The Centre for Operational Police Research
Launched in 2014, the Centre for Operational Police Research (COPR) is a new interdisciplinary research centre bringing together the departments of Warwick Business School (WBS), Law and Psychology. With the aim of developing a research agenda that is both intellectually innovative and has clear policy and practice implications within policing, we have built a network at chief officer level of 12 police forces across England and Wales.
The COPR promotes high-quality interdisciplinary research and there are already several small-scale projects in progress. The Centre provides a strong, coherent external identity for this emergent academic grouping and will help us to strengthen the interdisciplinary nature of our collaboration. It also aims to become a platform for the promotion of public engagement activities (from policing seminars through to training events).
Our network has the largest number of police forces as partners (signed up at Assistant Chief Constable level or above). We offer an approach to policing research that encompasses organisational and individual behaviour (from both Business School and Psychology disciplinary perspectives), as well as the legal regulation of criminal investigations and suspects' rights (from a Law perspective, using a socio-legal approach).