Celebrating 10 Years of Policing Impact – CPRL Annual Report 2024 Now Live

The Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) is proud to launch our 2024 Annual Report, marking a decade of collaboration with policing that’s driven meaningful change and supported professional learning across the sector. Over the past 10 years, we’ve developed core specialisms in areas such as: 

👉 Police professionalism
👉 Learning and development
👉 Violence against women and girls (VAWG)
👉 Police wellbeing
👉 Demand management

This year’s report reflects what we’ve achieved collaboratively with projects to deliver practical, research-informed solutions to real-world policing challenges.

Inside the report, you’ll find:

• Advances in collaborative research with our police partners
• Evidence-informed practice in action across forces
• The success of the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA) with North Yorkshire Police
• Impactful contributions to CPD events, curriculum design, and strategic development

A key highlight of 2024 was the CPRL Conference held in November, which brought members and academics together to explore the vital themes of Police Retention and Prevention. We were also delighted to hear from CPRL’s founding Academic Director, Emeritus Professor Jean Hartley who retired at the beginning of 2024. Jean delivered the second annual Steven Chase Memorial Lecture to remember CPRL’s first Chair. The conference also featured engaging sessions from police and academic partners in a range of areas. 

We are now shaping our future vision, embracing digital technology to support and evolve policing research and learning. A growing body of our work is already making an impact—informing CPD content, enhancing the policing curriculum, and powering knowledge into practice events that translate evidence into meaningful change. To build on this momentum, we’re excited to invite you to our CPRL Engagement Day this June—a face-to-face event where we’ll come together to explore how research and innovation can continue to strengthen both operational delivery and long-term strategy across policing.

📅 Save the date and get involved: Thursday 19 June 2025, The Open University, Milton Keynes - More information and registration details on Eventbrite.

📢 In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you. Connect with your CPRL Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to explore opportunities to get involved. Whether you’re developing your people, rethinking demand, or tackling key social harms—there’s a conversation to be had.

Any questions please contact oupc@open.ac.uk