A first research centre to be focused on meeting the policing challenges faced by global cities is to be set up at University College London (UCL), due to open early next year.
Plans for the new independent Institute for Global City Policing were announced by the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) and the Metropolitan Police. They say that the new centre will give London’s police chiefs a firm base of proper academic research akin to other professions such as law and medicine.
The Institute will bring together policing and crime research and offer access to the Met’s crime and policing data. Its work programme will be agreed jointly by MOPAC, the Met, and university partners, with an international advisory group. Topics could range from police tactics to organised criminal networks, gangs, counter-terrorism, and cyber-crime.
Stephen Greenhalgh, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, said: “Policing a growing and changing global city like London is a unique challenge, and this new Institute will help ensure we are equipped to meet it. With unprecedented access to London’s policing data, this new partnership will allow the Met to call upon the expertise of the world’s leading academics in keeping Londoners safe and crime off our streets.”
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe QPM, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said: “I’m delighted that the institute will be up and running very soon. The police need the same kind of academic knowledge base as engineering, medicine or law. It is a great privilege to keep over 60 million people safe. We always need help in achieving that aim.”
And Prof David Price, UCL Vice-Provost (Research), said: “I am delighted that we are able to work in partnership with the Met Police and MOPAC on this new institute. UCL is London’s Global University, so addressing the challenges facing global cities is one of our central goals. I am confident that our relationships with policing will prove as positive for both parties as the interactions between academia and medicine have done, with world-leading research and the provision of high-quality public services supporting and informing each other.”
