National award for researcher behind new use of force tool
A researcher who contributed to a new national use of force reporting system has won a major award.
Dr Abigail Dymond received £10,000 from the 2018 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) ‘Celebrating Impact Prize’ for her work on the new system introduced last April.
This tool has provided forces with standard national statistics on when, why and how less-lethal methods of force were used, as well as any resulting injuries to officers or members of the public.
Dr Dymond was invited to contribute to the system’s development based on her PhD research into Taser use, and nine of her ten recommendations were at least partially accepted.
Rachel Tuffin, director of the What Works Centre for Crime Reduction at the College of Policing, said: “Abi winning the ESRC early career impact prize is fantastic news and illustrates the great strides being made in evidence-based policing.
“We will be building on Abi’s research championing use of force recording across the police service, working with her to analyse the national data to identify ways of improving officer and public safety.
“We were also delighted to have Abi’s contributions as part of the College committee that developed new evidence-based guidelines on officer safety, which will be published over the summer.”
The Metropolitan Police Service published its first data using the new tool last August, and praised it as a “great step forward for transparency”.
The statistics show between April and June 2017 Taser was only fired in 11 per cent of cases where it was deployed.
At least 30 English and Welsh forces have now reviewed their use of force policies or practices based on the new system.
The first national statistics from it will be published by the Home Office in September.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said: “The collation of data in this way is a positive step for the Met.
“It gives senior officers an enhanced ability to scrutinise the decisions officers take daily, and help influence the way we train officers in use of force tactics, and to ensure we are giving them the right equipment.”