INTERACT (Investigating New Types of Engagement, Response And Contact Technologies in Policing)

近年来，市民与警方联络的方式已发生重大变化。虽然许多联系仍然是面对面的，但许多警察组织已经引入了不同类型的通信技术，例如在线报告犯罪和回答询问，身体佩戴的摄像机，移动的数据终端以及使用社交媒体帐户。因此，公众越来越有可能以“技术中介”的方式遇到警务工作。在英国，国家警察局长理事会支持这一转变，并有一系列工作集中在开发技术，供公众使用，以联系警方，因为他们认为，公众现在希望警务将是“在线”，就像其他服务一样。然而，虽然人们关注技术可以做什么，特别是它可以为警察做什么，但这场遭遇的公众方面几乎没有被考虑过。例如，在线报告可能会吸引一些人，或者对某些犯罪类型特别有用，但我们对人们如何体验这些类型的互动并不了解，因此无法确信它们在任何情况下都会使每个人受益。我们也不知道这些发展是否会影响人们对警察的看法和行为。因此，该项目的重点是了解将技术引入警察和公众之间对话的影响。研究的两个主要目的，是探讨市民对这些新发展的感受，以及研究警方可以及应该如何设计其制度，以更能反映市民的需要和期望。PoLITIC旨在包括一系列不同的群体和个人，例如那些对使用数字技术或多或少有信心的人，以及那些有特殊接入需求的人（例如聋人社区）。我们的目标是制定政策和做法，以改善服务的提供。我们将与三支警察部队、各社区和国家警务组织密切合作，使我们的调查结果能够直接和积极地影响警察的工作，从而影响公众能够做些什么来获得警察服务。我们知道，当人们与警察互动时，他们会得出结论，他们有多支持警察，警察的工作有多好，以及他们有多信任警察。但这些知识是基于一项研究，该研究假设大多数或所有警察和公众的接触都是面对面的，人与人之间的接触，就像几十年来所做的那样。最多可能涉及一部电话。鉴于这种情况正在发生变化，我们必须重新考虑我们的公共信任和警察合法性理论，并探讨它们是否适合当前环境的目的，并对未来的新发展进行检验。因此，POLITIC旨在通过使用访谈，焦点小组和扩展观察等方法来探索警察和公众对技术介导的接触的经验和理解，以更深入地了解这些新的接触形式。为了帮助我们了解体验可能存在的差异，我们将在各种不同的地点（例如城市和农村）进行研究，并与各种社区合作。我们亦会考虑在数码时代，让警方“可见”和“可接触”的意义，并评估市民对警方可被看见和接触的不同方式的感受。一系列的在线实验研究将补充定性方法，并使我们能够估计的因果关系的影响，例如，不同形式的调解对信任。运用多种方法，我们的研究将发展的警察合法性在不断变化的时代的理解，并允许我们建议的方式为警察在公众眼中保持合法性在21世纪世纪。

Over recent years, the ways in which members of the public can contact the police have undergone significant change. Whilst much contact is still face-to-face, many police organisations have introduced different types of communication technology, such as online reporting of crimes and answering of queries, body worn video cameras, mobile data terminals, and the use of social media accounts. As a result, the public is increasingly likely to encounter policing in ways that are 'technologically-mediated'. In the UK, the National Police Chiefs' Council supports this shift, and has a portfolio of work focused on developing technologies for use by the public to contact the police because, they believe, the public now expects that policing will be 'online' just as other services are. However, while attention is being paid to what technology can do, and particularly what it can do for the police, the public side of this encounter has barely been considered. Online reporting (for example) may appeal to some people, or be particularly useful for some crime types, but we do not know enough about how people experience these types of interactions to be confident that they will benefit everyone, in all circumstances. Nor do we know if and how these developments might affect the way people feel about, and act in relation to, the police. This project therefore focuses on understanding the implications of introducing technologies into conversations between the police and the public. Two main objectives are to explore how members of the public feel about these new developments, and to consider the ways in which the police can and should design their systems to better reflect people's needs and expectations. PoLITiC is designed to include a range of different groups and individuals, for example those who are more and less confident using digital technologies, and those with particular access needs (for example the deaf community). We aim to shape policy and practice, with a view to improving service provision. We will work closely with three police forces, with various communities, and with national policing organisations, so that our findings can directly and positively influence what the police do, and therefore what the public are able to do to access police services. We know that when people interact with the police they come to conclusions about how much they support the police, how good the police are at their jobs, and how much they trust what the police do. But this knowledge is based on research which assumes that most or all police and public contact happens face-to-face, person-to-person, as it has done for decades. At most a telephone may be involved. Given that this situation is changing, it is important that we reconsider our theories of public trust and police legitimacy, and explore if they are fit for purpose in the current environment and future-proof against new developments. PoLITiC therefore aims to explore police and public experiences and understandings of technologically-mediated contact by using methods such as interviews, focus groups, and extended observations to gain a deeper understanding of these new forms of contact in action. To help us understand how experiences may differ, we will carry out our research in a variety of different locations (for example urban and rural) and will work with various communities. We will also consider what it means for the police to be 'visible' and 'accessible' in a digital age and assess how the public feel about the different ways the police can be seen and contacted. A series of on-line experimental studies will complement the qualitative methods, and allow us to estimate the causal effects of, for example, different forms of mediation on trust. Using a variety of methods our research will develop understandings of police legitimacy in changing times, and allow us to recommend ways for the police to stay legitimate in the eyes of the public in the 21st century.