Michigan State Police
Integrating Evidence-Based Practices Department-wide
Site LE Agency
Michigan State Police
Site Researcher
Merry Morash, Ph.D., Michigan State University
Site Focus
Organizational Change
SPI Strategy
Evidence-based policing
Site Cohort
2011
Site Profile
Large urban area of 56,538.90 sq. miles with a population of 9,884,129
Project Overview
The Michigan State Police (MSP) SPI project aimed to make agency-wide changes to successfully implement evidence-based policing (EBP) by identifying supports and barriers for EBP use, maintaining and increasing supports and reducing barriers, aligning regional/mobile policing with EBP, and promoting a learning organization that continually improved EBP use. The team received positive feedback about the value of having data accessible from the field, a capability that was nonexistent prior to the SPI project. MSP found that organizational change takes time and requires support from leadership, and sustainability can be achieved through changing policy and adopting new technology.
Methods and Findings
- The Michigan State Police lost 645 sworn police officers from 2005 to 2009, due to economic downturn.
- Surveys found that participation in Evidence-based policing (EBP) increases along with rank.
- 75 percent of non-sworn civilians had never been exposed to EBP, while 60 percent of sworn personnel had.
