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From the Editor-in-Chief

It is a great pleasure to present this Special Issue (SI), Contemporary Approaches to Policing Research in Australia, which Professor James R. P. Ogloff has prepared for Police Practice and Research: An International Journal (PPR) with the assistance of Dr Stephane Shepherd. The Guest Editor comments that the SI ‘features the latest research in contemporary Australian Policing’. Current and innovative academic police research is what PPR seeks to bring to its global community of readers who represent a wide spectrum of police practitioners, researchers, policy makers and those who are interested in the latest developments and trends in the world of policing. Readers will note that the ‘Aims and scope’ of PPR is to present current and innovative police research. Further the journal aspires to improve cooperation between those who are active in the field and those who are active in academic research. Glancing through the affiliations and profiles of a score of the authors involved in the six articles and two reviews, it will be crystal clear that apart from being academics they have vast familiarity and knowledge in the practical aspects of various issues highlighted in the SI through their work in such agencies as the National Center for Education and Training in Addiction, Center for Mental Health and Well-being, Institute of Mental Health, Center for Forensic Behavioral Science, Non-Government Agency Providing Employee Assistance Program Services and so on. As the Guest Editor Ogloff aptly observes, ‘the articles address a host of diverse topics’ and he eloquently echoes the primary mission of PPR as he points out that ‘they have the aim to understand and improve the overall efficacy of policing practice’. Dissemination of best practices, improving the quality of life through innovative police work and enhancing police professionalization lie at the very heart of PPR. Rightly, Professor Ogloff adds, ‘the selection of the articles underscores the scope and practice-oriented nature of policing research in Australia’. I am tempted to point out that this SI on ‘Contemporary Approaches to Policing Research in Australia’ is the third consecutive country-specific issue. It began with ‘Police Reform Initiatives: The Brazilian Experience’ by Skogan (2013) who, like Guest Editor Ogloff, deals with country-specific efforts (Brazil in this instance). In this vast South American country, the efforts are directed to ‘tackle inefficiency, ineffectiveness, unresponsiveness, authoritarian structure, immunity to new ideas, and reputation for corruption and violence that plague policing in Brazil’ (2013, p. 276). This SI was followed by another country-specific SI, ‘Trends in Israeli Policing: Terrorism, Community, Victimization, and Crime Control’ (Weisburd, Hasisi, & Jonathan-Zamir, 2014) which, too, as the Editors comment, ‘reports on the advancement of police research in Israel’. They add that ‘there is much to learn about the police enterprise by looking to Israel’. These three country-specific issues teach us a great deal about the police enterprise.