The Lum and Telep Receptivity to Research Survey

The Lum and Telep officer receptivity survey is designed to assess the extent to which officers comprehend, use, and are open to research evidence on police practices and tactics. While scholars and practitioners have partnered for years in generating research evidence related to strategies and tactics to improve the fairness and effectiveness of policing, there is little hope for evidence-based policing without support and demand for this research from practitioners. The receptivity survey is designed to help agencies assess where their officers, supervisors and command staff stand in terms of their knowledge and support of evidence-based policing and to identify officer views and beliefs that may impede or facilitate advancing evidence-based practices in policing. The survey not only allows for comparisons before and after knowledge-integration innovations within agencies, but also comparisons across departments.

The survey consists of five sections and takes about 15 minutes to complete. The first section assesses officers’ knowledge base about evidence-based policing and policing evaluation research. The second section examines officers’ perceptions and views of science, as well as officers’ practices and tactics. In the third section, officers are asked questions regarding their view of innovation, new ideas, and outsiders. Higher education in policing is the focus of the fourth section. Finally, officers are asked demographic information in the fifth section.