Policing conference assesses serious and organised crime
Tackling serious and organised crime in local communities was the focus of a conference hosted recently by the University of Huddersfield attended by key figures from law enforcement, politics and academia.
‘Targeting Serious and Organised Crime in the Community’ welcomed over 150 police officers from Yorkshire and Humber and the north-west, as well as John Robins, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Constabulary, and Alison Lowe OBE and Kate Green, Deputy Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners for West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester respectively.
Organised by Dr John Synnott, Director of the University’s newly established National Police Doctoral College (NPDC), the event was sponsored by Greater Manchester Police and welcomed officers from forces in Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, North Wales, all Yorkshire forces and the Humber region.
Issues discussed included:
- County lines and drug enforcement
- Cuckooing – where organised crime groups take over the property of a vulnerable individual
- Child criminal exploitation
- The role of research in tackling serious and organised Crime
The NPDC is the first formal program of its kind in the country, that aims to support cohorts of PhD candidates who are current serving police officers to study at Doctoral level.
The university has eight ‘pracademic’ PhD candidates from across four different policing organisations, at both Detective Chief Inspector and Detective Chief Superintendent level, developing research into areas of strategic importance for British police, such as Child Criminal Exploitation, Cuckooing, Female and Ethnic Minority Leadership and AI as an investigative tool within Policing.
The forces currently in partnership with the university are Merseyside Police, Greater Manchester Police, Cumbria Police and the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, in addition to Greater Manchester’s Violence Reduction Unit.
“Many police officers are now wearing the hats of researchers, but they are likely to have had no formal training in research methods or the research process,” says Dr Synnott.
Dr John Synnott
Director, National Police Doctoral College
“Because so much of police decision-making now relies on an understanding of research and data, I wanted to set up an event that was both collaborative and informative, as well as being a light touch introduction to the role of research in tackling serious organised crime. It’s also important that forces in the north of England had an opportunity to showcase some of the best practice work they are doing in targeting serious organised crime.”
Detective Chief Inspector Claire McGuire, from Greater Manchester Police, who sponsored this event said, “As lead for Programme Challenger, the partnership response to serious and organised crime, we were proud to sponsor this event.
“It was an opportunity to identify best practices and innovation from our neighbourhood policing colleagues and partners. The event clearly demonstrated the value that academic collaboration brings to tackling harm in our communities.”