How do German and French police forces know (differently)?

Bringing together different knowledge cultures through ethnographic explorations

Abstract

This research project studies to what extent and how, within Germany and France, knowledge-led policing tools and systems can make their way into various epistemic cultures of police units, and how these tools and systems are employed by police to respond to new demands of problem orientated, preventive and proactive policing.
CODISP (Création de Concepts et d’Outils pour le Développement de l’Intelligence de Sécurité Publique) is introduced as a cultural and social science project on recent forms of knowledge management work in law enforcement organisations. The aim is to analyse the way knowledge management in law enforcement (its methods and forms, as well as the means and degree of knowledge sharing), and knowledge-based law enforcement work (in regard to social environments and types of tort), interact. The project traces and tries to understand the specific workflows occurring in the everyday work of law enforcement staff. Moreover, the project specifically looks into the question of what role innovative concepts (such as ‘intelligence-led policing’) play in police work. The outcomes of this research will be translated into training material and, based on this, is considered useful for solving or preventing (new) police problems.