Date and time: Wednesday 10 June 4.30pm - 5.30pm AEST
Topic: Trials and tribulations of experimentation and evaluation for innovation in an operational environment
Venue: Via Zoom. Details will be emailed to registrants just prior to the start time
Presenter: Detective Superintendent David Cowan | Victoria Police
Register online by: 9 June 2026

Event description:

Using evaluation and other evidence to inform operational innovation on the surface, seems to be a ‘no brainer’. But the reality is that this often challenges the status quo and conventional policing approaches. The fact that ‘we have always done it that way’, won’t cut it in the future. Nor will a reliance on policing craft, convention or intuitive based strategies be sufficient. How can police prevent crime rather than just react to it when it occurs? How do we use precious police resources in the most effective ways? How can we enhance the legitimacy of police in the eyes of the public and improve our response to victims? How can we make progress on the frontline and how do we know if our strategies actually work?

The presenter will draw practical insights from using data, intelligence and leading operational evaluative experiments within Victoria Police. This includes reflections and learnings from a range of operational strategies including:
• a trial using focused deterrence to reduce violence on the streets
• analysis showing the concentration of crime on specific streets
• an intelligence-led approach to deploying police to those micro locations
• a trial to increase trust and confidence in the police during COVID
• a trial to reduce failure to appear at court using behavioural science.

The presenter will also reflect on the leadership attributes required to challenge the status quo in policing using evaluation, data and evidence. The presenter will share insights from his Churchill Fellowship, where he interviewed over 80 senior police and academics globally. He is an advocate for greater innovation to support frontline and mid-ranking police to deliver field trial forms of evaluation that are harm-focused, intelligence-led and evidence-based.

Presenter details:

David is the President of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing (ANZSEBP), which comprises of senior police from every police agency in Australia (approximately 4000 members). Cowan holds a Masters of Criminology from the University of Cambridge and has completed the Senior Leaders in Government Program at Harvard. In 2022, he completed a prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship on EBP globally. He has received several awards including:
- 2019 Distinguished Police Scientist (ANZSEBP)
- 2023 Evidence Based Policing Hall of Fame (US, Centre for Evidence Based Crime Policy)
- 2023 he received the Australian Institute of Criminology Gold award for violence prevention
- 2024 Sir Robert Peel Medal (UK, University of Cambridge)
- 2025 inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology.

If this seminar is recorded, it will be available on the member portal only.

This free event has been organised by the VIC Regional Network of the AES. Our seminar series provides an opportunity for you to meet with AES members and others in the evaluation community and to share and learn from the experiences of fellow evaluators. Please also check your email address is correct on your registration form before submitting. 

Session start times:

• VIC, NSW, QLD, ACT, TAS: 4.30pm

• SA, NT: 4.00pm

• WA: 2.30pm

• New Zealand: 6.30pm

For other time zones please go to https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Please ensure you have access to your email address just prior to the start time to access Zoom details. Please also check your email address is correct on your registration form before submitting. Thanks.