3 The stages of evidence-based policing

As is no doubt clear, evidence-based policing involves adopting a structured approach towards any issues or topics that are to be studied. Bryant and Bryant (2019) argue that there are usually five distinct stages in any EBP project:

• State the question
• Gather the existing evidence
• Assess the existing evidence and undertake research
• Implement the findings
• Evaluate the implementation

While each of these stages is of crucial importance, it is the third stage – in which the evidence is assessed – that can be the most challenging.