Structured Police-Academic Partnerships: Challenges and Opportunities

Police-Academic Partnerships have been established to address various problems including ‘the dialogue of the deaf’, by developing closer working relations and building a body of relevant research which may be used to inform policing policy and practice. The nuance of the ways partnerships emerge and shift shapes their nature. At the heart of their mission lies research collaboration, knowledge exchange and the use of the evidence base to inform decision making (or the generation of research impact in more academic terms). This is a long-term endeavour, wrought with various challenges, requiring sustained collaboration, which is inherently relational, but simultaneously requires continual reflection to maintain academic independence and criticality (relating to its inherent value). Whilst there is still some way to go in terms of delivering to their full potential (including impact), we outline some of the key ingredients of structured police-academic partnerships which may assist with addressing central challenges (including relating to culture, control, power, trust and funding), sustaining partnerships and enabling them to deliver value in the short- and long-term. This includes the need for continual reflection (Henry et al., 2017), academic leadership, governance and providing sustained joint funding for an infrastructure which adds value for academics and police, in order to keep both parties engaged.