《警察季刊》强调以政策为导向的研究，这是实践者和学者都感兴趣的课题。《警察季刊》是北美唯一出版的此类期刊，它力求同时出版与警察有关的定性和定量研究。所有的提交必须是原始的，并应调用科学的方法。除非在极少数情况下，描述性研究、议论文以及没有明确阐述和测试一个或多个实证研究问题的论文将不会发表。
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essays, and papers that do not formulate and explicitly test one or more empirical research questions will not be published.