East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration launch
The University of Leicester has joined a new collaboration of seven universities, five police forces and five Police and Crime Commissioners looking at how academics and the police can work more closely to shape the future of policing.
The East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC) celebrated its official launch on 4 March.
In August 2015, EMPAC was awarded £862,620 from the College of Policing, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Home Office Police Knowledge Fund, to develop policing related funding.
The East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC) will implement a regional programme of policing-related research and strengthen relationships across universities and police forces in the East Midlands. The funding has been received to improve understanding of crime and policing issues, develop new ways of policing and innovatively translate research findings into practice.
The collaboration will look at five key areas; local and community policing, serious and organised crime, organisational policing, victims, witnesses and public protection and operational policing. EMPAC will work closely with existing regional policing organisations and the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR).
Dr Lisa Smith, of the Department of Criminology, said: “The University of Leicester has a long history of collaborating with regional police forces, and we are delighted to be part of the EMPAC network. The funding that EMPAC has received from the College of Policing will provide infrastructure and facilitate new relationships between police forces and universities in the region, as well as continuing to support established partnerships. We look forward to working with the EMPAC consortium on research and training initiatives that will address some of the most challenging contemporary and future policing issues.”
David Baker, the former Detective Chief Superintendent at Leicestershire Police, who worked with Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys following his discovery of genetic fingerinting on the Enderby murders, was at the launch.