2.06 Game-based Learning for Police Training in Child Interviewing

Academic team: Dr Anne Adams, Jenny Hart, Andy Ryan 
Policing partners: Lancashire Police, Metropolitan Police Service, Thames Valley Police
Status: Complete

We have developed an award-winning child witness interview training simulation (CWIS) that addresses gaps in the knowledge and skills of new recruits and serving officers when interviewing child witnesses to build rapport with children and develop the quality of communication skills. CWIS incorporates triggers for emotional recognition to support the training of rapport building of early career front-line police officers when interviewing children.

Embedding CWIS within training will enable the police to obtain the following benefits:

  • Decreasing time taken to gain competency in child interviewing
  • Promoting deeper understanding of the many factors affecting child interviewing in the real world
  • Enriching traditional classroom training approach
  • Enabling large-scale deployment outside the classroom

Outputs

TitleOutputs typeLead academicYear
Co-created evaluation: identifying how games support police learningJournal itemAdams, A2019
Winning evidenceArticleAdams, A2018
Child witness interview simulator for UK police - trailerVideo 2017
Game-based learning for police training in child interviewingFinal ReportAdams, A2017
Understanding engagement within the context of a safety critical gamePaperHart, J2017
Simulation-based learning for police training in gaining initial accounts from childrenConference posterAdams, A2017
Game-based learning for police training in child interviewingExecutive summaryAdams, A2016
Exploring emotion representation to support dialogue in police training on child interviewingConference paperMargoudi, M2016

News

Findings from an evaluation of the pilot application of AI for witness statement and report generation

Dr Paul Walley and Dr Helen Glasspoole-Bird have published an evaluation report entitled “An Evaluation of the Pilot Application of Artificial Intelligence to Witness Statement and Report Generation at Hertfordshire Constabulary”.  The work studies the outputs of version 1 of an AI application that takes audio from Rapid Video Response interviews with victims of domestic abuse and converts this into relevant summary documents including MG11 witness statements.

15th May 2025