Learning about what works

Police Scotland is committed to working in and with our communities to identify and solve problems by working together.

Project overview

This page highlights some of the research and community projects we are taking part in or leading to improve the services we deliver. Our purpose is to improve the safety and wellbeing of people, places and communities in Scotland. These case studies tell you more about what we are doing to ensure everyone in all of our communities benefits from an excellent police service they rightly expect and deserve.

Research and projects help us learn more about what works. We'd love to hear what you think. Please contact us if you have any ideas or potential opportunities to collaborate. 

Help us learn even more

Your Police is our annual survey and is open all year. Responses to this are used on a regular basis to shape how we deliver our services locally. 

Photo of a diverse group of eight people with hands stacked on top of one another in the middle of them expressing community and unity.

This is a very welcome approach by Police Scotland which recognises the importance of sharing responsibility for decision-making with representatives from local communities.

Eann Sinclair, Chair of Caithness Community Partnership
Photo of Eann Sinclair in front of Wick Harbour.

Projects

Elevate: amplifying the voices of refugees and asylum seekers

The 'Elevate' programme amplifies the voices of refugees and asylum seekers in decision-making processes across Scotland, and works to increase the understanding of their lived experience within key...

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Care Experienced Colleagues Group

Colleagues with lived experience of care from across Police Scotland have come together to form the Care Experienced Colleagues Group. The group is supported by our Partnerships, Prevention and...

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Imagine A Man: Building positive masculinity with young people

The programme has been produced by YouthLink Scotland, the national agency for youth work, and is all about building positive masculinity with young people in the midst of what is being described...

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To Be Seen and Heard

Photovoice is a research method which has been used to work with people in a variety of circumstances to try and maximise engagement and amplify their voices. We sought to understand whether and how...

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Role of Empathy in Police Contact with Young People from Disadvantaged Backgrounds

This report is concerned with a study that was funded by the Scottish Institute for Police Research as part of the Seldom Heard Voices project. Seldom-heard voices refers to groups or communities who...

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Refugee and Asylum Seeker Experiences

This study builds an understanding of the quantity and quality of refugees’ social networks, and their role in influencing public perceptions and engagement with the police. It applies the Social...

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Inquiring Together: Collaborative Research with BAME Communities and Serving Officers

This project assisted police officers to engage, as co-inquirers, with people who are seldom heard in a research and policy context: BAME communities in the Dundee, Aberdeenshire and Glasgow areas....

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Accounting for Complexities: An Intersectional Approach to Enhancing Police Practitioner Accountability, Legitimacy & Sustainable Reform

The authors undertook a literature review on intersectionality and policing to provide a critical, impact based account of scholarly/academic engagement with policing and intersectionality. This...

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Caithness: Your Police, You Decide

Caithness Voluntary Group (CVG) and Police Scotland are working together on an approach called ' Participatory Budgeting '. This will involve local people having a say over how we spend...

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