Establishing a Research Partnership: The Forest Park (OH) Police Division and the University of Cincinnati

• NCJ Number: 189030
• Author(s): Lawrence F. Travis III Ph.D.; Kenneth D. Hughes
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 38 pages
• Grant Number(s): 96-IJ-CX-0088
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
• Corporate Author: University of Cincinnati
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/NCJRS; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Dataset may be archived by the NIJ Data Resources Program at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data

Annotation

In January 1997, the Forest Park Police Division (Ohio) and the Center for Criminal Justice Research of the University of Cincinnati established a locally initiated research partnership; this report describes the development and operation of the partnership.

Abstract

The partnership continued through June 1998. In the first year of operation, the partnership experienced a 75-percent turnover in personnel. Despite wholesale change in the command staff of the police division, the researchers completed the primary research task, which was a survey of community policing and crime prevention officers. The survey sought information about the kinds of community problems encountered, the solutions used by officers, and officer perceptions of the adequacy of their training and preparation for their assignments. The new command staff asked that a second task be completed, i.e., the drafting of a feasibility study of geographic crime analysis for the police division. This second task was also completed. In retrospect, the initial partnership between the Forest Park Police Division and the University of Cincinnati was too dependent on the personal relationships between the partners. The partnership did not create an interorganizational relationship that transcended the personnel involved. Further, the work of the partnership was confined to the interests of those persons, rather than to topics of fundamental importance to either organization. Thus, with the turnover in personnel, the partnership itself was jeopardized. The personal relationships between the police personnel and primary researcher survived, and they continued to cooperate on a number of tasks. Although the products of the partnership's research had been and will be useful to the police division, the partnership did not improve the research capacity of the division as an organization. Division personnel are still dependent on outside researchers for most research tasks. Appended reports on the two research projects