Hear from Emma Bilsdon as she reflects on her time as a Senior Practitioner Fellow with the Centre

I am a career cop! Having joined in 1999, all of my service has been in uniformed departments and for the last 18 months I have been working in a department called Prevention First. It is Hertfordshire Constabulary’s public declaration that their drive and activity is shifting from responding to incidents and offences, to preventing them. A victim would rather have never been a victim, even if they receive top class service from the police. This is a real opportunity to have a tangible impact on the communities we serve if the time and effort is correctly placed to research and implement evidence-based solutions to those recurring issues at both local and county-wide level. This is where partnering with the Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) becomes relevant.
 
At the beginning of December 2022, my Chief Inspector informed me of an opportunity to work with the Centre for three months on a research project. On a personal level having spent twenty-plus years in policing, the opportunity to ‘dip my toe’ in the world of academia was a development opportunity I could not pass up. The topic had been agreed and funding obtained through the Open Societal Challenges programme at the OU for “Redesigning the response to reports of missing young persons. Can demand be prevented?” This is a challenging subject worthy of the investment of academic and police time to explore.  When children go missing (e.g., from care), they are vulnerable to exploitation and involvement in crime, so preventing this has real societal value, as well as saving police time.   

I took up position as a Senior Practitioner Fellow to work with Dr Paul Walley, Director of Learning at the CPRL. By combining his skills of academic research design, delivery, and write-up, with my experience of operational policing, our complementary skills could generate a strong evidence-base and have real relevance for contemporary policing.

As an officer very used to working in a team with others, working with just one other person and working remotely was a concern.  I needn’t have worried as the team working in the CPRL are all enthusiastic about their work and keen to work with police forces. I was able to meet the team face-to-face very early on in my secondment and I was made to feel very welcome in all my dealings with other members of the Centre.

My first task was to conduct a review of literature (both academic and practitioner) on the topic. I learned how to record my searches of academic databases, scan for articles of relevance, read and make notes in a way that allowed me to cite them in the final review. The second task was to collect relevant data from my force and from partner agencies with a stake in the project, analyse and report on it. Processes were also reviewed, failure points identified and recommendations for improvement made. This was challenging, but with the support provided I was able to think more deeply about the findings that we discovered. I guess what I am trying to articulate is that as a Senior Practitioner Fellow you are not expected to have all the answers;  the collaboration of academic and practitioner perspectives are fundamental to the success of the work.

So, what will I take back to force now that the secondment has ended? First, a strengthened link between Hertfordshire Constabulary and CPRL at practitioner level.  I hope Herts and CPRL will work together again and would encourage anyone thinking about applying for future secondments to do it. Second, the experiential learning I gained from undertaking this research project will steer how Prevention First undertake future evidence-based projects. The tangible outcome is a researched and evidence-based report which has the capability of steering real improvements in how we prevent vulnerable children from going missing, putting knowledge into practice for the benefit of our public.