Suzanne joined the Metropolitan Police in London in 2000 beginning in Frontline Policing in North West London, her career to date has included postings in public order, firearms, intelligence and rebuilding trust. Suzanne worked in the MPS Strategic Insight Unit for 2 years identifying opportunities to link with existing research networks (inside and outside of the Met) and business units to design and test, making recommendations to MPS Management Board of best evidence. These projects include children in custody, arrests, public confidence and assaults on police. Suzanne is a former staff officer to the Commissioner and following a one year secondment to the Policing Productivity Review she now works on the Met’s Firearms Reform programme. Suzanne holds a Masters of Applied Criminology from the University of Cambridge and continues to mentor a number of students on the M.St programme. Research interests include the Guardian RCT and the efficiency of stop and search which her thesis focused on.
Presentations
Independent Review into Productivity in Policing and Recommendations on how to Improve it. Commissioned by UK Home Office
The Policing Productivity Review was commissioned in September 2022 by the former Home Secretary to identify ways in which forces across England and Wales can improve outcomes for the public by increasing productivity. Funded by the Home Office and supported by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), the independent review is led by former Chief Constable, Alan Pughsley QPM. The review team comprises serving and former police officers, police staff, and other subject matter experts.
The first phase of the review considered barriers to productivity, including mental ill health demand, Home Office counting rules, and criminal justice processes, as well as the benefits of a model process and a police endowment fund.
The review highlighted multiple opportunities for policing to become more productive. If implemented in full, the recommendations have the potential to free up around 38 million hours over the next five years, ensuring that forces can prioritise the core policing issues the public want to see officers focus on. Being a practical piece of work, some of the solutions recommended by the review are already being implemented across the country.
Project Guardian
Preventing and reducing offending by children is an important focus for policing. The Metropolitan Police Strategic Insight Unit (SIU) “Children in Custody Sprint” (2019), identified that a significant proportion of children arrested were not offered any support by police at the time of their first arrest (due to not being convicted or otherwise accused) and then went on to re-offend. The SIU recommended considering what options there were to offer support with the aim of preventing future offending. From this the idea of Guardian was born.
Guardian is a light touch video and information-based intervention that was aimed at the appropriate adults (AAs) of child arrestees. This approach was designed to capitalise on the initial contact in custody to improve both the AAs’ opinion of the police and also prevent reoffending. Guardian was implemented as a randomised control trial (RCT). Suzanne will present the results of a one year follow up that examined reoffending and what impact the intervention had on the AA custody experience.