Two areas of criminology and criminal justice research (CCJ) receive regular attention in the academic literature – the underutilization of qualitative methods and the proper role of research in policy. This paper advances the understanding of both of these issues in the field of police scholarship. It presents the results of content and chi-square analyses of 88 empirical studies of US police published in top policing and CCJ journals. This study finds that the top policing and CCJ journals publish articles that use qualitative methods at vastly disproportionate rates than those using quantitative methods. Police-specific journals publish articles using mixed methods at a higher rate than CCJ journals. Data on practitioners-as-authors, articles’ funding sources and topics, and levels of law enforcement studied also inform considerations for police practitioners, police researchers, and collaborations between them.