On 18 March the Authority brought together delegates from across the UK policing system for our final event of the 2025/26 knowledge exchange series. Our final event of the series, chaired by Authority member Chris Creegan, built on a successful year of in person and virtual events focused on innovative practice in policing which fosters trust and confidence.

Dr Matt Bland and Dr Andrew Wooff set the scene for the day, laying out the case for evidence informed practice and describing pathways to impact from evidence to outcomes. The rest of our programme invited speakers on each of our themes – showing the diversity of work on evidence into practice.

Under the theme of innovation we heard from SVRU, Barnardo’s, SPA Forensic Services, Police Scotland and the James Hutton Institute. During this session we learned more about street guardians, how VR is enhancing investigation and how soil sampling can deter rural crimes. Moving on to Collaboration we heard more about the Police Scotland retail crime taskforce, the work of Victim Support Scotland and the trauma informed practice approaches being embedded in policing practice. In our final thematic session of the day, we heard more about how trust is being built. Inputs covered the Scottish Government Crime and Justice survey, the Authority’s own independent public polling with the Diffley Partnership, Police Scotland’s work on trust and confidence and the in-reach work being delivered in custody by the St Giles Trust.

There was a real buzz in the room, and lots of connections being made. What stood out more than anything was the commitment to partnership and collaboration in everything that we’re doing. Many of the inputs were collaborative, and further opportunities were identified.

Knowledge exchange is a great way to share practice and ensure a continued focus on innovation. The 2025/26 series was the beginning of an Authority lead approach to evidence led innovation.