Luke Bradbury
Thesis Title: How does digitalisation of evidence use shape conflict in police encounters?
This project asks how digitalisation of evidence use shapes conflict in police encounters. Evidence is an integral yet contested element of policymaking and its tensions are arguably nowhere more pronounced than in contemporary policing. This is especially significant in an emerging era of ‘digital policing’ where the types of evidence police rely on to inform their everyday decision making is rapidly changing and becoming exceedingly complex and loaded. Understanding these conflicted dynamics is important because it reflects and affects how police-public relationships are given shape in a time of heightened societal unrest, tensions, and distrust.
It is proposed that these dynamics could be explored using Cook and Wagenaar’s (2012) practice perspective because it offers a relational view on how conflict is a negotiated and emerging dynamic of police-public encounters. It shows how conflict is both shaped by and gives shape to different forms of evidence, how evidence is used, and wider contextual dynamics. This is achieved by observing language-in-use in encounters through an ethnomethodological approach. The aim is to deepen understandings of the conflicted relational dynamics of evidence use in front-line policing with a view to both helping officers navigate the complexities of evidence and improve the public’s experience of the state by promoting more effective police decision-making and socially just relationships.
Biography:
During my educational journey, I have had the opportunity to apply both quantitative and qualitative research methods. For my undergraduate study, which was in Criminology, I looked at public attitudes towards the police and its association with fear of crime using representative survey data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales. For my MSc in Public Management, I investigated the experiences of care home staff during the COVID-19 pandemic using a phenomenological exploratory case study design. These studies reflect my broader interest in the work and experiences of frontline public professionals.
Professionally, I have worked in a number of public sector roles. I have worked in government as an Evaluation Advisor for the Office for National Statistics in which I supported analysts across departments by providing guidance on methodologies for informing policymaking. I have worked in the care industry for seven years and have also shadowed officers from Gloucestershire Constabulary through their ‘Ride Along Scheme’. I have some teaching experience having tutored in a number of subject areas including maths and history; I have also taught at the University of Cambridge as part of the Cambridge Research Innovation Programme.
Publications:
https://inlogov.com/2023/01/27/how-the-msc-public-management-course-has-helped-me-professionally-a-graduates-experience-one-year-on/
Public Engagement:
Collaborate Ghana Workshop and Community of Practice Visit - assisted on a series of events intended to facilitate collaboration between the University of Birmingham and senior public managers and academics from Ghana
Memberships:
The Political Studies Association; International Public Policy Association; Local Government Network; Research Cluster on Publics and Power; Digital Politics Research Group; Qualitative Research Network; Discourse and Rhetoric Group (Loughborough University); ESRC Parents & Carers Network Koen Bartels
Political Science & International Relations
University of Birmingham
2024 Cohort
Email:
Twitter: @LukeGBradbury
Supervisory Team:
Koen Bartels
Stephen Jeffares