Psychologists from the University of Liverpool are part of an academic partnership that has been awarded £50,000 to examine what methods work for tackling family violence, the exploitation of vulnerable people and radicalisation.
The partnership, led by the University of Nottingham, has been awarded the funding by the College of Policing to forge links between police forces and researchers.
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.
Academics from the University of Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham 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.
Professor Laurence Alison, from the University ’s Centre for Critical & Major Incident Psychology, said: “This is a great opportunity to match police and academic skills together to make a real difference to effectiveness of policing. We see this funding as an important step in the growing collaboration between the police and academics and providing a step forward in initiatives that could change the lives of victims of crime.”
Head of research at the College of Policing, Rachel Tuffin, said:”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.”
