What we do
Evidence-Based Practice
Independent evaluation and analyst training for police services and public-safety agencies.
Agencies are under increasing pressure to do more with less and withstand intense public scrutiny. GCG Evidence-Based Practice replaces guesswork with tested evidence, so you can deploy resources where they work and account for the results.
Dr Michael Newman, Director of Evidence-Based Practice, and Dr Darren Green lead the practice. Both hold research posts alongside their consortium work.
The offer
- What it is
- Rigorous evaluation, capability building and technical training that replace guesswork with defensible evidence.
- Why it matters
- Programmes get funded because they were funded last year. When the decision is challenged — by a board, a minister or the press — precedent is not an answer.
- How we deliver it
- The GCG Lifecycle (gauge the problem, craft the response, govern for impact), led by practitioners who also hold research posts.
- What to expect
- Evaluations you can put in front of a board, a minister or the public, and your own analysts able to produce the next one without us.
Led by our Experts
We have sourced the world’s best policing and emergency services SMEs. Evidence-Based Practice is led by Dr Michael Newman and Dr Darren Green.
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GCG Consortium
Australia
Dr Michael Newman
GCG Director of Evidence-Based Practice
A 2023 Churchill Fellow for cybercrime and Secretary of the Australia & New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing, after 32 years in policing. His work on evidence-based practice has been recognised by the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy and the American Society of Criminology.
Skills & focus
- Evidence-based policing
- Cybercrime
- Evaluation
- Data analysis
Years of service 32+
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GCG Consortium
Australia
Dr Darren Green
Consortium member
A serving Queensland Police Service Senior Sergeant and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Queensland, with a PhD on the spatial and temporal patterning of random breath testing as a crime control strategy. Named Distinguished Police Scientist by the Australia & New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing in 2024 and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology in 2025.
Skills & focus
- Evidence-based policing
- Spatial analysis
- Crime prevention
- Problem-oriented policing
- Digital innovation
Delivered by our Experts 1 supporting member
The GCG Lifecycle
The Lifecycle takes an engagement from first analysis through implementation to governance that lasts after we leave.
- Gauge. We analyse your data and tell you what the problem actually is, rather than what it has been assumed to be.
- Craft — crafting the response. Interventions and frameworks designed to be scientifically sound and workable on the ground.
- Govern — governing for impact. Governance and monitoring that give you defensible data to measure performance and adjust as you go.
A dedicated Evidence-Based Practice site
The full service catalogue and the Safer Places detail move to ebp.globalconsortiumgroup.com when it launches. Until then, ask us for either directly.
What we bring to your agency
Four services. Two of them tell you whether something you fund is working; two build the skills to answer that yourself next time.
Capability 01
Programme and product evaluation
Independent evaluation of the programmes you already fund, so you can stop the ones that are not working and put the money into the ones that are.
Programme and product evaluation Defensible evaluation of programmes, products and pilots.
What it is
We evaluate the programmes you already run and say plainly which of them work. We build the evidence case that moves an at-risk pilot onto permanent funding, validate products for industry partners, and audit how far an agency's use of evidence has matured.
Why it matters
Agencies routinely fund programmes on precedent rather than proof, and promising pilots die for want of defensible evidence. Independent, rigorous evaluation is what separates what works from what merely persists.
What you get
An evaluation report your board can act on, with the priorities in order: what to stop funding, what to expand, and what the evidence does not yet support.
Safer Places Evidence-based security audits using the S.A.F.E. methodology.
What it is
Evidence-based security audits for retail and commercial environments, using our S.A.F.E. (Situational Assessment and Framework for Environments) methodology: criminological theory applied as practical, data-driven security strategy.
Why it matters
Most commercial security investment is driven by incident reaction and vendor persuasion rather than evidence about how the built environment actually shapes crime.
What you get
A written audit of the site and a security plan in priority order, with the evidence for each measure and what it is expected to prevent.
Capability 02
Capability & Training
We train your analysts and brief your executives, so the next evaluation does not need us.
Capability & Implementation Training, analyst bootcamps and executive decision support.
What it is
Practitioners do the teaching. We run analyst bootcamps inside your organisation, brief your executives on how to commission evidence and read what comes back, and hand over tools that connect published research to the decisions your people make each week.
Why it matters
Evidence-based practice fails when it stays in a report. It succeeds when the agency's own people have the skills, structures and executive backing to keep doing it after the engagement ends.
What you get
Your own analysts trained to run the analysis and defend it, your executives able to commission evidence and read what comes back, and the tools they use, which stay with you.
Technical Skills Training R, QGIS and Power BI, taught by public-safety practitioners.
What it is
Statistical analysis with R, geospatial analysis with QGIS, and dashboards with Power BI — every module grounded in evidence-based practice and taught by practitioners.
Why it matters
Generic data training teaches tools without context. Analysts in public safety need to know not just how to run the analysis, but which questions matter operationally and how to present findings decision-makers will act on.
What you get
Analysts who can run a statistical test in R, map a hotspot in QGIS and build a Power BI dashboard a commander will actually use.
Why us?
Dr Darren Green is an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and his PhD is on how the built environment affects crime. Dr Michael Newman is a 2023 Churchill Fellow for cybercrime, Secretary of the Australia & New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing, and has received awards from the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy and the American Society of Criminology. Client engagements are confidential by default. References are available in direct conversation.