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.
Police Scotland's approach to engagement is built on the recognition that there is much to learn from communities and we can achieve far more when we collaborate as equal partners.
By actively responding to community recommendations, Police Scotland has shown that amplifying local voices, supported by a genuine willingness to listen, can drive systemic change.
Projects
Young people shape our Corporate Parenting Plan
We commissioned the Scottish Youth Parliament to work with us for six months in 2024. We wanted young people to take the lead in designing our engagement approach to ensure young people with care...
The Impacts of ‘Social Mixing Activities’ on Connectedness and Social Cohesion in West Lothian
A mixed-method study to examine the effectiveness of social mixing activities in promoting social cohesion between the long-term and new residents in West Lothian, Scotland. The key...
Police Scotland Youth Volunteers (PSYV) go to New Zealand
PSYV recently took part in a Leadership and Development Course in New Zealand. This case study covers the highlights of their experience. This was a partnership between Police Scotland , New...
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...
Merkinch & South Kessock (Inverness): Your Place, Your Point
Highland Community Planning Partnership, Highland Third Sector Interface, Youth Highland, Scottish Community Development Centre and Police Scotland are working together on an approach called '...
Leadership & challenge accreditation awarded to Police Scotland Youth Volunteers (PSYV) at Loch Eil
A total of 104 youth volunteers from across Scotland attended an SCQF accredited Adventure and Challenge Award course at the Outward Bound Trust , Loch Eil near Forth William. ...
Police Scotland Youth Volunteers (PSYV) Academic Evaluation
Police Scotland has commissioned the first ever academic-led evaluation of the Police Scotland Youth Volunteers programme. Running over two and a half years, the evaluation will seek to understand...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...