Debating policing research: a research council for crime and justice?

Unfashionable as it is to claim, there are parallels between policing and medicine. Professional practice in medicine has been built upon foundations laid down in universities, led by practitioner-academics. In medicine, we owe a debt to Sir William Osler, who in the face of few effective treatments and great uncertainty about 'what works' demanded an invasion of hospitals by universities. High quality research helped protect science based medicine from political fad and fashion, albeit imperfectly. (It took eight years between the publication of evaluations which found, convincingly, that clot busting drugs administered after a heart attack reduce death rates, and widespread adoption.) University infiltration of medical practice prevented enormous harm and saved countless lives.