College’s new ‘practice bank’ a ‘big step’ in identifying interventions for policing and crime reduction, says HMICFRS

The new sharing platform connects police forces with crime reduction agencies to help fight crime.

It is made up of shared interventions that have been implemented by crime reduction and community safety organisations, including policing. These have been used to address specific crime problems or organisational change, including best practice and learning identified in inspection reports published by HMICFRS.

The college says the practice bank has been developed to share information about implementing these interventions, allow others to build on existing work and support innovation.

It includes examples on homicide prevention, diversity and inclusion and violence against women and girls. Filters can help identify possible initiatives for forces to apply in their own area and each intervention is labelled as ‘worked’, ‘promising’, ‘new/innovative’ or ‘didn’t work’.

Rachel Tuffin, director of What Works, diversity and inclusion portfolio and professional communities at the College of Policing, said: “This is an opportunity for everyone working to reduce crime to share their practice in a central place. The practice bank will include examples and ideas from across the crime reduction sector and will also allow people to share and see practice which focuses on organisational change.

“The bank will include promising, new or original examples as well as practice that didn’t work so people can learn from each other and save time, money and better protect the public.”

Andy Cooke QPM, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services, added: “Every day, police forces across the country are testing new ways of preventing and tackling crime and supporting victims.

“The new practice bank will act as a one-stop shop for police forces to learn from each other, while also making it easier for us to share the positive practice we find during our inspections.

“We urge all forces to play their part by sharing their experiences through the bank.”

HMICFRS said it “is committed to capitalising on our independent insight and learning and sharing this with the sectors we inspect”.

It added: “As part of this, we are pleased to announce the launch of the practice bank – an innovative online platform developed by the College of Policing with support from HMICFRS.

“This has been designed as a public-facing shared space and provides information on tactics, knowledge and advice across the criminal justice sector.

“Sharing our experiences of what works, and even what doesn’t work, will help police forces to learn from each other and better serve the public.

“HMICFRS will continue to be a key contributor to the development of the practice bank.

“We will be identifying examples of promising, new or original practice within policing as we carry out inspections. These examples, already available through our inspection reports, will be added to the practice bank to ensure they are easy to access.

“This is a big step towards providing a single source of the truth to improve outcomes and help us all work together to tackle crime more effectively.”

The platform includes ‘practice’:

• Identified as ‘smarter’ practice that has been tried in a force and reviewed by the College of Policing, HMICFRS and the National Police Chiefs’ Council and is considered suitable for further testing;
• Which has won a Tilley award for problem-oriented projects that achieved measurable success in resolving issues faced by the police, partners and the community; and
• Which received funding for local innovation across science, technology, analysis and research (Police STAR Fund).

For further information visit https://www.college.police.uk/support-forces/practices