Superintendent Dave Cowan has been with Victoria Police for 26 years and is President of ANZSEBP. He has experience as a detective and a prosecutor and has lead a range of reforms in the summary criminal justice system. He currently manages the Community Safety Division within the Corporate Strategy and Operational Improvement Department. The Division comprises of 5 Units including the Drug and Alcohol Strategy Unit, the Victims Advisory Unit, the Safer Communities Unit, Diversion Alignment Project and the newly formed Policing Innovation and Research Unit.
Prior to moving to the current role, Dave lead a range of organisational wide reviews including a review of Counter Terrorism leading to the establishment of the CT Command. He lead a review of persons in police custody which resulted in the reclassification of all custody facilities state-wide and cells upgrades at 80 locations. He lead a governance review of Family Violence which resulted in the establishment of the first Family Violence Command in Australia. He also reviewed volume crime scene services in Victoria Police and implemented the Frontline Volume Crime Strategy. Dave recently lead the development of the Victoria Police Corporate Plan 2016 -2018 which shapes the future direction of the organisation aligned to the Blue Paper.
Dave has a Graduate Diploma in Executive Leadership and in 2013 was awarded the Australian Institute of Police Management, Australasian Policing Scholarship where he undertook studies at the JFK Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Presentations
Evidence Based Policing: A global investigation. A nice to have or an inevitable shift in policing?
Being evidence based on the surface, seems to be a ‘no brainer’. But the reality is that evidence, research and in particular scientific rigour, challenges the status quo and conventional approaches in policing. 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. Although many agree with the principle, the challenge is how to operationalise EBP and make it relevant to the frontline and management. The presenter will share insights from a global investigation into EBP from a recent Churchill Fellowship where he interviewed over 80 senior police and academics. This Fellowship overlayed with his operational experience, casts light how EBP can influence the broader direction of policing in the future. The presenter will draw practical insights from leading operational evidence-based trials within Victoria Police. This includes a trial using focussed deterrence to reduce serious public violence, a hot spots trial using geo spatial analysis to target concentrations of crime, a trial to increase trust in police during COVID through procedural justice and a trial to reduce warrants of arrest through behavioural science.
Targeting serious public violence – a focussed deterrence trial in Victoria Australia
In 2021, post extensive COVID19 lockdowns in Victoria Australia, an evidence-based trail was developed to proactively prevent serious violence in public. A focussed deterrence strategy was implemented overlayed with a procedural justice approach in engaging offenders who had a history of serious public violence. The strategy tested whether proactive police engagement in delivering a deterrence message face to face and engaging family to enhance social control, reduced the rate of future offending. The strategy also included the offer of support and referral services and a ‘nudge’ letter to encourage offenders to desist from future offending.
A complex search was undertaken across all offenders in Southern Metropolitan Region of Melbourne. To be eligible offenders must have been involved in multiple incidents of serious public violence in the preceding 3 years. This included public offences such as carjacking, home invasion, armed robbery, conduct endangering life and serious indictable assaults causing injury. The search identified 1000 eligible offenders. A randomised trial was developed, and 500 offenders were randomly selected for treatment and control.
Data across both groups was analysed across a number of offender characteristics prior to implementation with no statistical differences identified. A 500 day follow up period was undertaken showing statistically significant reductions (30%) in repeat offending in the engaged group. Further analysis of the top 18 offence categories was undertaken showing reductions in the rate of offending in every category.
This approach to focussed deterrence varies from other approaches adopted including the ‘call in’ approach. Nevertheless, it utilises the pillars of focussed deterrence in increasing the perception of risk of apprehension overlayed with a procedural justice approach and provides a model for replication in the future. This trial importantly adds to the body of empirical knowledge in the field of focussed deterrence.