Log in
Pioneering research by the Universities' Police Science Institute (UPSI) has made police more effective at understanding and responding to crime and disorder. UPSI's work has provided an evidence base about how to engage effectively with communities so that policing interventions target those issues influencing how people think, feel and act about their safety. Key impacts have been: changing Home Office policy for the policing of antisocial behaviour across England and Wales; informing the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy for the UK and overseas and improving the outcomes of South Wales Police's Neighbourhood Policing Teams.
Improvements in the organisation and delivery of community safety by police and local authority-led partnerships have resulted from inter-related research studies conducted by a team at the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies. Research findings have significantly influenced national policy and professional policing and community safety practices. The research led to improvements in how important new reforms to policing powers and personnel have been implemented and in community safety delivered through partnerships. It also increased understanding of the benefits and limitations of policing partnerships, powers designed to tackle anti-social behaviour and the role of police community support officers in fostering safer communities.
Research into the history of British policing overseas, conducted at the Open University's International Centre for the History of Crime, Policing and Justice, resulted in Dr Georgina Sinclair acting as academic advisor to the Association of Chief Police Officers (International Affairs), the International Policing Assistance Board, and the Ministry of Defence Police.
As a result of the transfer of historical research findings and methodological expertise, the various agencies deploying police officers overseas now coordinate more effectively via an improved communications and media strategy. In addition a new set of principles and guidance for overseas deployments has been developed, with Sinclair serving as the sole academic member of the working group preparing this document.
The Unit's Criminal Justice group has carried out a significant body of research relating to youth disaffection, anti-social behaviour and policing. This led to Professor Tim Newburn being approached by The Guardian to establish a joint research project following the 2011 riots in England. The ensuing research achieved very wide reach via conventional print and other media, informing public understanding of the riots and challenging conventional wisdom about their causes. A wide range of public figures reacted to the research and the Home Secretary's response included the announcement of a formal review of police `stop and search' practice. This was published in July 2013, and in a parliamentary statement the Home Secretary said she anticipated significant reform of the use of these powers.
The University of Portsmouth research into effective use of the Cognitive Interview (CI) by police forces in the UK and overseas has led to recommendations for changes to training of police officers in this field throughout their careers being adopted in several countries across the world. The work, led by Dr Becky Milne, has also been used to inform the decision making processes of a variety of national policy reviews and professional bodies. Research has improved the standard of interviewing, particularly for sensitive investigations such as rape and child abuse.
Brookman's research has produced new insights into the nature and circumstances of homicide and homicide investigation. The first four pages on the Murder Investigation Manual, commonly viewed as the definitive guide on homicide investigation in Britain, are based on Brookman's research on the characteristics of homicide. The directives of the International Association of Chiefs of Police based in the United States (US) devote one or their top ten directives to Brookman's proposals on broadening outcome assessments. The Prince George's County Police Department in the US is currently considering implementing Brookman's proposals to include Family Liaison Officers as part of their process of homicide investigation.
The Design Against Crime research initiative provides leadership in the field of design-led, sustainable practice in crime prevention and community safety, demonstrating the following impact:
Safety and liberty — public goods delivered by the police — are important to every individual and essential to a civilised society. Professor Bowling has led a programme of theoretical and empirical research on the police power to stop and search people in public places, an important but controversial aspect of law enforcement. His research has clarified the meaning of fair and effective policing, and provided solutions to identified problems of disproportionality and transparency. Through his engagement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), police forces, civil liberties groups and communities, Professor Bowling's research has informed public understanding, enhanced police accountability and contributed directly to the improvement in police stop and search practices, thereby enhancing community safety and protecting fundamental human rights and civil liberties in the UK.
Drury's research on the psychological effects of crowd participation has provided new rationales that have changed the crowd and emergency management practices used by a number of bodies and institutions; the concepts and principles he has helped to develop have become part of their guidance literature. Specifically the impacts are in two areas. The first is the policing of crowds, where new guidance embodies recommendations from his research to reduce the likelihood of conflict. The second is psychosocial care for people affected by emergencies, where his research on informal resilience in crowds has contributed to the rationale for a new approach evident in NATO and the Department of Health guidance and training.
The death of Ian Tomlinson during the 2009 G20 summit protests in London led to a crisis in British Public Order Policing. Gorringe and Rosie drew on their ethnographic work on policing before, during and after a number of protest events in the UK to contribute to ongoing public debates and devise ways to minimise the risk of violence in police-protestor interactions. They have been interviewed by, or their research has been reported in, newspapers, radio or TV in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Greece, India, Romania and the UK. They have achieved impact on police thinking and practices by: