ABSTRACT
This chapter applies insights from virtue ethics to critique the concept of evidence-based policing. It identifies tensions between virtues and this account of evidence, and also develops some useful directions for future research using stories. The authors' goal is to move the conversation about policing and "evidence" forward so it is not suffocated by an overly simplistic and reductionist picture of how one learn about the world, or how this learning can inform practice. In doing so, consistent with a virtue perspective, the authors underline the central role of ethics and situated expertise in policing. The most obvious, distinguishing feature of "evidence-based" policing is that it is derived from the model of evidence-based medicine (Sherman 1998), an approach that seeks to inform clinical judgements about the care of individual patients. Restating the importance of stories in policing is helpful in developing our ideas about virtue and taking them forward into research.
