Exploring synergies within volunteering in law enforcement and public safety in the UK and Japan

  • Callender, Matthew (PI)
  • Hino, Kimihiro (CoI)
  • Britton, Iain (CoI)
  • Knight, Laura (CoI)
  • Amemiya, Mamoru (CoI)

Project Details

Description

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/S014268/1), the purpose of this project was to create a new partnership between UK and Japan-based academic and professional networks in the field of volunteering in law enforcement and public safety, form lasting links, and establish a foundation for collaboration beyond the research.

The project hosted the first International Conference on Volunteering in Policing, in Birmingham, UK in November 2019. The event included a range of academic speakers from the UK, USA, Ireland and Japan. As part of the programme, Professor Ross Wolf (University of Central Florida) delivered a keynote talk on ‘Reserves and Auxiliary Police in the United States’, Dr Kimihiro Hino (University of Tokyo) presented on 'Plus Bouhan: A new approach to protect children from crime in Japan', Dr Matthew Callender on 'Exploring synergies in volunteering in policing and public safety between the UK and Japan' and Dr Iain Britton on 'Setting an international research agenda for citizens in policing'. More than 60 delegates attended the event, including a diverse mix of academics, professionals and practitioners in policing, crime prevention and volunteer management.

Layman's description

The aim of this project was to create a new partnership between UK and Japan-based academics and professional networks in the field of volunteering in law enforcement and public safety.

Key findings

The overarching purpose of this project was to create a new partnership between UK and Japan-based academic and professional networks in the field of volunteering in law enforcement and public safety, form lasting links between UK and Japan, and establish a foundation for collaboration beyond the research.
Volunteering in law enforcement and public safety is an emergent research agenda in both the UK and Japan, yet significant opportunities exist to learn from the cultural contexts concerning how law enforcement agencies engage with the community to achieve their goals and enable citizens to protect themselves and their communities from crime.

Each of the project's four objectives are now outlined with progress for each being outlined:

1. To facilitate a cultural exchange of research and commercial knowledge between research active academics based in the UK and Japan
Two cultural exchange visits took place, which brought together academics, policy leads and senior practitioners at the national level, and included engagement with frontline practitioners and observation of volunteering in practice. Knowledge exchange workshops and discussion meetings were conducted during both visits, ensuring exchange of research, literature, ideas and practice and the development of new working relationships.

The UK team of academics was made up of Dr Matthew Callender, Dr Iain Britton and Dr Laura Knight, representing the Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice at the University of Northampton. This team of researchers have been the national evaluators of the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC) 'Citizens in Policing' programme since 2016 and undertake the role of academic advisors to the NPCC and Home Office in relation to volunteering in policing.

The Japan team of academics was made up of Dr Kimihiro Hino at the University of Tokyo, Professor Mamoru Amemiya and Sato Sanai at the University of Tsukuba. Dr Hino has been a crime prevention advisor to the government for several years and is working with Professor Amemiya and Ms Sanai on research related to the significant growth of crime prevention volunteers across Japan in recent years.
The Japan visit to UK took place between the 4th and 11th September 2019, and involved workshops and meetings with:
- Ed Barnard & Superintendent Paul Bartolomeo, policy managers at the College of Policing;
- Mary Bailey, National Police Chief's Council coordinator for Citizens in Policing in the UK;
- Esther McLaughlin, Citizens in Policing coordinator for Wales
- Aphra Brannan & Katryna Welsh, Home Office leads for Citizens in Policing
- Ed Sherry OBE, National Director, Volunteer Police Cadets
- Kent Police Citizens in Policing team
The UK visit to Japan to place between 16th and 23rd September 2019 and involved workshops and meetings with:
- Mr Ohta & colleagues, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (Juvenile Section);
- Mr Uno & colleagues, Adachi City, Tokyo, Crime Prevention Section;
- Mr Tanaka, senior managing director, Japan National Crime Prevention Association;
- Mr Kondo & colleagues, National Police Agency lead for national volunteer promotion;
- Mr Matsui & colleagues, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Office for Promotion of Citizen Safety
- Site visit to Crime Prevention Volunteer project, Kitasenju, Adachi City
The connections established in the project have created a foundation for other UK academics and policymakers in both the UK and Japan to access and develop to advance the agenda of volunteering in law enforcement and public safety.

2. To create lasting links between academic and professional networks
The project hosted the first International Conference on Volunteering in Policing, in Birmingham, UK in November 2019. The event included a range of academic speakers from UK, USA, Ireland and Japan. As part of the programme, Dr Kimihiro Hino presented on 'Plus Bouhan: A new approach to protect children from crime in Japan', Dr Matthew Callender on 'Exploring synergies in volunteering in policing and public safety between the UK and Japan' and Dr Iain Britton on 'Setting an international research agenda for citizens in policing'. More than 60 delegates attended the event, including a diverse mix of academics, professionals and practitioners in policing, crime prevention and volunteer management, mainly from UK.

