Linda Duxbury,
Determining the value of community based police teams

Determining the value of community based police teams

Principal Investigator: Linda Duxbury, Management
Funder: SSHRC Partnership Development
Partner: MITACS

In an era where the costs of policing are constantly under scrutiny, the time has come for policing organizations to re-evaluate the services they provide. To do this, these organizations need to answer questions relating to the value these services create in the communities they serve and change the focus of the conversation from “what does this service cost?” to “what value does this service provide to key stakeholders?”  In the summer of 2019, in response to pressure from the community, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) decided to reintroduce community-oriented police (COP) teams back into three Ottawa neighborhoods. We will undertake a longitudinal (January 2020 to December 2021) multi-method (quantitative, qualitative, and ethnographic data) case study to identify the value COP teams provide to a variety of key stakeholders. Of particular note is the application of Social Return on Investment (SROI) techniques (along with the more traditional cost benefit approach) in the proposed evaluation process. SROI, a methodology that emerged from the not-for-profit sector, helps researchers identify sources of value outside of those considered through traditional valuation techniques, such as cost-benefit analysis.