Research Jurjen Jansen inaugurated as professor at the Netherlands Police Academy Written on Friday, January 31, 2025 In recent years, society has been becoming increasingly digitalised. And this has gone hand in hand with explosive growth in online crime. So how can the police ensure that their knowledge stays up to date in this ever more digital society? And that now and in the future they will still be able to operate effectively? Professor Jurjen Jansen is a strong advocate of continued learning, and learning from each other, to increase the ‘digital resilience’ of the police, individuals, and organisations. ‘You have to undergo regular training in using your service weapon, so why not also for your digital weapons? After all, you’ll hardly ever use your service weapon, whereas could potentially have to deploy your digital “weapons” much more often’. This statement was part of Jurjen Jansen’s inaugural lecture at the Netherlands Police Academy’s Apeldoorn campus. After the lecture, Leonard Kok, Director of the Police Academy, installed Jansen as Professor in Digital Resilience of Individual and Organisation, a joint professorship of the Police Academy and NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. Human-focused cyber resilience This professorship and the associated research group are part of the Police Academy’s Centre of Knowledge on Digitalisation and Technology. The research speaks to the expectation that almost everybody will face cyber-attacks: the group’s three research lines focus on individuals, organisations, and the police, respectively. ‘The police of today and tomorrow must invest in digital skills. That way the organisation will remain effective in the fight against crime, will help groups increase their own safety, and will maintain its connection with these groups. The crucial link in the digital safety and security chain is the individual human being. Our research focuses on strengthening, supporting, and further facilitating this human link. With this in mind, we are committed to “human-focused cyber resilience”. When individual citizens and businesses can no longer solve a given problem for themselves, then the police come into play.’ Keeping pace with developments Our increasingly digitalised society confronts the police with various challenges, such as how to strengthen their own digital skills and how to handle online crime. ‘My research group contributes to developing a police organisation that is digitally skilled and resilient, with particular attention for digital expertise’, Jurjen points out. ‘The most important question within the police-oriented research line is: how can we help police employees acquire the knowledge and skills they need for digital aspects of policing? And how can we help them more structurally to protect themselves against digital risks? We want to augment knowledge about policing in an increasingly digitalised society. And we want to expand the repertoire of actions available to police employees. The ultimate aim of our research is for it to help build a police organisation that keeps pace with digital developments.’ Policing at the local level Jurjen mainly focuses on policing at the local level, within the frontline teams. ‘For policing at that local level, the main thing is for police officers to be aware of the different forms of online crime. They need to be able to recognise these different forms and register reports of online crime correctly; and they need to be able to identify digital traces and in some cases to understand and secure them. In addition, police officers should be able to work systematically in criminal investigations and should be aware of the legal and ethical framework. So police organisations need to invest in the resources and training required to keep up with the rapidly changing digital landscape, so as to tackle those challenges to effective police operations.’ Input The research group’s work is also important for policing practice and police education. ‘One important result of research is the systematic development of new knowledge and solutions. The results must not only be relevant for other researchers, but above all for application in policing practice and for society in a broader sense. In our studies, the questions come from policing practice. For that reason, we increasingly collaborate directly with the police on the ground, in the form of action research. This means that a considerable part of learning occurs on the job, which we refer to as ‘informal learning’. The research is also intended to provide input for further developing education. ‘Both lecturer-researchers and students work together on the studies. In this way, the results feed into teaching, both directly and indirectly. And this contributes to the further professionalisation of the lecturer-researchers themselves. At the same time, we also focus on “formal teaching and learning” by providing and developing education, both for the Police Academy and for NHL Stenden Hogeschool. This forms part of an associate degree up to Master’s level, ensuring that the professorship and research group maintain a connection with and provide input for education.’ Further information The full text of Jurjen Jansen’s inaugural lecture 'Samen sterker in een digitaliserende samenleving: van en met elkaar leren' (in Dutch) is available in the Police Academy’s multimedia library.