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This is the fourth in the Northern Police Research Webinar Series for Spring 2025.
Presenter: Professor Liz Aston
INTERACT is a UK based mixed-methods study of the use of technology in interactions between the police and public. It considers recent shifts towards technologically-mediated contact (Wells et al., 2023), to explore whether, and how, police organisations can pursue their aims of providing a procedurally just experience for users, and build legitimacy with various publics, whilst fundamentally changing the nature and form of police contact. In this presentation we analyse data from focus groups and interviews with the members of the public in urban and rural case study areas and with deaf British Sign Language users and autistic individuals. We are particularly interested in their views and experiences, given pre-existing low levels of trust and confidence in the police and varying communication needs. We reflect on the concerns and desires of our participants, and on how accessibility and inclusion feature in police decision making for new technologies. We explore how the public feel about the different ways the police can be seen and contacted and analyse shared and divergent views amongst various publics. We conclude by discussing implications for policing policy and practice in the UK and beyond.
Liz Aston is a Professor of Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University and has been the Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) since 2018. Her expertise centres on local policing and her current research focuses on technology in policing, and the intersect between policing and drugs. Liz is the Principal Investigator for the INTERACT project, she chaired the Independent Advisory Group on Emerging Technologies in Policing for the Scottish Government and is the co-editor of Palgrave’s Critical Policing Studies series.
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