News & Blogs

The Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) is thrilled to welcome two distinguished new Visiting Fellows to its network of policing experts: Dr Iain Britton and Dr Anna Hopkins. Their appointment marks an exciting step forward in CPRL’s mission to bridge research, innovation, and practice across policing and public safety.

Findings from an evaluation of 'WeMove'; a pilot that was funded by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to support children and young people aged 12 to 18 years impacted by serious and violent crime, either as perpetrators or victims. Central to WeMove was one-to-one support by trained mentors.

At the Canterbury CC Policing Research Conference in January 2025, Dr Keely Duddin and Dr Sarah-Jane Lennie presented research on "Advancing Wellbeing in Policing by Addressing Perinatal Mental Health and Maternity Challenges" on behalf of the wider research team.

The Victim Engagement Study was carried out between 2020 and 2023, led by Dr Lis Bates with colleagues from the Open University and funded by the Centre for Policing Research and Learning at The Open University.  

Department for Policing lecturer, Simon Hull, has recently been accepted as a Certified Member of the Association of Learning Technology (CMALT).

It is with great sadness that we have to let colleagues know of the premature death of our dear friend Dr Nicky Miller in mid-December.

Following a successful filming project with Red Bird Productions earlier this year, we are excited to announce an opportunity to develop this work further by producing a television series focusing on PCSOs.

A new paper on the policing of mobile phone use by drivers is to be published in The Police Journal. The paper, which was written by Prof Gemma Briggs (OU), Dr Leanne Savigar-Shaw (University of Staffordshire) and Dr Helen Wells (Keele University) focuses on police officer interactions with mobile phone offenders.

The Steven Chase Memorial Award was a fitting end to the first day of the recent conference on campus in Milton Keynes. Named in honour of Steven Chase, the Centre’s co-founder and its first Chair, this recognises the excellent work undertaken by CPRL member forces and OU academics, working together to conduct research and to put knowledge into practice.

The Centre celebrated its 10th anniversary with a two-day conference in November on the theme of “Retention and Prevention”, which has often been highlighted as a very important topic by members.