Policing lab

With support from Innovation, Impact and Business’ (IIB) Impact and Partnership Development Manager Jess Hurrell, the Policing and Evidence Group secured a £250,000 Police Knowledge Fund in 2019, allowing the Policing Lab to form.

SSIS

Since then, IIB has helped facilitate the group on a more strategic level; linking them to defence, policing, and security portfolios, and bringing further funding opportunities to the table.

In 2019, the ESRC IAA Strategic Initiative Fund awarded six Policing Lab projects funding, allowing the team to promote research collaborations with Devon & Cornwall Police (DCP) and influence evidence-based policing policy.

Police Serving Modelling Associates Pilot Programme In 2016, PenCLAHRC (now PenARC) launched the Health Service Modelling Associates (HSMA) Programme. Here, NHS staff learn data analytics and computer skills, which address an essential question within their organisation.

Exeter Policing, Evidence and Research Translation team, part of the Policing and Evidence Group at the University of Exeter.

POLICING LAB: WORKING WITH POLICE TO SHAPE POLICY AND PRACTICE Ever wonder how the police form their policies and strategies? Meet the University of Exeter Policing Lab! 24 YEAR IN REVIEW 20-21

By working alongside Devon and Cornwall Police (DCP), the Policing Lab work to understand and improve policing policy, practice and professionalism, through innovative data use and the development of police data collection.

Led by co-principle investigators Katharine Boyd and Brian Rappert, the Policing Lab now has more than 60 academics across the University and a large group of officers and staff in DCP. Together, they facilitate the co-production of rigorous research and promote evidence-based policing strategies.

In this project, run by Daniel Chalk, Alexis Poole and Iain Lang, PenARC has teamed up with the Policing Lab to pilot this as a Police Serving Modelling Associates (PSMA) programme. DCP officers have learnt data wrangling techniques, network analytics, sentiment analysis, and text analysis to help further inform their policing work in-house.

“In my opinion, this is the shining star of the Policing Lab,” commented Katharine Boyd, Policing Lab PI. “It went so well they will now be running it so that police and health service professionals will attend the course together, with long-term funding.”

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The use of force within Policing Following her PhD research into taser use in England and Wales (2013-17), Dr Abi Dymond joined a police-led strategic review into reporting force used in policing. Her survey results and recommendations contributed directly to the new national use of force reporting system introduced in April 2017.

Abi then teamed up with Katharine Boyd, Alexis Poole, G.J. Melendez-Torres, Nicolas Pugeault, and Glen Mayhew through the Policing Lab. Together, they were awarded an ESRC Future Research Leader’s Award (2017-2020) to pursue Abi’s work looking to the police’s use of force.

Initially, this project had hoped to use bodyworn video to assess (de)escalation in police use of force.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the team had to adapt their plan.

The team used police forms and interviews, searching for trajectories on when and why an officer red-dotted with a taser, verses when they aimed and discharged.

This project has led to the publication of data analysis related to the use of police force.

Connecting Communities The Connecting Communities (C2) programme of work is a wider Policing Lab project. Codesigned by Robin Durie and Hazel Stuteley in 2004, based on research by Katrina Wyatt (UEMS), C2 is a unique learning and delivery programme that seeks to transform our most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, reduce health and social inequalities, and create the conditions for healthful behaviours to emerge.

They wanted to discover what problems could be coming over the horizon in the post-covid situation and what opportunities could be born from this.

C2 has liaised with four community partners in Devon and Cornwall, researching how residents have dealt with the pandemic and how they wanted the police and community relations to develop post-covid.

Their research was fed back to the police force, and their findings became a major part of the strategic review.

Robin said: “We’ve been able to do research which has translated into a practised way of working. This has made a difference to people’s way of life – both people who deliver services and for some of our most disadvantaged and marginalised communities.”

In the last few weeks, C2 has also been contacted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to collaborate on a programme being delivered in the western pacific region, informing WHO on how to conduct community engagement in the future.

Connecting Communities.

Working with over 30 districts throughout Britain, the C2 approach understands that the dynamic for change is very specific to the local community. There is no one-size-fits-all approach that can create the same positive impact in an area.

The team has recently been working with Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit to connect communities in Glasgow and Ayrshire during the pandemic.

“With everything moving online and people having to socially distance, the idea of connecting communities and creating engagement through face-to-face meetups wasn’t an option,” explained Robin Durie, co-founder of C2.

DCP also contacted the team during the first phase of the lockdown.

26 YEAR IN REVIEW 20-21

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE POLICING LAB? The Policing Lab is currently working on generating new funding initiatives to continue with its impactful work. Additionally, they are in the process of adding a series of seminars to the Policing Lab, giving people the opportunity to discuss their projects while keeping communication flowing throughout the lab.

If you want to learn more about the Policing Lab projects, you can visit their web page HERE. BACK TO CONTENTS 27