Year 1 PCDA students get ready for EBP assessment at Day School

Our year 1 North Yorkshire Police PCDA students attended a day school recently to help them prepare for their final academic assessment for the year.

Delivered by Dr Ahmed Kadry, the aims of the day school were to build on their understanding of Evidence-Based Policing (EBP), including the importance of evaluating policing interventions and some of the methods available to them to help them carry out evaluations.  

The students found it particularly useful when Ahmed delivered an input on some high-profile examples where big brands did not evaluate the evidence before making an important business decision. For example, the decision by Blockbuster to not buy a small company in the 1990s that spotted a trend where a growing number of people liked the convenience of watching the latest films without having to leave the house. Blockbuster declined because they believed that people still valued the experience of going into their stores and browsing the shelves. Spoiler Alert: that small company was Netflix and Blockbuster went bust in 2014. 

Examples such as this then made it easier for the students to understand specific policing examples, such as the Scared Straight intervention of trying to steer young people away from crime and was repeated across the world before it was finally evaluated, and its true negative impact was revealed.

The day school was also an opportunity for the cohort to see each other and share their operational experiences thus far - now that they are all on different shift bands and assigned to different locations.

As one student articulated:

The OU Day School was a great opportunity to develop skills and gain a better understanding of the TMAs in a practical face-to-face setting. I especially enjoyed the OU Day School because of its comfortable learning environment that you don’t necessarily get over Microsoft Teams and the opportunity to catch up with members of my cohort.

PCDA student

These students are now writing up their final assignments of year 1 where they have to identify a local crime they wish to address, including their chosen intervention, the rationale and theory behind the intervention, and perhaps most importantly, what mechanisms they will put in place to help them evaluate the success or failure of the intervention. In years 2 and 3, further day schools take place to develop their understanding of both Evidence- Based Policing but also other key parts of the national curriculum. 

To find out more about policing education at the OU please click here or contact Dr Ahmed Kadry.