An Exploratory Knowledge Exchange Platform for Policing: Exploiting Knowledge Assets, Utilising Data and Piloting Research Co-production

The project will build a strategic and innovative knowledge exchange and research co-production platform, providing a structured relationship between West Yorkshire Police (WYP), the Office of the PCC for West Yorkshire (OPCCWY) and the University of Leeds. The platform provides a model in which different mechanisms of knowledge, people and data exchange are piloted in four thematic areas of policing: partnerships; acquisitive crimes of burglary and shoplifting; community engagement and public order. The approach is driven by a combination of interdisciplinary research excellence, innovations in knowledge exchange and lasting impact on both policing and academic partners. It will seek to change the ways in which the police use evidence and insights from research as well as the ways in which researchers frame research questions and engage with policing professionals across the life-course of research. The platform will provide a two-way exchange, learning opportunities and data exploitation that embed the PCC's strategic priorities of 'innovation, income and investment'. It will seek to foster a greater appreciation among police officers for the relevance, role and value of research evidence in informing police practice, as well as a greater awareness of research methodologies and skills within the police organisation. At the same time, it will seek to foster greater understanding of the operational police challenges and encourage responsibility amongst researchers for helping shape evidence-based responses to these. In so doing, it will build an academic culture of engagement and a commitment to co-production.
The four hubs will focus on: (i) the role of partnerships in promoting organisational change and the manner in which this can be analysed through co-produced research; (ii) the exploitation of large police datasets to explain and better understand the spatial and social distribution of the acquisitive crimes of burglaries and shoplifting; (iii) the evaluation of an innovative community engagement project; and (iv) public order training and the evaluation of the impact of training on police practice. Each hub will benefit from one academic research lead and one nominated police lead seconded from WYP. WYP will contribute staff time, venues and resources associated with the preparation of significant datasets (including 10 years of burglary and shoplifting data across West Yorkshire).
This new collaboration will develop innovative ways to address the challenges faced by the police and will provide for: collaborative framing of the research questions from the outset; the two-way flow of knowledge and data; mutual engagement with research programmes from their inception to dissemination; joint ownership of research and its outcomes or products; enhanced research impact on policy and practice through collaboration on projects that are directly relevant to police managers; the production of an evidence-base for policy and practice, and to enable innovation; the exploitation of knowledge exchange including training opportunities; opportunities for the development of research expertise and capacity among police officers and staff; and the development of skills within policing to get research evidence used over the longer-term.
The work of the project will be overseen by a Steering Group including members of the WYP senior command team and chaired by the PCC, which will meet bi-monthly. Each of the thematic hubs will produce accessible policy briefings outlining the findings as will the programme as a whole. Whilst the initial activity is focused on West Yorkshire, it is intended that benefits will attend to the region (via the N8 Policing Research Partnership) as well as national and international debate and practice. This wider dissemination will be overseen and promoted by an Advisory Board with members drawn from the College of Policing, ACPO, What Works Centre for Crime Reduction and N8.

Who will benefit: The non-academic beneficiaries of the programme of activities designed under this Knowledge Exchange platform include, first and foremost, West Yorkshire Police, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner PCC for West Yorkshire and their partner organisations. This proposal arises out of a series of discussions that have been held with Chief Constable Mark Gilmore, Deputy Chief Constable Dee Collins, Assistant Chief Constable Geoff Dodd, the Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson and his Chief Executive, Fraser Sampson about the ways in which the University of Leeds can work collaboratively in strategic and structured ways with West Yorkshire Police (WYP) to explore innovative forms of knowledge exchange and research co-production to mutual benefit and to ensure that policing is increasingly evidence-lead. Along with others senior and operational police colleagues the above will oversee the programme of activities (via the proposed Steering Group) and ensure that full benefits to WYP and partners are derived from it. It is intended that the citizens of West Yorkshire will benefit from improvements to policing and police-public encounters in the targeted areas of public order policing, burglary and shoplifting, partnership working and community engagement. Secondly, wider police beneficiaries will include the forces in the north of England that are engage in the work of the N8 Policing Research Partnership. This proposal also benefits from and will feed into the wider work of the N8PRP. It is anticipated that lessons learnt, research findings and the value of models of knowledge exchange piloted will be rolled out and replicated across the wider N8 region. Thirdly, it is anticipated that the work will impact on the national debate about appropriate models of collaborations between police, PCCs and universities and this will be channelled via the College of Policing and the What Works Centre for Crime Prevention. Fourthly, the outcomes of the activities associated with the proposal will be disseminated beyond England and Wales via international networks (such as the Centre for Excellence in Policing and Security in Australia).
How will they benefit: This project has involved non-academic beneficiaries and users from the outset in the development stages of the proposal design. The focus of the thematic hubs and the ambitions of the platform as a whole were agreed and designed in collaboration with senior staff within WYP. Subsequently, WYP will benefit from direct involvement in shaping and contributing to the programme of activities and the outcomes in a way that will engender their ownership of the findings. The proposal gives WYP an opportunity to explore different models of knowledge exchange and pilot research co-production in ways that will bring value to the organisation by equipping police staff with greater understanding of insights from research and the ways in which policing practices might become more informed by research evidence. The potential for impact is considerable within WYP given the large number of police staff who will be directly involved in the activities and the manner in which senior police commanders and managers will oversee the programme. The potential for impact beyond West Yorkshire, given the close synergies with the N8PRP and the College of Policing, is also significant and will be exploited to the full (overseen by a national Advisory Board). The project will culminate in a final conference to which key national figures will be invited and at which the policy briefings will be published. These key findings documents will be written in an accessible format for wide dissemination among non-academic beneficiaries and made publicly available online. To engage the wider policing community and disseminate the lessons learnt and research findings, at least two articles will be published in professional police journals.