Policing stands at a crossroads in the light of fiscal restraint by governments, the growing maturity of the private security industry and persistent public demands for police provision in insecure times. In Britain, as in some other jurisdictions, austerity measures have prompted consideration of previously unpalatable proposals to outsource aspects of policing to the private sector and foster innovations in public-private partnerships. Governments have been prompted to reassess the police mission and workforce, look for new sources of revenue, consider outsourcing to private providers and engage citizens and civil society organisations in new ways. The British Government has moved further and faster than most, making clear its ideological commitment to greater private sector involvement in the delivery of policing. Developments in the UK have been marked by the absence of rigorous debate about the implications of and limits to greater private sector involvement in public policing. Many commentators agree that there are some 'core' areas of policing that the private sector should not take away from the police. However, here is little agreement about what this core constitutes, what differentiates it from other aspects of policing, what the limits to private sector involvement should be or the principles upon which outsourcing should operate. There has been a distinct lack of public discussion, limited scrutiny of outsourcing initiatives and an absence of systematic academic, practitioner and policy deliberation reflecting on insights from research, as well as comparative experiences across the globe. There has been insufficient engagement with the lessons of outsourcing in other areas of public service delivery, the value of public goods and the wider philosophical debates about the limits and effects of markets. Consequently, there are evident risks that, in Britain at least, outsourcing of key aspects of police work may unfold in an ad-hoc and unprincipled manner. This seminar series fills this void by stimulating an evidence-based and principled debate among policy-makers, senior practitioners and academics about the appetite for, and limits to, private sector involvement in public policing. It will bring together key representatives of different interests and organisations to explore the parameters and regulation of markets in policing. The core group of participants to the full series include: senior police managers; Police and Crime Commissioners; national police bodies; rank-and-file police officers; private security firms; security industry associations and regulators; policy think-tanks; established policing scholars; early career researchers and PhD students. It will stimulate a debate which is grounded in research evidence, normative principles and insights from practice in the UK and beyond. Seminars will be structured in such a way as to explore the politics of market reforms, the moral parameters and principles of income generation schemes and private sector involvement in police-work and the regulation of the markets in policing. It will also consider public-private developments in a number of specified areas of policing including public order, mass events, police custody, cyber-crime and the internet, the night-time economy and neighbourhood patrols. Whilst primarily focused on British policy innovations, the series will seek to locate these in a wider international and cross-cultural context. It will benefit from consideration of analogous developments and debates in a number of European countries as well as North America and learn from leading international scholars. Reciprocally, the series will seek to inform international understanding. Key deliberations and debates will be open to wider audiences via video-link and webinars. The series will actively engage the media and seek to encourage public discussion by disseminating its findings and conclusions via a policy briefing with recommendations.

Policing is undergoing rapid transformation. As societies face new and more complex challenges, police workloads increasingly focus on managing risks of harm to vulnerable people. At the same time, public debate voicing concerns about police priorities is rising, driven by questions about what the police do and about legitimacy in the face of discriminatory practices. Dramatic increases in complex cases coupled with cuts to public services have resulted in the police frequently acting as 'the service of first resort', at the frontline of responding to urgent social problems such as mental illness, homelessness and exploitation. The presence of such vulnerabilities draw the police into responses alongside other service providers (such as health, social care and housing) often with little clarity of roles, boundaries or shared purpose. Simultaneously, the transformation of data and its use are beginning to reshape how public services operate. They raise new questions about how to work in ethical ways with data to understand and respond to vulnerability. These shifts in police-work are mirrored around the world and pose significant challenges to how policing is undertaken and how the police interact with other public services, as well as how policing affects vulnerable people who come into contact with services. The Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre aims to understand how vulnerabilities shape demand for policing and how partner organisations can prevent future harm and vulnerability through integrated public service partnerships. Rooted in rich local data collection and deep dives into specific problems, the Centre will build a knowledge base with applications and implications across the UK and beyond. It will have significant reach through collaborative work with a range of regional, national and international partners, shaping policy and practice through networks, practitioner exchanges and comparative research, and through