11 Innovation

Following on from a recent community meeting at which the ongoing challenges of anti-social behaviour in the flats was discussed, the Superintendent has called her leadership team together to discuss ways of tackling the crisis. The community meeting was quite heated with local community members calling for more resources and a more structured response to what they see as a crisis of anti-social behaviour.

Together with community partners, the police have tried a number of different approaches to tackle the problems. Yet no matter what the police have done, the impact only seems to be short-lived and in some cases the actions taken have simply pushed the anti-social behaviour problems into other communities rather than resolving them altogether.

The Superintendent and her boss, the District Commander, are both clear: new ideas, new thinking, and new approaches are needed, but what will they be and how will they work? And how can things be done both quickly and cost effectively to meet the needs of the local community?

At the end of the meeting the Superintendent has asked you to be in charge of a new innovation team to lead innovation efforts. There will be a follow-up meeting with community leaders in two weeks time and she expects you not only to have assembled a strong team but also to have put in place a plan for developing and implementing innovation approaches to the local problems.

Activity 12 Innovation

As the person in charge of the innovation team, reflect on the following questions and develop thoughts on what you would do.

The Innovation in policing [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] course outlines a number of approaches to innovation. Drawing on that course, which approaches do you think would be most appropriate for addressing the specific challenges encountered in this community, and why?

A key step of the design thinking process outlined in the Innovation in policing course is empathy – putting yourself in the shoes of others to understand their needs, concerns and challenges. How might you put yourself in the shoes of the local community in order to develop policing solutions that work for them, as well as meeting the needs of the police?

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Discussion

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Transcript: Video: Laurie Knell

LAURENCE KNELL

My name is Lawrence Knell. I’m an associate lecturer with the Open University, and a visiting research fellow with the Open University Centre for police research and learning.

QUESTION

How could innovation help address the challenges outlined in the scenario?

LAURENCE KNELL

Innovation forms an important part of finding new ways of doing things, new approaches, new understandings, but very importantly, new solutions to existing problems. In terms of the scenario which we describe, innovation could help key stakeholders work together to understand the problems they’re facing in a different way and develop solutions that may not previously been tried.

Although having said that, these solutions may well have been tried elsewhere, and that’s a very important part of innovation integrating approaches that have been tried, tested, and perhaps even succeeded elsewhere for the benefit of all. Innovation would also help provide new insights and demonstrate a proactive approach to key stakeholders and to the local community. And this is absolutely vital when it comes to bringing stakeholders with you and finding workable solutions.

QUESTION

Which innovation approaches would be most beneficial?

LAURENCE KNELL

There are many different approaches to innovation that could be taken as a simple starting point techniques such as brainstorming would be really useful as a way of eliciting ideas, thoughts, and insights from various members of the community and various stakeholders. Building on that, however, a really interesting and developing technique of innovation is called co-creation. And co-creation is where you actively involve stakeholders in this case, members of the community in the problem finding and problem solving stages of the innovation process. What this does then is give them a sense of involvement, a sense of engagement, but also very importantly, a sense of ownership of the final solution that has been developed.

As I’ve already mentioned, a really important approach to innovation can be taking ideas from elsewhere. And in innovation speak, this is known as creative swiping. So it can be really important for communities but also for police to look at approaches that have been tested in other contexts and think about how relevant or appropriate they might be here. Now, it’s important to remember, however, that just because something has worked in a different jurisdiction and a different country or with a different cohort of stakeholders, doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to work here as well. So care always has to be taken to adapt any approaches to the specific needs and the specific challenges faced in your context.

QUESTION

Why is empathy so important for innovation?

LAURENCE KNELL

Empathy is vital for innovation in order to really understand how people are feeling, what people are experiencing, what challenges people are seeing. And as a consequence from that platform, you can then develop solutions that really meet their needs. Putting yourself in the shoes of the community is vital in order to develop solutions that meet the needs of the community rather than perhaps meeting your needs if you are an external stakeholder, for example, in policing.

And this is always a risk. It’s very easy for someone to come in from the outside and say, this is what I see. This is what you need to do.

But how will that impact people on the ground? And what impact will that have? Well, a really important place to start is by developing empathy.

QUESTION

How can police and local communities innovate?

LAURENCE KNELL

Building upon the points already made. There are a number of key things that police and local communities can do in order to innovate more effectively. First of all, take time to really understand the problem. It's easy to think about gut reactions or it’s easy to draw upon prior experience, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will address the problem that we’re seeing here and now.

Secondly, consider alternative solutions. There are always many ways of solving any particular problem, whatever that problem might be. So take the time to consider a range of different solutions – the pros, the cons, the cost, the benefits, and, of course, the various impacts. And find the one or indeed the multiple solutions that might be beneficial for you, and try them out.

Key to that is looking for evidence-based approaches from elsewhere and then working towards some pilot, some testing phase before full implementation. The last thing anyone wants to do is to implement a solution without having fully tested it and understood whether it will meet the needs of your particular community, your particular context, and your particular set of problems.

It can be costly. It can be time consuming. And it can also have significant negative impacts for all stakeholders involved, including first and foremost, the community. As a consequence, taking the time to really test and pilot ideas upfront, perhaps in a small measured and managed way, can yield significant benefits for the longer term.

End transcript: Video: Laurie Knell

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