Evidence-based policing in Canada

Evidence-based policy has become a consistent term of art across the landscape of public administration and public sector management. Also referred to as evidence-informed or knowledge-based policy development, what is generally being invoked are reliable approaches to policy formulation grounded on factual bases, as opposed to subjective renderings which may accord with directions that have appeal to particular constituencies or support approaches that satisfy economic or fiscal imperatives that satisfy specific " clients" of government systems. In recent years the evidencebased approach has become an explicit feature of research being conducted in relation to policing in Canada and abroad. Lawrence Sherman (1998), a former director of the US Police Foundation, has defined evidence-based policing as: