EBP Hall of Fame
Sean Malinowski
Inducted August 2015
Nominated by James “Chip” Coldren, CNA, and Craig Uchida, Justice & Security Strategies, Inc.
Biography:
Dr. Sean Malinowski is the Chief of Staff for Police Chief Charlie Beck in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and Commander in the Office of Operations. Prior to his promotion he previously commanded LAPD’s Foothill Area Community Police Station where he led a force of 300 sworn and civilian staff. He was also the Commanding Officer of the LAPD’s Real-Time Analysis and Critical Response Division, which houses the Department’s Operations Center, Crime Analysis, and COMPSTAT functions. He also served as the Commanding Officer of Foothill and of Topanga patrol divisions in the San Fernando Valley. Malinowski joined the LAPD in 1994 and has worked patrol assignments in South Central Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley, and in the Westside beach community of Venice. As a sergeant, he worked Patrol, Internal Affairs, Training Division, and as the Executive Officer for former LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton.
Commander Malinowski holds a bachelor of science in public relations from Boston University and a doctorate in public administration from the University of Illinois.
Evidence-Based Research and Practice:
Commander Malinowski has been the primary coordinator and supporter of the Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Policing Initiative at LAPD since the LAPD SPI began in 2009. In this capacity he has supported evaluations of LAPD’s Los Angeles’ Strategic Extraction and Restoration Program, also known as “LASER” by Dr. Craig Uchida. Sean provided Dr. Uchida and his research team ready access to data, information systems, and analytic programs at LAPD and facilitated the implementation and evaluation of LASER with great commitment (see Operation LASER highlighted in a Smart Policing Spotlight Report).
Based on the initial success of Operation LASER, Sean expanded this approach to five additional police districts, as part of a plan to integrate evidence-based policing throughout the organization. Recently, Chief Beck publicly announced his intention to establish LASER and evidence-based policing as the standard throughout the Department.
In addition to Operation LASER, Dr. Malinowski has also been a strong proponent of using rigorous methodologies to test the effects of other interventions in the LAPD. For example, while he was Captain in Foothill Division, he implemented a randomized control trial to understand the effectiveness of the use of PredPol (a predictive analytic developed by Dr. Jeff Brantingham and his colleagues at UCLA). As Chief of Staff he is infusing the five-year LAPD Strategic Plan with research findings and is recommending the implementation of evidence-based programs such as focused deterrence and collective efficacy.
His careful and thoughtful work and his readiness to partner with researchers has been an important part of the implementation of evidence-based policing in the Los Angeles Police Department. As Chip Coldren noted in his nomination, evidence-based approaches have become a standard practice in the LAPD because of Commander Malinowski.
Publications and Projects Reflecting Inductee's Efforts:
- Smart Policing Spotlight Report
- Publication: Randomized controlled field trials of predictive policing
- NBC article: Cops Credit “Predictive Policing” for Zero Crime Day
- NBC Learn: Science Behind the News – Predictive Policing video
Quote from Commander Malinowski:
“If you’re going to do predictive policing, you can’t just dip your toe in the water. You have to jump all the way in…”
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