police Department and a practitioner in residence for the National Institute of Justice's LEADS scholar program. Stiver discusses the challenges of implementing evidence-based policing and overcoming resistance within police departments. She also talks about her research on infant mortality cases, patrol officer exposure to secondary trauma, and foot patrol evaluations. Stiver emphasizes the importance of bridging the gap between practitioners and researchers in order to advance public safety.

Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Tamara Herold, a researcher who worked on the award-winning PIVOT Project. The PIVOT Project, which stands for Place-Based Investigations of Violent Offender Territories, aimed to understand why violent crime hotspots persist and how to effectively reduce crime in these areas. The project involved investigating the networks of places and offenders in these hotspots and implementing a citywide violence reduction strategy. The project achieved impressive results, with a significant reduction in violence in the targeted locations. The success of the project was attributed to the collaboration between various city departments, the involvement of investigators, and the support of city leaders.

In this podcast episode, Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Kim Rossmo, a former detective and current professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. Rossmo discusses his research on investigative failures and wrongful convictions. He explains that investigative failures often involve a cluster of factors, including personal biases, rush to judgment, and confirmation bias. He emphasizes the importance of evaluating the reliability of evidence and avoiding tunnel vision in investigations. Rossmo also suggests the use of devil's advocates and external reviews to identify weaknesses in investigations.

I discuss with Jakob Lindergaard-Bentzen (program manager with the Danish National Police) the challenges of promoting and supporting ILP, the complexity of the modern detective role, and how to staff and sustain an analysis unit. We even use the one word that you weren't allowed to use in the Danish police until a couple of years ago.