Forensic Science Understanding by Police Managers: New Opportunities to Re-think Its Involvement in Policing

While police chiefs are the main managers in policing, this chapter also underlines their role in the provision of forensic science, hardly known to be able to help define policing. A recent survey of high-ranking officers of various police forces in Quebec showed that police managers tend to focus mainly, if not exclusively, on the ability of forensic science to serve justice. It is therefore argued that the police managers’ conception of forensic science may hinder its potential to be proactively implemented in policing models. This situation should be addressed, as a more holistic application of forensic science could offer relevant insights to policing, including threat identification and resource allocations.