Collaboration

The overall aim of the project is to develop a socio-technical system for Citizen Forensics that will enrich and deepen collaboration between citizens and the police, through the exchange of data gathered using a variety of digital technologies, to support investigation of crimes and enhance public safety. The project will support a new engagement between authorities (such as the police) and communities of citizens in order to better investigate (and in the long term reduce) potential or actual threats to citizen security, safety, and privacy.

Adaptive Architecture

We will investigate the role of adaptive technologies in the context of police investigations and public safety for enhancing the role of the “digital citizen” through the creation of “virtual civic spaces” for citizen-police collaboration. We will use our findings to build an adaptive software architecture that supports the contextual information flows required to deliver the community-police collaborations envisaged for Citizen Forensics, preserving key properties such as privacy and forensic-soundness.

Multi-disciplinary

We will draw on expertise in computing, policing, psychology and organisational theory to deliver on these objectives working together with our partners who represent both policing organisations and communities, as well as the broader community of researchers, policy makers and software developers. This will enable the co-creation of research challenges and their solutions.

Frontiers in Psychology

Elphick Camilla, Philpot Richard, Zhang Min, Stuart Avelie, Pike Graham, Strathie Ailsa, Havard Catriona, Walkington Zoe, Frumkin Lara A., Levine Mark, Price Blaine A., Bandara Arosha K., Nuseibeh Bashar

Digital Detectives: Web sleuthing Reduces Eyewitness Identification Accuracy in Police Lineups

Eyewitnesses to crimes sometimes search for a culprit on social media before viewing a police lineup, but it is not known whether this affects subsequent lineup identification accuracy. The present online study was conducted to address this. Two hundred and eighty-five participants viewed a mock crime video, and after a 15–20 min delay either (i) viewed a mock social media site including the culprit, (ii) viewed a mock social media site including a lookalike, or (iii) completed a filler task. A week later, participants made an identification from a photo lineup. It was predicted that searching for a culprit on social media containing the lookalike (rather than the culprit) would reduce lineup identification accuracy. There was a significant association between social media exposure and lineup accuracy for the Target Present lineup (30% more of the participants who saw the lookalike on social media failed to positively identify the culprit than participants in the other conditions), but for the Target Absent lineup (which also included the lookalike) there was no significant association with lineup identification accuracy. The results suggest that if an eyewitness sees a lookalike (where they are expecting to see the culprit) when conducting a self-directed search on social media, they are less likely to subsequently identify the culprit in the formal ID procedure.

International Journal of Police Practice and Research

Elphick, Camilla; Philpot, Richard; Zhang, Min; Stuart, Avelie; Walkington, Zoe; Frumkin, Lara; Pike, Graham; Gardner, Kelly; Lacey, Mark; Levine, Mark; Price, Blaine; Bandara, Arosha and Nuseibeh, Bashar

Building trust in digital policing: A scoping review of community policing apps

Perceptions of police trustworthiness are linked to citizens’ willingness to cooperate with police. Trust can be fostered by introducing accountability mechanisms, or by increasing a shared police/citizen identity, both which can be achieved digitally. Digital mechanisms can also be designed to safeguard, engage, reassure, inform, and empower diverse communities. We systematically scoped 240 existing online citizen-police and relevant third-party communication apps, to examine whether they sought to meet community needs and policing visions. We found that 82% required registration or login details, 55% of those with a reporting mechanism allowed for anonymous reporting, and 10% provided an understandable privacy policy. Police apps were more likely to seek to reassure, safeguard and inform users, while third-party apps were more likely to seek to empower users. As poorly designed apps risk amplifying mistrust and undermining policing efforts, we suggest 12 design considerations to help ensure the development of high quality/fit for purpose Police/Citizen apps.

CHI’20

Zhang, Min; Bandara, Arosha; Price, Blaine and Nuseibeh, Bashar

Finding & Evaluating Community Policing Apps in Asia

The increasingly-adopted mobile devices create new opportunities for the police to engage with citizens at anywhere and anytime. However, there has been limited academic work evaluating these technologies. This paper reports an auto-ethnographic evaluation study of Android community policing (CP) applications (Apps) used in Asia. Without guidance, our study indicates that finding appropriate Asian CP Apps is challenging. This paper reports the descriptive App store characteristics, functionalities, communication channels, and
privacy of CP Apps. We conclude with design implications and call for developing the standardized App store description system and a CP App evaluation model.

CHI’20

Bandara, Arosha; Zhang, Min; Price, Blaine; Pike, Graham; Elphick, Camilla; Walkington, Zoe; Frumkin, Lara; Philpot, Richard; Levine, Mark; Stuart, Avelie and Nuseibeh, Bashar

Towards Citizen Forensics: Improving Citizen-Police Collaboration

Pervasive digital technologies are increasingly used to record different aspects of citizens’ lives, from
activity and location tracking, to social interactions and video recordings of life experiences. However, effective use of these technologies to strengthen collaborations between citizens and police requires a
fresh examination of the creation and use of evidence. We extend the concept of Citizen Forensics to denote this new model of citizen-police collaboration. By drawing on the literature on citizen science and
community policing, we identify the challenges that must be addressed to meet the important societal need of improving citizen-police collaborations.

CHI’20

Zhang, Min; Bandara, Arosha; Price, Blaine; Pike, Graham; Walkington, Zoe; Elphick, Camilla; Frumkin, Lara; Philpot, Richard; Levine, Mark; Stuart, Avelie and Nuseibeh, Bashar

Designing Technologies for Community Policing

Community policing faces a combination of new challenges and opportunities due to both citizens and police
adopting new digital technologies. However, there is limited scholarly work providing evidence for how
technologies assist citizens’ interactions with the police. This paper reports preliminary findings from
interviews with 13 participants, both citizens and police officers, in England. We recognize four key types
of actors in the current practice of community policing, alongside existing technologies and challenges
faced by citizens and the police. We conclude with three design implications for improving citizen-police
engagement.

Social Issues and Policy Review

Mark Levine; Richard Philpot; Anastasiia G. Kovalenko

Rethinking the Bystander Effect in Violence Reduction Training Programs

Many violence prevention programs include a focus on the role of bystanders and third parties in violence-prevention training. Central to this work has been the classic social psychological research on the
“bystander effect”. However, recent research on bystander behaviour shows that the bystander effect does not hold in violent or dangerous emergencies. Meta‐analyses of the literature show that the presence of others can facilitate as well as inhibit intervention in emergencies. Studies of real‐life bystander behaviour captured on CCTV cameras shows that some bystander intervention is the norm and that the likelihood of bystanders being victimized is low. One reason for the limited effectiveness of violence reduction programs may be their approach to bystanders. We argue that violence reduction programs should: recognize that some intervention is likely (although it may not always be successful); see the group as a route to successful intervention rather than a threat to the likelihood of any single individual becoming an intervener; inform bystanders of the real risks of victimization; utilize the power of social relations between bystanders, victims, and perpetrators to enhance successful intervention; seek to deliver bystander intervention training in situ, rather than away from the context of the aggression or violence.