Archive November 2025

Using Research to Drive a Culture of High Performance

In an extended, 2-part feature, EMPAC raises some critical thoughts about the importance of driving a positive occupational working culture; which is perhaps the single most pressing challenge, and opportunity, for contemporary policing to regain public trust and confidence.  Policing needs a high performance culture and to enable this there…

Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership

  Doctoral Training Partnerships offer high-quality and coherent postgraduate training covering the full range of the social sciences and areas of interdisciplinary research. The Midlands Graduate School DTP awards around 65 highly prestigious ESRC-funded doctoral scholarships to successful applicants annually.   First established in 2016 and re-accredited in 2023, the Midlands Graduate…

How community intelligence-led policing can aid rural communities

EMPAC Research Fellow, Steve Dodd, explores how rural communities are vital to the nation’s wellbeing, yet have unique challenges, and need a solution-oriented adoption of proactive intelligence to stay safe. 90% of England is made up of rural areas, and that 71% of UK landmass is agricultural. Rural areas are…

The relevance of Sustainable Development Goals to Policing

The United Nations (founded in 1945, post WW2) has 193 member states and exists to promote peace and security. With bases in New York, Geneva and Nairobi, in 2015 it launched its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), all aimed at making positive change in civil society. The SDGs have an…

The Business Case for Policing

Policing is under much pressure to perform, with concerns over funding cuts https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/chancellor-government-england-wales-police-b2768108.html, and dwindling critical public confidence and trust https://ministryofinjustice.co.uk/police-public-confidence-and-engagement/. The critical juncture for policing has been highlighted through the Casey Review https://ministryofinjustice.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/baroness-casey-review-march-2023.pdf and compounded by the recent BBC Panorama expose https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002k7k6. Critical cultural level issues raised have been…