《警察季刊》強調以政策為導向的研究，這是實踐者和學者都感興趣的課題。《警察季刊》是北美唯一出版的此類期刊，它力求同時出版與警察有關的定性和定量研究。所有的提交必須是原始的，并應調用科學的方法。除非在極少數情況下，描述性研究、議論文以及沒有明確闡述和測試一個或多個實證研究問題的論文將不會發表。

Police Quarterly emphasizes policy-oriented research of interest to both practitioners and academics. The only such journal published in North America, Police Quarterly seeks to publish both qualitative and quantitative police-related research. All submissions must be original and should invoke the scientific method. Except in rare circumstances, descriptive research, argumentative essays, and papers that do not formulate and explicitly test one or more empirical research questions will not be published.