University hosts policing symposium

Police chiefs, policy makers and academics brought their expertise to a one-day symposium on policing hosted by the University at Discovery Point in October.

The event, titled the 'Policing Scotland in the 21st Century: from local to global challenges', drew widespread media interest as it explored many of the key issues facing law enforcement agencies, from community safety and local policing to international terrorism.

Speakers at the symposium included Tayside Police Chief Constable John Vine, Professor Paul Wilkinson of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews, and Graeme Pearson, Director of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency.

The event was organised by a team of three academics at the University - Dr Martin Elvins (Politics), Dr Nick Fyfe (Geography) and Dr Anja Johansen (History).

'We wanted to address the distinctiveness of policing in a Scottish context while also recognising that many local crime and policing challenges are set within wider national and international contexts,' said Dr Elvins.

"One of our aims with the event was to give a cross-disciplinary perspective of policing and encourage further links across the sector, bringing together the academic community, practitioners and policymakers. There are some good links between those areas at the moment, but we'd like to build on those."