News

The kidnap, rape, and murder of a young woman in London (March, 2021) saw an outpouring of anger, sorrow and concern about the precarious state of women’s safety. This response was further intensified when it emerged that the crime was perpetrated by a serving Metropolitan (Met) police officer, Wayne Couzens, who had used his warrant card and handcuffs to commit the offence. This incident was not long followed by the conviction of another officer (David Carrick) for a long series of sexual offences committed against twelve women over two decades (BBC, 2023).

On 18 June our very own Drs SJ Lennie and Keely Duddin, together with Dr Krystal Wilkinson (Manchester Metropolitan University), pictured here on the left with SJ, received an award from the Greater Manchester Police Association for Women in Policing for their Services to Women in Policing in recognition of their research into Perinatal Mental Health and Police Life. 

This annual report features a selection of the work undertaken across 2023 which we consider to be highly relevant for the current policing environment. We have developed core specialisms in areas such as police professionalism, learning and development, violence against women and girls, police wellbeing and demand management to name but a few.

The new Openlearn Policing Practice and Leadership Hub is now fully available for members to use. Openlearn is our learning platform that offers open access free learning resources. 

These resources range from short articles & podcasts through to structured online courses that typically take 2-6 hours to complete.

2024 marks 10 years of Policing at the OU, including the launch of the Centre for Policing Research and Learning.

To celebrate the many achievements in research, partnership, learning, education and knowledge into practice, CPRL are having an exciting schedule of online and in- person events throughout the year.

As announced at the CPRL Membership Group meeting on Thursday 07 March we are delighted to have launched the CPRL Small Grants Pilot Scheme following approval at the membership group meeting in December 2023.

The Department for Policing have recently launched Understanding PCSO powers, a new course on OpenLearn, The Open University's free online learning platform.

In November we reported on the launch of the new CPRL Collaborative Launch of CPRL Collaborative to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and research across the OU with CPRL members | Centre for Policing Research and Learning (open.ac.uk). We are pleased to include the programme for the year below, which is open to both OU academics interested in research issues relevant to policing and to CPRL policing partners.  

A new criminal offence for pet abduction has taken a significant step forward on 19 January 2024 with the announcement of government backing for new legislation.