Matt Bland, Chief Operating Officer, SEBP
Since the COVID lockdowns my podcast consumption increased a lot - I suspect this is not unique to me. One of those I was initially drawn in by was Steven Bartlett’s Secret Diary of a CEO (I have since gone off it, sorry, Steven). So, when it came to starting my own blog about my activities as a COO, this title was inevitable even if the subject matter is entirely different.
The aim of this blog, which I’ll publish every two months, is to illuminate what’s going on behind the scenes with the Society of Evidence Based Policing (SEBP) and its mission to improve UK policing through the proliferation of evidence-based decision making.
In the job advert for my new job (COO stands for Chief Operating Officer), the policing world was described as ‘messy’. That’s shorthand for ‘extremely complex, demanding, fast-moving and under resourced’. Decisions often have life-changing consequences and can play out in the full glare of the public eye. Meanwhile, creating an evidence-base through rigorous research requires patience, meticulous planning and design, and technical understanding of scientific and research principles. So, making policing more evidence-based is no stroll in the park. In fact, professionally it is probably my personal Everest and that is why I wanted this job.
Preparing to climb
As people who have been to one of my lectures will attest, I like to pursue an extended metaphor as far as I can. Please indulge me, while I repeat this habit here because I think the analogy of a steep climb has a lot of synergy with the SEBP mission. One key difference though is that when it comes to the EBP Everest, no-one has even seen more than a glimpse of the summit. We know it’s there though and we have an idea about the way up. We know the route will be full of challenges too. Here are some of those I think we’ll find along the way.
1. Resource constraints
Just as climbers of the real Everest must work with limitations on oxygen and provisions, SEBP is going to have to work within the constraints of available volunteer capacity and funding. Effectively using what resources it has, not least the precious time of its volunteers, is essential. A big part of my job will be securing sustainable income and building strong partnerships with police forces, universities, and companies to ensure we do this. We want to grow the SEBP operation to enable it to support more police forces and personnel on their own climbs.
2. Harsh conditions
The culture of policing values experience, quite justifiably. In the metaphor, the culture is the weather we will have to deal with. Resistance to change is nothing new in policing, and neither are anti-academic sentiments. To overcome these SEBP is going to have to focus on clear communication of tangible benefits while being faithful to scientific principles. This is a tricky balance to strike and we’ll be testing out different ways of doing it so see what works best.
3. Having a thorough plan but be ready to change it
To manage the climb effectively we need to have a well thought out route that is flexible in view of conditions. I’ve been working on this plan for weeks before I even arrived at the base camp of my first day in post. My aim is to present this plan to the SEBP Conference in Cambridge University on 11th and 12th September. I’ll update regularly on progress against it in this blog series.
Imagining the summit
We have an idea of what an evidence-based practice culture looks like from other professions but in policing we really don’t yet know what it looks like in detail. For now, we need to focus on the climb itself, the things we need to do to make sure we keep ascending safely. The rest will take care of itself. These activities are easier to pin down. We want our membership to expand, not just in numbers but in participation. We want to be much more active online, sharing information and connecting people interested in EBP. We want to provide value to our members through events, both in person and online, and other services. All these activities will require a robust and sustainable infrastructure to manage, and here is where a Chief Operating Officer comes in.
So, you can see, there is plenty to do and we’re only just setting off. SEBP was established 12 years ago and has achieved remarkable things. I hope the next few years will mark a new phase in its mission as we leave base camp and take on some steep slopes. I hope you’ll come back to read more about the adventure (and I promise, I won’t use this metaphor again!).
See you again in two months.