Mike Bush

In my training sessions with multi-disciplinary domestic violence response teams, I regularly use the Power and Control Wheel as a foundational tool to deepen understanding of the complex dynamics of abuse. It offers a clear visual representation of the tactics abusers use to dominate and control their victims, beyond just physical violence. It helps professionals from law enforcement, advocacy, healthcare, and child welfare see the broader pattern of coercion at play. When working directly with survivors, the wheel is also a powerful resource; it validates their experiences, puts language to what they’ve endured, and often sparks a critical shift in self-awareness and safety planning. It bridges the gap between theory and reality, making it an invaluable tool for education and empowerment.

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How do you prove your new policing program actually works, whether it’s a new patrol strategy or, say, assigning someone a mech suit? 🦾 You’ve got a problem. Maybe it’s staffing. Or clearance rates. Or crime ticking up. Or community trust dipping. So you roll out a solution. It could be a new piece of tech, hot spots policing, a co-responder model, a revamped recruitment pitch, a new interview method, or even a futuristic mech suit. You launch the initiative. There’s a ribbon cutting. Maybe a press release. Now what? How do you really know it’s working? Enter: Causal research (aka how to separate real impact from coincidence). A common approach is to look at outcomes before and after the program. If crime drops after you launch it, success, right? Maybe. But maybe not. How do you know something else isn’t driving that change? Seasonal trends, new leadership, a viral TikTok about locking your car doors. There’s a lot that can influence your outcomes. That’s where causal research comes in. It helps you test whether your initiative caused the change, not just showed up at the same time. The gold standard is a randomized controlled trial (RCT). In an RCT, you randomly assign the program to some units, areas, or officers, and keep others as-is. For example: ◾ Randomly assigning some patrol areas to receive hot spot enforcement, while others continue as usual ◾ Randomly assigning some officers to use new tech, while others do not Then you compare the results between groups. Without that comparison? You're basically judging a cooking contest with only one participant. Because assignment was random, you reduce bias. For example, officers who volunteer to test new tools may already be high performers. That skews your results unless you account for it. A few tips for getting started: ➡️ Bring in a researcher early. They can help design, set up, and analyze the evaluation ➡️ Look for natural opportunities to randomize. Piloting a new tech tool but don’t have enough for everyone? Perfect time to assign it randomly. Rolling out a community program in phases? Be intentional about where and when to get a valid comparison. ➡️ RCTs are ideal but not always doable. A good researcher can help you pick the best approach for your situation Bottom line: Don’t set it and forget it. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth testing. Causal research helps you figure out what’s actually moving the needle and what might just be noise. Not sure where to start? Most researchers are happy to chat, even if you don’t have a contract ready. (Talking about evaluation is basically our version of small talk.) Have you found creative ways to test your initiatives? Let’s share ideas.

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“What gets measured gets done.” But in policing, are we measuring what really matters? Trust. Purpose. Psychological safety. These are the foundations of high-performing teams and yet, they’re rarely on the scorecard. Instead, we track arrests, citations, and response times. Not because they tell the whole story, but because they’re easy. It’s time to rethink what performance really looks like. Not just for the public we serve, but for the people we lead. What if leadership, teamwork, and culture were weighted just as heavily as clearance rates? What if we measured how great a place your agency is to work—and what that says about your leadership? 👇 Click the link in the first comment to read the full post on what policing can learn from others—and how we can start measuring what truly matters.

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Another great example of collaboration. Today was the first meeting of our new Public Safety- Property Standards Compliance Team PSCT- is a multi agency enforcement team mandated to enhance health, safety and security of communities, including sense of safety, by addressing properties that generally : have significant detrimental impact to surrounding areas, pose a risk to tenants and surrounding residents, have created significant workload to City Services; and traditional attempts by any one of the City departments has not resulted in changes or improvements.

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