A foot in the door, but requiring permission to stay: reflections on positionality, ethics and values during postgraduate research collaboration with the police

Positioning the police as stakeholders in research promotes and permits their engagement with the research, from data gathering to application of the findings (Rycroft-Malone et al., 2016). In theory, collaborative research provides the opportunity for the co-production of knowledge between institutional actors and researchers (Janasoff, 2004). However, research in policing lags behind that in other public sectors, “characterised by mutual misunderstanding, suspicion, distrust and disengagement” (Crawford, 2020: 508). Competing priorities and values can significantly obstruct collaborative efforts between the police and researchers, instigating a ‘dialogue of the deaf’, hindering meaningful co-production (Bradley & Nixon, 2009). This paper on research experience gained during a PhD project that ran from 2018 to 2023 in collaboration with an English police force to reflect on the benefits, challenges and ‘messiness’ (Crawford, 2020) of collaboration and co-production of knowledge between policing and academia. Findings explore the role of positionality of the researcher to explore the nature of privilege within research, as well as the navigation of ethics and values when operating as an outsider invited into an institutional environment such as the police. Finally, the paper reflects on a future framework of collaborative working for researchers who wish to study the police and similar organisations.