Scottish Institute for Policing Research

Northern Police Research Webinar – Scotland – Spring 2025

Date: March 28, 2025

Online

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Event Briefing

This is the fourth in the Northern Police Research Webinar Series for Spring 2025.

Presenter: Professor Liz Aston

 

Programme

In this webinar Liz presents findings from the INTERACT project, a UK based mixed-methods study of the use of technology in interactions between the police and public. The study considered 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 webinar Liz presents data from focus groups and interviews with members of the public in urban and rural case study areas and with deaf British Sign Language users and autistic individuals. Their views and experiences are of particular interest, given pre-existing low levels of trust and confidence in the police and varying communication needs. The presentation reflects on the concerns and desires of participants, and on how accessibility and inclusion feature in police decision making for new technologies. It explores how the public feel about the different ways the police can be seen and contacted, and concludes by discussing implications for policing policy and practice in the UK and beyond.

Speakers

Professor Liz Aston
• Speaker

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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