When does Training become Learning?: Reflections about transmitting ideas across borders

This paper starts with summarising research conducted in London, England. It draws on the author’s experience as a senior civil servant inside the London Metropolitan Police Service managing analytics and evidence for performance and evaluation. Part of that analytic work included a ten-year study of the outcome of rape allegations (eight years were tracked during this decade), and whether and how that research found its way into the conversations within the organisation about how to police/investigate rape and sexual assault (see Williams and Stanko 2015). This work has served as a core part of the evidence base underpinning the co-production of a new police training course for sexual assault liaison officers. To consider sharing the practice of police training across borders, the role of academic research evidence in the preparation of training necessarily raises questions about the core messages of police ‘training’ police and how improvement in the policing of sexual assault evolves for one of policing’s wicked problems. As the 2016 CEPOL conference focused on ‘Global Trends in Law Enforcement Training and Education’, the reflections about the process of co-production of training locally and across borders are discussed here.