Police Graduate Research Showcase
- Helen Khezrzadeh
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
Announcing Our Winning Research
Thank you to everyone who joined our first Police Graduate Research Showcase. The standard of research presented was outstanding, and we are grateful to every officer who shared their hard work and insights with us. Thank you to our academic partners for putting on this showcase with us.
Presentations were drawn from the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship programme - a scheme that combines frontline experience with academic study, developing officers who can question, analyse and improve their practice.
As our host, Dr Matt Bland observed on the day, these officers have not only learned how to do the job, but how to think about it and challenge it too.
A winning presentation was selected from each category by a panel of judges. We are delighted to announce the four winners below, each of whom has been invited to present at The National Evidence-Based Policing Conference in September and has received a nomination for the prestigious Emerging Talent Award.
The winning presentation from each category were:
DC Karl McCrombie (Merseyside Police) who presented his research titled, 'Unheard Voices: Barriers to Reporting Intimate Partner Violence and Police Response Effectiveness'.
Karl's research explored why so many victims of intimate partner violence do not report to police and why well-intentioned policies can sometimes make things worse. He found that victims often do not recognise coercive or psychological abuse as abuse at all, while financial dependency, children, and deep-seated shame act as powerful barriers to coming forward.
A particularly striking finding concerned mandatory arrest policies. The evidence showed these have no material impact on re-offending, and can have serious unintended consequences:
when abusers phone police first and portray themselves as the victim, officers operating under mandatory arrest policies can end up arresting the actual victim.
The shock and distress of being arrested, especially for someone in a position of trust, can permanently damage their confidence in the police and deter future reporting.
Karl's research called for arrests to be treated as one option, not the automatic default, for officers to develop professional curiosity at the scene, and for confidential disclosure services to be offered to victims - something Merseyside Police has since implemented.
PC Brad Feather (West Yorkshire Police) who presented his research titled, 'Should operational police officers be authorised to carry and administer Naloxone in the UK?'
Brad's research was sparked by a moment during a shift when he attended an overdose and could do nothing effective until paramedics arrived and administered naloxone. The reversal was immediate. That experience led him to ask: why don't frontline officers have access to this drug?
Naloxone is a nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses within minutes, can be given by anyone, and carries minimal risk. With drug poisoning deaths rising every year since 2012, and police consistently the first on scene at overdose incidents, Brad's research made a compelling case for officers to carry it as standard personal protective equipment.
Brad recommended that:
- naloxone be issued to all officers as standard PPE,
- that national training guidance be developed, and
- that formal working agreements be established between police and ambulance services.
Forces including North Yorkshire have since moved to equip most officers with promising early results.
PC Oliver Willows (Suffolk Police) who presented his research titled, 'What are the most effective strategies employed by Police Forces to deter and reduce instances of drink and drug driving to improve road safety'.
Oliver's research highlighted a stark and growing problem: drug driving is rising far faster than drink driving, yet the tools and training available to officers have not kept pace.
In Suffolk, the roadside drug wipe currently detects only cannabis and cocaine, missing ketamine, opiates and amphetamines, which are increasingly present in driving offence cases. Oliver himself has been on response for four years without the opportunity to receive drug testing training.
Applying deterrence theory, which holds that people are less likely to offend when being caught feels certain, swift and severe, Oliver proposed four practical recommendations:
- upgrading roadside drug testing equipment to detect a wider range of substances;
- using deterrent signage in pub and club car parks based on the behavioural "nudge" approach;
- introducing alcohol interlocks for repeat offenders;
- running influencer-led social media campaigns targeting the Gen Z and millennial demographics who account for the majority of these offences.
More than 316 people die from drink and drug driving each year. Oliver's research makes the case that prevention, visibility and modern technology must work together to bring that number down.
PC Sheridan Hobson (South Yorkshire Police) who presented her research titled, 'Investigate and develop the attitudes and perceptions of neurodiversity in the workforce in South Yorkshire Police and how could it be improved?'
Sheridan's research came from personal experience. Working on a response team, she observed first hand the stumbling blocks that neurodivergent officers face and the misconceptions that surround them. Her dissertation set out to understand:
- how South Yorkshire Police (SYP) supports its neurodivergent staff,
- how those staff members are perceived by colleagues
- what could concretely be done better.
Using an anonymous questionnaire and thematic analysis, Sheridan found that disclosure is widely experienced as a tick-box exercise with no real follow-up. Whether a neurodivergent officer feels supported depends heavily on the individual supervisor they happen to have - a postcode lottery of understanding. Assessment waits of two to five years for ADHD or autism mean officers cannot even access the reasonable adjustments they are legally entitled to without a diagnosis.
Sheridan also found that policing's well-documented "hard as nails" culture can cause neurodivergent staff to mask their needs entirely - getting through training and briefings by suppressing who they are, which leads to burnout and prevents genuine learning. Practical barriers like Pronto, SYP's case management system, lacking a spell-checker were repeatedly cited as unnecessary sources of stress.
Her four recommendations were:
- neurodiversity training for all staff and supervisors;
- regular supervisor check-ins to build trust and approachability;
- a spell-checker added to Pronto;
- different training arrangements for neurodiverse staff, such as smaller groups where questions feel safe to ask.
These are simple, low-cost changes with the potential to meaningfully improve the working lives of officers and the retention of talent SYP has worked hard to recruit.
