College of Policing work recognised at European public sector awards

The theme for this year’s awards was ‘An Innovative Public Sector in 2017: New Solutions to Complex Challenges’.

The Crime Reduction Toolkit was awarded a certificate in the ‘European and National Level’ category and Jo Wilkinson accepted the best practice award on behalf of the College team and academics at University College London (UCL) who worked on its development. 

The Crime Reduction Toolkit summarises the best available research evidence on what works to reduce crime. It uses a framework to present evidence from systematic reviews of research on crime reduction interventions in a format that helps users to access and understand it quickly.

The ESPA evaluators commented that the toolkit is a “truly innovative project”, “highly relevant” and “a good example of evidence-based policy-making”.

Jo Wilkinson, from the College accepted the award and said: "EPSA's recognition of the Crime Reduction Toolkit has reinforced the significance of the ground-breaking work of the College and UCL in finding and sharing the best available evidence on reducing crime.  It has been very interesting to see our work in the context of a wide range of public sector projects across Europe."

In the ‘Supra-Local and Local Level’ category the College were awarded a certificate for a randomised controlled trial of Body Worn Video (BWV) in London with the Metropolitan Police and MOPAC.

Titled ‘Police, Camera, Evidence: London's cluster randomised control trial of Body Worn Video’ the research studied the impact of BWV on criminal justice outcomes, stop and search and complaints. The results of the trial found that BWV can reduce complaints and reduces allegations against the police by 33 per cent.

The ESPA evaluators described the project as “a very good example for the change of mind-set in public institutions towards evidence-based decision making.”

Catherine Owens, from the College, who lead the research, and accepted the award with Superintendent Ben Clarke from the Metropolitan Police, said: “It's fantastic for the collaborative work of the College, the Metropolitan Police Service and Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to be recognised internationally as having a significant value and impact for the public. The project is a great example of how police forces can undertake evaluations to support and enhance innovation.

Thank you to the Metropolitan Police Service and MOPAC for their work with us.”