The Knowledge Centre for Local Policing focuses on topics like area-based policing, care and safety, and conflict and crisis management. The knowledge centre in the framework of these topics conducts research into:
Our knowledge services provide knowledge to police practise and police education.
The Netherlands Police are in the heart of society and play a social role, meaning that Police Officers are often faced with social problems when performing their work. The world is always changing and those changes are also there in the lives of citizens. Therefore, the police must know what is going on. And that the police understand which social problems may cause unexpected events. This forces the police to adapt in time to new situations and changes. Being able to live safely in your own neighbourhood is important. The police work with residents and other parties to achieve this.
Under the header of "Involved policing", we study how Police Officers deal with the cultural and social differences within our country. How are the police able to recognise increasing contrast between population groups (polarisation)? And how can the police prevent matters from escalating and repair relationships in such cases? Studies into groups that live alongside instead of with each other is therefore an important subject. So is the relationship with our security partners. The Netherlands Police Academy studies how the police can best maintain this relationship. This helps Police Officers to properly do their work.
"Context-based work" means adapting one's work activities to the situation. It is important that the Netherlands Police attunes its local strategy to local problems. Of course, this is not always all that easy. Global and national events increasingly often have an impact at the district and neighbourhood levels. Drug-related crime forms an important example, be it ripping in the Port of Amsterdam or the dumping of XTC waste in the Brabantian countryside. Another example is that of the problems caused by migration, from having to shelter large numbers of refugees in asylum seekers' centres to exploitation and nuisance caused by labour migration.
"Context-based work" creates questions - questions we wish to answer in our studies. How do officials within and without the Netherlands Police cooperate to solve complex problems? Sometimes criminals are making use of legal companies and services to perform illegal activities. How can the police help citizens stand up for themselves? And how do the Netherlands Police get a grip on the digital world? This world has an ever greater impact on our local environment.
The Netherlands Police often also have a duty of care. Police Officers are faced with misunderstood behaviour and violence between people who are dependent on one another. People displaying misunderstood behaviour may suffer from social or psychological problems, or could be using prohibited substances or suffering from addiction. The police usually get involved when they cause nuisance or display behaviour that make others feel unsafe. We develop knowledge about how the police can best respond to such behaviour and on how the police can best cooperate with other parties, such as healthcare providers.
The Netherlands Police also have to deal violence which perpetrators take advantage of the fact that others are dependent on them.
The police mainly consider how its Officers can best assist the vulnerable victims and how the police can help prevent such violence. The police in this connection collaborates with organisations like the 'Veilig Thuis' domestic violence and child abuse reporting and support centre and the municipal health services. We investigate this kind of violence in relationships of dependence within families. But as well within institutions, and in the context of certain types of human trafficking.
Police Officers are often able to resolve an issue through dialogue. It is important in this connection that the Police Officer is able to correctly assess the situation and that the Officer's relational professionalism is well-developed. police are allowed to use violence. The Police Act and official instructions list the rules and conditions applicable to such use.
In investigating the use of violence, we study how Police Officers use violence and make use of the instruments of violence at their disposal, but also how they are trained in using violence. Examples of instruments of violence are tasers, pepper spray, and service weapons. We also study situations of citizens using violence against Police Officers.
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