3.15 Demand management in police services

Academic team: Dr Paul Walley, Matthew Adams (Senior Practioner Fellow)
Policing partners: South Yorkshire Police, PSNI and Gloucestershire Constabulary
Status: Complete

The Police Service in the UK has experienced similar financial pressures to other public services, at the same time as patterns of demand have changed considerable. Perceptions of demand and capacity imbalance have led to calls for more comprehensive assessment of demand and capacity within policing. All forces have to address ways of reducing demand, and a number of studies on demand management are underway with activity across a range of forces.

This project contributes to this evidence base by investigating how forces are addressing the apparent mismatch between demand and capacity through changes to policy and practice.

Outputs

TitleOutputs typeLead academicYear
An evaluation of demand management practices in UKFinal reportWalley, P2019
An evaluation of demand management practices in UKSummary reportWalley, P2019

News

Welcome Clifford as our new policing professor

Our new Professor of Policing and Research, whose role includes becoming Academic Director of our Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL), is Clifford Stott MBE.


As the Centre’s lead, a significant part of his role will be working with academics across and beyond the Faculty, as well as CPRL’s police force partners, to generate research and learning relevant to theory, policy and practice.

2nd March 2026
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