The police-science landscape in Belgium and the Netherlands. A comparison.

• In Event: The interplay of Police and Science: what can we learn from each other?

Abstract

The relationship between police and science is often tense. On the one hand, police organizations appear to be opening the doors to collaboration with science more often, but on the other hand, police organizations also seem wary of the role of science: contrary, critical views are not always desirable. But times are changing. The police increasingly indicate that they want to draw on a range of sources and want to use science as an important provider of validation, shying away from so-called fact-free policing. Science can also serve as a mirror and an opportunity for reflection. It can also be an interpreter towards others, explaining police practices without necessarily validating or condemning them. Science can on occasion even serve as a mouthpiece of the police, defending the necessity of the organisation in a modern democratic society. But it is not clear whether the police mainly regard science as a supporting instrument, discarding it if it is not fully supporting preconceived notions, or rather as an essential pillar on which it depends to guide future practices. This would hypothetically lead to a spectrum of different relationships between police and science, ranging from business/instrumental to synergistic/symbiotic. In this article we give conceptual insights into these relationships, and from an empirical standpoint compare the police-science landscape of the Netherlands with that of Belgium.

Authors

• Monica den Boer, Leiden University

• Joery Matthys, Leiden University