The aim of POL-RECRAFT was to introduce POLice training in RElational CRAFTmanship in Belgium, The Netherlands & Spain in a first instance, and to introduce the training in the rest of Europe thereafter. On a practical level, the consortium aims to create multiple training modules that will help street-level police officers improve their level of ‘relational craftmanship’, a combination of communicative, social and digital competences, but also trust building, law enforcement and networking. The training will be developed through four underlying objectives; (1) Develop an in-depth understanding of soft skills needed for day-to-day street-level police work in three cities in Belgium, The Netherlands and Spain, (2) Detect skills gaps experienced by these police officers and match these to existing educational tools to acquire soft skills and relational craftmanship, (3) Develop and test different training modules with street-level police officers in each city, (4) Spread the knowledge & share results to promote the training in national police academies and police units across Europe.
We applied for this project because we aimed to improve the interactions between police officers & citizens within a changing society. Societies across Europe have changed dramatically over the last few decades, with increasing diversity and digitalization emerging as key themes across the continent. Cities in particular are witnessing evermore diversity along the lines of language, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexual orientation, etc. Further, interactions between people are no longer restricted to traditional public spaces, but increasingly occur online. Police forces, whom are responsible for maintaining public order and security, perhaps more than any other public agency, need to keep on top of these changes. In theory, European police forces are driven by Community-Oriented Policing (COP) models, which see preventive engagement with communities as the foundation of effective policing. In practice, however, many countries -also under influence of COVID-19- have seen a return to repressive policing and enforcement, rather than preventive engagement with communities. Further, in many countries we have recently observed crises of trust in policing.