The mantra of evidence-based policy (EBP) suggests that endeavours to implement evidence-based policing will produce better outcomes. However there is dissonance between the rhetoric of EBP and the actuality of policing policy. This disjuncture is critically analysed using the case study of illicit drugs policing. The dissonance may be ameliorated by taking into account the policing context, and lessons from the extant evidence-based medicine, research translation and policy processes literature. Furthermore a developmental pathway notion suggests that it is only once research is fully embedded within the policy culture that critical reflections on the role of evidence become possible.