training the next generation of scholars to take forward new approaches to vulnerabilities research and co-production with service providers, service receivers and the public. The Centre will be an international focal point for research, policy, practice and public debate. Jointly led by York and Leeds, with expertise from Durham, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, UCL, Monash and Temple universities and the Police Foundation, and working with a network of 38 partners, it will explore fundamental questions regarding the role police and their partners should play in modern society. While focusing policing effort on the most vulnerable holds promise for a fairer society, targeting specific groups raises questions about who counts as vulnerable and has the potential to stigmatise and increase intervention in the lives of marginalised citizens. At a critical time of change for policing, the Centre will ensure that research, including evidence drawing on public opinion and the voices of vulnerable people, is at the heart of these debates. The Centre will undertake three interconnected strands of research. The first focuses on how vulnerability develops in urban areas, drawing together diverse public sector datasets (police, health, social services and education) to understand interactions between agencies and the potential to prevent vulnerabilities. The second explores how police and partners can best collaborate in response to specific vulnerabilities, including exploitation by County Lines drug networks, online child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, modern slavery, mental illness and homelessness. The third will combine research into public opinion with a programme to embed research evidence into policy, practice and public debate, creating a new understanding of vulnerability and transforming capability to prevent harm and future vulnerabilities through integrated partnership working, reshaping the future of policing as a public service.

The project will build a strategic and innovative knowledge exchange and research co-production platform, providing a structured relationship between West Yorkshire Police (WYP), the Office of the PCC for West Yorkshire (OPCCWY) and the University of Leeds. The platform provides a model in which different mechanisms of knowledge, people and data exchange are piloted in four thematic areas of policing: partnerships; acquisitive crimes of burglary and shoplifting; community engagement and public order. The approach is driven by a combination of interdisciplinary research excellence, innovations in knowledge exchange and lasting impact on both policing and academic partners. It will seek to change the ways in which the police use evidence and insights from research as well as the ways in which researchers frame research questions and engage with policing professionals across the life-course of research. The platform will provide a two-way exchange, learning opportunities and data exploitation that embed the PCC's strategic priorities of 'innovation, income and investment'. It will seek to foster a greater appreciation among police officers for the relevance, role and value of research evidence in informing police practice, as well as a greater awareness of research methodologies and skills within the police organisation. At the same time, it will seek to foster greater understanding of the operational police challenges and encourage responsibility amongst researchers for helping shape evidence-based responses to these. In so doing, it will build an academic culture of engagement and a commitment to co-production. The four hubs will focus on: (i) the role of partnerships in promoting organisational change and the manner in which this can be analysed through co-produced research; (ii) the exploitation of large police datasets to explain and better understand the spatial and social distribution of the acquisitive crimes of burglaries and shoplifting; (iii) the evaluation of an innovative community engagement project; and (iv) public order training and the evaluation of the impact of training on police practice. Each hub will benefit from one academic research lead and one nominated police lead seconded from WYP. WYP will contribute staff time, venues and resources associated with the preparation of significant datasets (including 10 years of burglary and shoplifting data across West Yorkshire). This new collaboration will develop innovative ways to address the challenges faced by the police and will provide for: collaborative framing of the research questions from the outset; the two-way flow of knowledge and data; mutual engagement with research programmes from their inception to dissemination; joint ownership of research and its outcomes or products; enhanced research impact on policy and practice through collaboration on projects that are directly relevant to police managers; the production of an evidence-base for policy and practice, and to enable innovation; the exploitation of knowledge exchange including training opportunities; opportunities for the development of research expertise and capacity among police officers and staff; and the development of skills within policing to get research evidence used over the longer-term. The work of the project will be overseen by a Steering Group including members of the WYP senior command team and chaired by the PCC, which will meet bi-monthly. Each of the thematic hubs will produce accessible policy briefings outlining the findings as will the programme as a whole. Whilst the initial activity is focused on West Yorkshire, it is intended that benefits will attend to the region (via the N8 Policing Research Partnership) as well as national and international debate and practice. This wider dissemination will be overseen and promoted by an Advisory Board with members drawn from the College of Policing, ACPO, What Works Centre for Crime Reduction and N8.