Archive March 2026

Trauma and Misconduct – Are We Having the Wrong Conversation?

EMPAC Senior Research Fellow, Professor Terry O’Connell, here offers a thought leadership piece about the culture of policing, professional standards and authentic reform. In recent discussions about policing wellbeing, increasing attention has been given to the relationship between trauma exposure and misconduct. Reflective commentary from practitioners has raised an important…

Will restructuring improve local policing?

EMPAC Research Fellow, Steve Dodd, assesses the current UK Government plans for a National Police Service with a whopping overall annual budget of £20,965,700,000. The starting point might be to consider what problem are the Government seeking to solve? The National Audit Office (November 2025) insights about police productivity concluded:…

Get involved in research on SmartSafeSigning for domestic abuse

EMPAC encourages all our readers to get involved and support new research from the midlands which is about tackling domestic violence and abuse using new SmartSafeSigning. The research team from the Universities of Wolverhampton and Lancaster have partnered with Women’s Aid, SignHealth, and West Midlands Police to explore how D/deaf…

Upside down policing

There is evidence that the front-line of policing comprises, too often, the most junior in policing. This means vital experience can be lacking in investigating officers and their supervision. At no fault of their own, they may also be carrying excessive workloads: all of which is now a symptom of…