The McDonaldization of Police-Academic Partnerships: Observations on ‘What Works’ and ‘What Doesn’t Work’

A strategically driven impetus for police and academics to collaborate has emerged in recent years in the UK. Examples of collaborations include the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR); the N8 collaboration between police forces and universities in the North of England; the Universities’ Police Science Institute (UPSI) in Wales, the East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC), the Society of Evidence Based Policing (SEBP), and various police-university collaborations funded via the College of Policing Innovation Fund in 2014, and the College of Policing/HEFCE Policing Knowledge Fund in 2015. The College of Policing promote the use of knowledge and research to develop an evidence-based approach to policing, for instance hosting the ‘What Works Centre for Crime Reduction’.