Police Knowledge Sharing Capabilities.

Abstract: In this report we present the results from three studies of knowledge sharing within police organisations and with three other stakeholders (other forces in the same country, the public and forces in other countries). In the first study, 152 interviews were conducted with members from 17 police organisations drawn from all of the 10 countries involved in the COMPOSITE project. In the second study ten in-depth case studies of international knowledge sharing involving police organisations were carried out. The third study involved conducting a survey of 481 police members drawn from the ten member countries with the aim of developing an organisational knowledge sharing diagnostic tool. We present the findings in terms of the perceived effectiveness of knowledge sharing in different domains, the most frequent types of knowledge shared, the most and least effective methods of knowledge sharing and the most common perceived barriers and facilitators for knowledge sharing both within police organisations and between the aforementioned stakeholders. Analyses are summarised across all countries as well as pointing out differences between countries with concluding comments highlighting the main themes and recommendations emerging from the analyses. The findings are integrated into a conceptual framework of ten types of factors found to influence knowledge sharing effectiveness in different domains (staff capabilities, process capabilities, technology capabilities, financial resources, information characteristics, timeliness of information sharing, organizational differences, political differences, public factors and international factors). Practical recommendations arising from this highlight the importance of building up the human factors of motivation, trust, knowledge, skills and experience of police personnel and facilitating methods for direct contact between different police and non-police stakeholders as a crucial set of knowledge sharing capabilities for police organisations. A new diagnostic tool designed specifically for police organisations (EKSPO-DI) based on this research is presented in this report as a means of helping benchmark knowledge sharing performance and areas for development.