1.34 Proportionality and use of force

Academic team: Professor Graham Pike and Dr Zoe Walkington
Policing partners: West Midlands Police
Academic partners: Professor Mark Levine and Dr Richard Philpot from Lancaster University
Status: Complete

Proportionality, particularly as it relates to ethnicity and legitimacy, is very important for policing and the issue is high on every force agenda.

The goal of the current project is to explore interactions that involve use of force between West Midlands Police officers and citizens, by analysing body-worn camera footage.

The research aims to determine whether the actions and behaviours of both officers and citizens differ depending on a range of factors, including ethnicity.

News

Landmark Article in the British Journal of Social Psychology

Professor Clifford Stott (Centre for Policing Research and Learning) has published a Landmark Article in the British Journal of Social Psychology, one of the discipline’s leading international journals. The paper examines the historical relationship between social psychology, crowd theory, and the governance of public order.

1st April 2026
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