Summary
"This essay provides a description of the author's experiences working as an “embedded criminologist” (a term coined by Petersilia 2008) in the Boston Police Department (BPD) between 2007 and 2013. In contrast to more traditional academic-practitioner research partnerships, becoming embedded within a police department involved taking the step from external partner to internal resource. Embedded criminologists maintain their scientific objectivity and independence in carrying out scientific inquires within police departments. However, embedded criminologists also function as an important part of the police organization by collaborating on the development of programs, through problem analysis and evaluation research and by interjecting scientific evidence into policy conversations to guide police executive decision making. The author's experiences with the BPD suggest that embedding criminologists in police departments is highly beneficial to police and academics alike."--Includes text from page 2.