Reducing Violent Crime through Improved Police Performance: An Experimental Evaluation of the Policing Leadership Academy

The proposed research asks whether equipping police managers with evidence-based tools and training can make the officers they oversee more effective at reducing violent crime and minimizing the harms of policing, both of which disproportionately burden economically and racially marginalized populations. Using a multi-site randomized controlled trial (RCT), we will evaluate a comprehensive education intervention for police managers, covering topics including strategic thinking, evidence-based crime prevention, building local partnerships, and constitutional policing. Police managers who oversee patrol operations in high-violence areas, drawn from agencies across the U.S., will be randomly invited to participate. We will measure outcomes using administrative data on violent crime and policing practices, and primary data from interviews on leadership and management practices. This proposal will support recruitment, randomization, data collection, analysis, and dissemination of results.