Building Bridges Between Researchers and Practitioners

The study examined the prevalence of police practitioner-researcher partnerships in the U.S. and the factors that prevent or facilitate the development and sustainability of these partnerships. The authors identified current participation of law enforcement agencies in partnerships with researchers, characteristics of these agencies, and lessons learned. The authors surveyed a national sample of law enforcement agencies on the prevalence of partnerships and interviewed representatives from 89 partnerships. The authors conducted case studies on four model partnerships, which supported the production of videos to disseminate credible information to practitioners about successful partnerships.