Welcome to the RAND Center on Quality Policing
Research for Action
The RAND Center on Quality Policing (CQP) provides research and analysis on contemporary police practice and policy. By determining what practices are most cost-effective and results-oriented, the Center's work helps law enforcement agencies across the United States make better operational decisions and consistently perform at their best.
Today's police forces confront tough issues, including:
- identifying the best ways to spend policing dollars
- recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce
- defining what it means to police effectively and then evaluating performance
- improving police-community relations
- preventing racial profiling
- reducing community violence
- sharing intelligence within and across agencies
- choosing the safest non-lethal weapons
Research done at the Center focuses on four interrelated areas-best practices, performance measurement, use of technology, and force planning-to deliver results that help departments solve these and other problems.
The Center is part of the Safety and Justice Program within RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment.
Featured Tools and Projects
Police Recruitment and Retention Clearinghouse
Recruitment and retention of officers is an increasing challenge for police agencies. Overwhelmed by day-to-day operations, police agencies typically do not have the time, resources, or expertise to find resources that could improve their recruitment and retention efforts. The Center for Quality Policing's Police Recruitment and Retention Clearinghouse is a searchable database of information that departments can use to meet their staffing needs.
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The Dallas Police Department received a $5 million grant in 2006 to install laptops and video recorders in patrol cars and thus modernize its operations. RAND evaluated the initiative and found it to be generally successful, despite some implementation problems.
A $10 million grant in 2006 enabled the Dallas Police Department to establish the Caruth Police Institute to provide staff development and leadership training to officers at all stages of their careers. RAND evaluated the CPI's first course and found it to be largely successful, with some caveats.
Public defenders assigned to indigent Philadelphia murder defendants are vastly more effective than court-appointed private attorneys at reducing conviction rates, the likelihood of a life sentence, and overall prison time, raising important questions about the adequacy and fairness of the criminal justice system.
The high cost of crime to society suggests that adding police officers may give large cities a sizable return on their investments, write Greg Ridgeway and Paul Heaton.
In this Google Tech Talk, Greg Ridgeway, director of the RAND Center on Quality Policing, discusses the CQP's work with U.S. police departments on assessing whether their officers are practicing racially biased policing and what can be done to address it.
In spite of persistently high unemployment rates, police departments across the U.S. face immediate staffing challenges. Although police agencies can do little to limit the demand for officers, certain practices might help retain the supply of officers and thus contribute toward building stable, long-term workforces.
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