1. • Who we are
• What we do
• POLKA
Kate.Grady@college.pnn.police.uk
2. The changes within Policing
• Appointment of Crime Commissioners
New agencies
• SOCA, the serious organised crime agency
becomes the National Crime Agency, NCA
• Home Office retains policy
• Police IT systems temporarily with Home
Office
• New Professional Body – College of Policing
3. Command and control vs collaboration
Police
Command and Control
Online collaboration
Sharing, caring and generally
socialising in a work context,
everyone is equal
4. Who we are
• An independent professional membership formed
in November 2012
• Chaired by Professor Shirley Pearce CBE and Chief
Exec Chief Constable Alex Marshall
5. A professional membership body
•
For UK’s 43 Police forces, over
250,000 police officers, staff
and volunteers
Extending reach to include
•
•
•
•
Policing Crime Commissioners
Academic bodies, researchers
and learning providers
Wider police and security
organisations
Emergency response and
national resilience partners
6. What does the College do?
–
–
Identify, develop and promote good practice based on evidence
–
Accredit training providers and set learning and development outcomes
–
Support police forces and other organisations to work together to
protect the public and prevent crime
–
•
Set standards for Police professional practice
Identify, develop and promote ethics, values and standards of integrity
Provide the ‘What works Centre for Crime Reduction’
– To identify, develop and promote good practice based on evidence
7. What is POLKA
The Police OnLine Knowledge Area
Established in 2008
Using social media tools enable
colleagues to connect online, sharing
what works in practice, discussing
ideas and helping each other to
innovate
Online communities
Currently 252, managed and
facilitated by Police officers and staff
from Police Forces and associated
organisations
8. Police security
The Police Online Knowledge Area
Available on the secure RESTRICTED
Police National Network (PNN) &
Government Service Intranet (GSi)
A curse and a blessing!
9. POLKA management and development
• External software managed and supported through third party
• Quarterly development cycle for new features
• Internal POLKA team
- POLKA help desk for queries
- Manage set up of communities
- Provide training & awareness
- Culture change and marketing
10. Firearms Community
• Private Community
• 1888 registered members
• Sharing experiences and advice
• Tips informing purchasing
13. Who’s using POLKA?
Potential audience - 250,000 Police officers and staff from across the
country, along with other government agency staff
Current stats
- 252 Communities
- over 60,000 registered members
- 110 registered organisations – eg. MOD
- 1,000 new registered users month
- over 10,000 registered users active every month
15. Communities
• Requested and set up centrally
• Specific project or subject based
• Short term or longer term
• With clear objective/s and audience
• Clear ownership
Community lead/owner
Two named facilitators
Hi, I’m Kate Grady, head of online collaboration for the College of Policing
Here’s an outline of what I’d like to cover off today
To set the scene and explain where the College of Policing and POLKA fits into the policing landscape.
Fundamental change in police and it’s management over the last year.
Policing Crime commissioners were appointed by the public end of last year
Government changes - Closure of NPIA
NCA – the national crime agency incorporating SOCA, the serious organised crime agency
Home office – Policy & IT
Opening up of the College of Policing – with the aim to become independent of government
I have a commercial background originally and was surprised at the Police Command and control environment. I now realise it’s necessary to operate front line policing but this often conflicts with the spirit of online collaboration
CULTURE SHOCK
Various agencies over the years, latterly NPIA and became College in November 2012
Alex ex Hampshire Chief Constable running the force
See ourselves alongside other professional bodies
43 forces across Britain
Newly formed Crime commissioners
Selected by Cabinet office to host What Works Centre for Crime Reduction. Co funded by the College and the ESRC – The Economic & Social research council
Similar to The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent organisation that provides guidance on the promotion of good health and the Education Endowment Foundation for Education.
Partnership with a consortium from University College London (UCL), the Institute of Education (IoE), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Birkbeck College, and Cardiff, Dundee, Surrey and Southampton universities.
Acheivements already
Joint study with GMP to improve policing experience for victims of crime
Peer review into Surrey Police’s approach to past child sex investigations
Reviews also underway into existing guidance on undercover police deployments, and leadership courses at all levels.
Online communities
2008 – bringing disparate websites together
Blogs, discussion forums, wiki’s, etc.
Police provide different levels of classification of data and there’s lots of security around it
RESTRICTED network and potential future to expand on to a ‘secure’ internet space
Ups and downs in the third party relationship but now clearer understanding of the business
Follow Agile project management methods
Work closely with our user groups to ensure priorities are right
Typical community
Firearms
One of the larger POLKA communities, with 1133 members, the Uniform Operational Support – Firearms community provides a valuable space for firearms users to share knowledge and insight. In a recent example, members from West Yorkshire, Cleveland, Durham, Lincolnshire and CNC have been sharing documentation and experience around particular pieces of hardware and their benefits, to enable more informed procurement decisions.
Screen shot
Different levels of communities – Open, Private and Hidden. We encourage open as much as possible.
Facilitators
Super User Group
Learning to POLKA
Some communities such as firearms may be private but wish to share some of their documentation wider and so can share with the Knowledge Bank
Specialist communities Other communities share with wider audience
Based upon areas of specialism, teams, projects
Missing Persons:
One of the most active communities in POLKA, with many examples of knowledge sharing. A current discussion centres on the best methods for calculating the average cost of a missing person investigation – and has received inputs from multiple forces (West Midlands, Devon & Cornwall and Northumbria) sharing information and experience that might otherwise have been only available locally.
Another discussion took place around legislation changes. Exploiting vulnerable children. Child abduction notices changed, they weren’t well known and not used particularly effectively. In a house where elders may be ‘bribing’ 13/14 year olds with alcohol and cigarettes, they would previously be taken back to their care home and that would be all. New legislation now allows officers to warn the potential perpetrator. Emphasis now on the criminals rather than the kids.
The ACPO Police Dog community
Use their Blog as a ‘Dog’s wanted or needed page’, which created a much needed space to ensure dogs are re-homed, advertised when available and requested when needed, enabling Dog Handlers to work together nationally. It’s had over 2,800 views between Sep 11-July 12 and is one of the most successful blog posts on POLKA.
Forensics
Murder crime scene – re write policy
Sharing ideas on developments. Budget say.
Public Order
The Public Order Community on POLKA is aimed at Public Order Commanders and practitioners, and used extensively by the Public Order training fields. The community gives the members the opportunity to speak to each other quickly and independently without having to go through formal consultations or create separate email networks. Training materials are particular popular documents in the community, and help contribute to the 1,000 documents regularly being downloaded every month (average is around 150 downloads). Julian Roadwright , T/Inspector Public Order and Public Safety, says that the community has enabled ‘Early notifications of changes to PPE and work equipment, have allowed forces to keep up to date with developments and plan for the future.’
Share what I’ve learned because people share back
I’ve used POLKA to share research
Help other forces share good practice and avoid wheel re-invention
Environmental scanning
Major Crime scene enquiries
