The Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre aims to reshape how the police and other organisations work together in order to reduce harm among vulnerable people in society.
The police have always dealt with vulnerable people but increasingly they have been drawn into policing complex problems that they cannot solve on their own, such as modern slavery, county lines drug networks, mental health, online child sexual victimisation, and domestic abuse.
These problems have been made much worse by austerity, with the police having to fill gaps left by underfunded public services and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Our research explores how vulnerabilities are produced, exacerbated and mitigated by policing, and how the police and other services can be best used to prevent and reduce vulnerabilities.