A partnership led by The University of Nottingham has been awarded £50,000 by the College of Policing to forge links between academics and police.
The funding from the professional body for policing in England and Wales will create a regional network of police forces and academics to examine what works in tackling family violence, exploitation of vulnerable people and radicalisation. The grant will match researchers from four universities and the national training body ‘Skills for Justice’ with personnel from five police forces to create local networks, run events and carry out research and training. The new partnerships will also enhance the skills of policing personnel so that they can take an increasingly active role in research on crime and public safety.
Academics from the universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool and Aston will mentor personnel from Derbyshire, Merseyside, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and the West Midlands police forces to test methods to ensure that resources are being used in the most efficient way.
It is hoped the Nottingham-base network will be a launch pad for future collaboration between police and academics and lead to a Centre for Better Policing based in the city. A mixture of 75 academic institutions and police forces submitted bids to the College for sums up to £50,000.
The partnership is one of seven universities, two police forces and a crime prevention charity which were all given grants totalling £496,000.
Professor Eddie Kane who led the bid from Nottingham’s Centre for Health and Justice said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to match police and academic skills together to make a real difference to effectiveness of policing. Our group sees this funding as an important step in the growing collaboration between the police and academics and the launch platform for future initiatives and opportunities.”
Head of research at the College of Policing, Rachel Tuffin, said: “As the home of the What Works Centre for Crime Reduction, the College of Policing wants to build links between police and academia so the way we go about policing is as efficient and effective as possible. This funding will be a springboard for future research and learning so police officers and staff get the best evidence to help them cut crime and keep the public safe.”
And meanwhile Leicestershire Police will be working alongside the University of Leicester after a grant of over £40,000 was awarded to the institution by the College of Policing.
The College of Policing awarded grants of over half-a-million pounds to build new links between policing and academia. This grants will see officers and staff from 31 police forces working alongside academics in building the research evidence to tackle crime and help police to become more efficient.
The University of Leicester will also be working alongside forces from Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Thames Valley on a project about enhancing research skills for policing personnel and evidence based practice. Leicester was among eight other institutions to receive funding, including six police forces, a police and crime commissioner and a crime and prevention charity.
Chief Superintendent Steph Pandit said: “The funding provides an excellent opportunity to develop well-established contacts with local higher education institutions. To be working with the University enables us to gain an extremely beneficial input from academics, who provide a different way of thinking, which benefits us in so many ways.“
Dr Lisa Smith, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Leicester, said: “This funding enables us to establish sustainable research collaborations with police forces and PCCs in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and Thames Valley. The partnership will provide research skills training for police personnel and also gives postgraduate students the opportunity to carry out criminological research that can impact policing policy and practice in the UK.”
The work carried out by the local partnerships will feed into the National What Works Centre for Crime Reduction providing evidence for police to tackle crime.
