Multi-university study into the protection of public facing professionals wins Home Office Academic Innovation Award for Security and Policing
The multi-university research project 'Protecting public-facing professionals and their dependents online' (3PO) for which Katrin Mueller-Johnson is the Oxford research lead, has won the Home Office Academic Innovation Award for Security and Policing 2025.
Led by Professor P Saskia Bayerl of Sheffield Hallam University the £3.4m project aimed to understand the unique risks faced by police officers, police staff and their families online and to develop training and technological tools to keep them safe. It was created in a highly interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars from criminology, psychology, sociology, linguistics, management sciences, design, law and computer sciences from 5 UK universities, as well as police partners from 6 UK police forces and funded by UKRI under the strategic strategies fund. The project started in April 2022 and ran for three years.
The first part of the project examined the risks officers and their families faced by conducting a social media analyses mapping the different types of harms encountered. In-depth interviews and focus groups with police officers, police staff, their life partners and teenage children families explored further the harms faced and their impact as well as strategies to keep themselves safe online. An UK wide prevalence survey of experiences of role-related online harms among police officers and police staff, and a survey of the general public on their perception of online harms against police officers and their families provided a further insight. This was augmented by a UK wide policy analysis of police internal management documents examining what support structures, advice and guidance are in place to support those who have faced such harms as part of their role.
Based on these findings, 3PO developed a toolbox for police leaders, individual police officers/staff and their families that provides concrete resources for the prevention, mitigation and management of online harms. This tool box involves training for existing and newly joining officers, as well as digital tools such as a self-assessment tool for officers and their family members to check one’s individual digital exposure and social media security settings as well as a horizon scanning tool, which lets officers see where their name and image are mentioned online. The project will also create guidance for police forces on how to support officers and their families better when they experience online harms.
You can find out more on the project website - 3PO, Protecting public-facing professionals and their dependents online