Dr Ross Wolf from the University of Central Florida, also a Reserve Deputy with the Orlando Police Department, gave a keynote presentation at the International Conference, explaining in detail the various models of volunteer law enforcement across police agencies in the USA. An introductory meeting was conducted with Dr Ross Wolf, Dr Kimihiro Hino and the research team at the Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice, to develop ideas for UK-USA-Japan research work in the future. This has formally connected Japan to the existing Volunteer Law Enforcement Officer Alliance in the US, which is beginning to engage academics and practitioners beyond the US in its research and training programme, facilitating lasting links between academic and professional networks.
Following the UK visit to Japan, the IPSCJ team developed relationships with several members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Authority (TMA), which led to a follow-up meeting when the TMA visited the UK in October 2019. The IPSCJ facilitated a meeting between the TMA and the UK Home Office to compare and share ideas about national policy and practice. Representatives of the TMA visited the IPSCJ during their visit also, sharing recent research findings related to volunteer roles in community safety. The IPSCJ also facilitated a meeting between the TMA and the Northamptonshire Emergency Service Cadets, an innovative model of youth volunteering across policing, fire and rescue services and emergency response.

A briefing of the Japan-UK exchange visits was presented to the national Citizens in Policing Strategic Board on 23rd October, and options for future Japan-UK engagement were discussed with national leads. The briefing was also shared with the Citizens in Policing regional coordinators, ensuring messages were shared across England and Wales.

A series of six manuscripts are currently in development for publication in the City Planning Institute in Japan on Citizens in Policing in the UK. This will enable information to be shared across an extensive network of professionals, policy makers and academics across Japan. This will expose them to new initiatives and fundamentally different models of volunteerism in law enforcement and public safety. These groups will benefit from the established foundation for commercial and cultural exchange achieved in objective 1.

3. To compare volunteering in law enforcement and public safety within the UK and Japan, in respect of ideology, strategy, leadership and practice
Analysis workshops were undertaken during the exchange visits. From these sessions there has been a joint production of a model for international comparative typology of volunteering in law enforcement and public safety, based on several examples of practice in Japan and in the UK. This joint academic work is ongoing, and a paper is being drafted jointly by the academics engaged in the exchange.

An article was produced for professional press, Policing Insight, entitled 'A new research partnership exploring volunteers in law enforcement and public safety in the UK and Japan', published online on 31st March 2019. This paper sets the scene for international network development, summarising volunteer models in the two countries and identifying key areas for future research and consideration for practice learning. This professional policing magazine reaches audiences across 43 polices forces in England and Wales and is widely engaged at senior levels of policing and by policy and governance leads in policing and public safety.
Articles are being produced for circulation in Japan, to share knowledge of UK practice in relation to volunteers and to identify key similarities, differences and learning. A series of articles are being co-produced for the National Crime Prevention Association journal in Japan over the next year, covering a variety of aspects of volunteering in the UK and comparison to the Japan context, based on IPSCJ research products. The reach of these articles will support continued discussion about ideas, strategies, policy development and leadership models in the design and delivery of volunteering in policing and public safety.
These articles outline key differences in respect of ideology, strategy, leadership and practice in both sites, creating new opportunities and lines of enquiry for future academic studies and policy formation. It is intended that new initiatives will be developed in both sites based on the exchanges and knowledge created in the project. An example of this is a new UK-based project at a formative stage involving a partnership between the IPSCJ, the College of Policing and West Midlands Police to develop and evaluate a crime prevention volunteer programme, based on the Japanese model.

4. To identify and prioritise collaboration opportunities for future research.
As a result of this knowledge exchange work and related visits and network development, the IPSCJ is setting up a project to develop and evaluate a crime prevention volunteer programme, based on the Japanese model. The project is at the design stage, creating a partnership between the IPSCJ, the College of Policing and West Midlands Police. Additionally, and also based upon the exchange work, the IPSCJ is working with Community Speedwatch leads nationally to develop models to expand the reach and diversity of their volunteering, learning again from crime prevention volunteer programmes in Japan.

The national Police Support Volunteer (PSV) working group is developing a national action plan to develop PSVs in the UK. On 26th September in Newcastle the IPSCJ facilitated a workshop on future models, which included input from the Japan-UK exchange and key elements of learning from the Japan context, especially in relation to cyber volunteering, crime prevention volunteers and the 'Plus Bouhan' model.

Japanese academics are now involved in an ongoing collaboration between academics in the UK, USA and Malaysia to develop an academic paper on the future international research field of Citizens in Policing. The academic paper will be submitted for peer-review publication in summer 2020.
During the exchange visits, the UK-Japan research team began work to 'map' volunteer models in law enforcement and public safety around the world, engaging a wider global partnership of academics to facilitate its development. It is intended this work commences by spring 2020.

The UK-Japan research team have also put together plans to launch a new academic and policy network, the 'International Network for Police Volunteering Research', in spring 2020. Already engaging colleagues across the US, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Republic or Ireland and the Netherlands, the UK and Japan researchers on this project will play a core role in the development and sustainability of that new network model.

These developed networks, created through the project, will identify and prioritise collaboration opportunities in the field of volunteering in law enforcement and public safety.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/03/192/03/20

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