On September 12th and 13th Matthew Hall (Law) and Dr James Hoggett (Criminology) attended a two-day training workshop/research project at Manchester University. The project, ENABLE UK is funded by the N8 Policing Research Collaboration and runs in collaboration with the Keele Academic Policing Collaboration. It is led by Prof Clifford Stott (Keele University), Dr Geoff Pearson (Manchester University) and Chief Supt Owen West (West Yorkshire Police).
The workshops allowed participants from several UK police forces and football clubs, and academics to come together in order to discuss the latest theory and evidence in Public Order and Public Safety (POPS) policing, which includes protests and football. Moreover, a methodology was devised with participants for what will be the crux of the project.
Running between August 2017 and November 2018 will be at least six field observations of POPS policing at large scale events. The purpose being to understand and address the effectiveness and efficiency of current approaches to these events and how it can be developed. After each observation, a briefing will take place between the participants, with a final national dissemination conference to summarise the observations.
With these findings published and peer reviewed, this will provide a framework for the College of Policing to adopt when training in the POPS sphere, framed by a collaboration between researchers and the police. Both Matthew and James are excited to be part of the Project, which will allow the research to have a real impact on the future of public order policing at large scale events.