Exploring research on police wellness, training, public trust, and joint mental health response.
By Laura Newcombe
The Canadian Police Knowledge Network (CPKN) has published its 2026 Annual Literature Review.
It provides an evidence-based summary of the trends across peer-reviewed, open-access research offering valuable insights to help shape police education and professional development.
The four main themes identified in this review are police wellness, police training, police legitimacy and public trust, and joint response teams for policing mental health. The thread connecting these themes is the need to translate research into hands-on learning, demonstrated skills, and results you can see.
“This year’s review highlights the issues shaping policing and public safety conversations across Canada and internationally,” says Drew Pitchforth, Innovation Advisor and Research Arm Lead at CPKN. “Our goal is to help translate emerging research into practical insights that support learning, professional development, and informed decision-making across the public safety community.”
One area of focus is on mental health crisis response as a joint effort across systems, rather than falling solely to police as first responders. It highlights that effective co-response models depend on clear roles, shared understandings of risk, legal and confidentiality boundaries, coordinated service pathways, and sufficient downstream care. Simply placing police and clinicians on the same team will not guarantee success.
The review also highlights the importance of making sure learning transfers to operations, factors that impact public trust in police, and the need to address police mental health and physical readiness as a long-term, organization-wide responsibility.
“Understanding what the evidence says isn’t enough,” says Pitchforth. “We need to translate it into practical, observable actions that make a measurable difference for police and the communities they serve.”
To access the full Annual Literature Review, visit: Knowledge Translation – Canadian Police Knowledge Network
