Hack the Police 2

Below is the text of a successful grant application.

Description of the proposed Event: Hack the police aims to provide a creative and supportive environment for techies, academics and police officers to get together and explore technological ways to help the police do their job as fairly and efficiently as possible. How can we aid the first responder gather evidence in the often chaotic and emotionally demanding environment that is a crime scene? Mistakes can lead to both wrongful arrests and imprisonment, the guilty going free and a waste of resources. This is in no-ones interests. How can we ensure that those damaged by crime are emotionally supported – including the police themselves? The answer to these questions will enable the building of healthier relationships between police and communities.

The event will follow traditional hack lines. We will try to build teams of tech-savvy individuals who will join others with experience in police work, victim support and research into forensic psychology. Researchers and police officers will talk about their concerns and the themes that they would like to address. Some team building, then into the exciting, creative part – hacking! In the second day we will stop around midday and ask for presentations from the floor. We will have a Professor of Forensic Psychology and experienced representatives of the police to judge the hacks presented. Hopefully, some useful tools will be presented to our judges. More importantly we hope to improve understanding of the issues faced on both sides – the needs of the police and the needs of technological developers.

How much they want: £500

What they would use the funding for: We would like to provide refreshments for our attendees. We particularly would like to be able to supply breakfast on the second day, as this will be an over night event. We want people to be able to come along and focus on the hack and not have to worry about food. We would also like to provide some prizes to the winners of the hack. Even if these are only small tokens. We are providing stickers to attendees and would like you to support our outlay on this, as stickers can be very useful in creating a sense of inclusion and continuity in individuals journey.

About them: [Edwin Burns is] a mature student studying at Goldsmiths University, London where I am a member of the Forensic Psychology Unit. Current research in the unit is looking at how biases effect the policing of stalking, both online and off; the problems with eyewitness testimony and how to ensure such evidence is accurate and well recoded by the police; exploring the development of rapport in intelligence gathering. I would like to find ways of forging links between different group to achieve a fairer more equal society. I want the academics I am being taught by to help others understand the ways they are trying to help foster justice. I would also like the same academics to understand the real life demands of coding and tech design. The leader of the unit has had her work adopted by Norway and the Netherlands – all the police in those countries have to train in her evidence gathering tools. I am concerned with best police practice, justice, combating implicit biases and supporting those who have emotional needs currently ignored by the system .