Citizen-Scientists and the Global Policing Database

• In Event: Evidence-Based Crime Policy I

Abstract

The Global Policing Database (GPD) is a web-based and searchable database that is designed to capture all published and unpublished experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations of policing interventions conducted since 1950. The GPD aims to increase the accessibility of high quality research evidence for use by researchers and policing agencies, and to facilitate systematic reviews of policing. Populating the GPD has been resource-intensive. The GPD uses systematic search and screening strategies and its early population has relied on an extensive in-house internship program. Now, with support from the UK College of Policing to complete this ambitious task, we look to the cloud. In this paper, we report on the development of an online citizen-scientist portal to expedite the population of the GPD, designed in collaboration with the Cochrane Collaboration Cochrane Crowd. We discuss the challenges of transitioning from a face-to-face model of training and supervision for known screeners, to an online algorithmic crowd-based model—including the challenges of decision reliability and crowd engagement—and report on the progress of the GPD in its crowd-sourced form.

Authors

• Angela Higginson, Queensland University of Technology

• Elizabeth Eggins, University of Queensland

• Lorraine Mazerolle, University of Queensland