Community policing to be investigated after prestigious grant award

Published On Fri 3 Jul 2015 by Grant Hill

Researchers at the University of Dundee and Edinburgh Napier University have shared in 4.6million Euros funding to investigate best practice in community policing across the EU.

Dr Megan O’Neill, from Dundee, and Edinburgh Napier’s Dr Liz Aston have been awarded 285,000 Euros to carry out work as part of the ‘Unity’ consortium looking at how to strengthen cooperation between law enforcement agencies and citizens via digital technology. The funding for Unity comes from Horizon 2020, the largest ever EU Research and Innovation programme.

The project is examining community policing in Europe with a view to developing mobile technology such as apps to enhance communication between police officers and citizens, especially in hard-to-reach communities.

Dr O’Neill and Dr Aston will lead on Ethical, Legal and Community Issues aspect of the project. They will also be closely involved in assessing the current practice in community policing across European countries, primarily in Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Macedonia, Estonia, Croatia and the UK.

“We are delighted that our application for this prestigious and competitive funding has been accepted,” said Dr O’Neill. “We know that police officers can engage with members of their community in a positive way that helps build trust and ultimately help keep people safe.

“In each country police are coming up with innovative and effective means of building relationships with the public but the key is to see these successes replicated across the whole of the EU. What we need to do is examine the best practice being used in each individual country and make recommendations based on these models. This is particularly important in reaching out to communities where distrust and other barriers to engagement traditionally exist.”

The Unity consortium comprises 15 partner organisations from 10 countries and is being led by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office from West Yorkshire.

Dr O’Neill and Dr Aston are both members of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) and recently published a report evaluating a new approach to stop and search piloted by Police Scotland.

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