UPSI provides an integrated model that develops and uses research to directly inform the education of police officers at all levels and to shape the direction of policy and practice. Of particular importance in enabling our work to achieve ‘real world’ impact is the highly collaborative approach to research and training that we have developed. At the University of Glamorgan police probationer training is undertaken by a team of academic staff working directly alongside experienced police trainers. In conducting research, the team at Cardiff are frequently engaged in direct collaborations with police officers. This helps to ensure that our findings and recommendations fully reflect the complexities of the realities of modern police work, whilst also being rigorously informed by robust methodological frameworks.
This does not mean that our relationship with our police partners is always necessarily comfortable and easy. Indeed, part of UPSI’s role in working with the police is to challenge and critique accepted ways of doing things, in order to encourage reform and improvement where it is needed.
Another important facet of the UPSI approach is that it is genuinely inter-disciplinary in its orientations. The team at Cardiff University includes experienced field researchers with backgrounds in: Criminology; Experimental Psychology; Geography; Research Methods; Educational Research; History; and Sociology.
It is this combination of ingredients that has led us to be recognised internationally as a leading centre for innovative thinking about the future of policing.
Learn about the UPSI Governance and Management structure - Click here
