Events

At NRiPN Work-Progress Sessions, NRiPN members share current work and preliminary results, inviting feedback and discussion to develop their findings and get input from a broader audience of stakeholders.

 

For this first session, Paul Gowers, PhD Student at the University of Gloucestershire, shares his research on how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping contemporary policing through the lens of information power. He argues that AI does not merely automate existing practices but reconfigures the moral and political economy of policing, shifting where authority resides and how responsibility is distributed. For police researchers and practitioners, the thesis offers a theoretically grounded and empirically informed account of the opportunities and risks of AI adoption, emphasising the need for governance models that prioritise informational justice, institutional reflexivity, and democratic accountability in the digital transformation of policing.

In this webinar, Emma Tuschick (Teesside University) will present the key findings and recommendations from a new review into suicide prevention for people under investigation for sexual offences.

Emma will be joined by Katy Turner, Suicide Prevention Coordinator for Northumbria Police, and Professor Catherine Robinson, University of Manchester, to discuss the implications of the review for police practice, cross-agency working, and suicide prevention policy.

People arrested or under investigation for sexual offences face an exceptionally high risk of suicide, particularly in the earliest stages of criminal justice contact. Despite this, prevention responses during the pre-conviction period are often inconsistent, overly procedural, or reliant on approaches that struggle to capture rapidly fluctuating distress.

Drawing on collaborative work with the University of Manchester and Northumbria Police Force, this N8 PRP Agile Evidence Review brings together research evidence, policy guidance, inspection findings, and third-sector practice to examine when suicide risk is highest, how criminal justice processes can intensify vulnerability, and where opportunities for prevention are currently being missed. The review focuses arrest, release from custody, investigative delay, and other key transition points.

The final report will be published in advance of the webinar on the N8 PRP website.

Speaker Biographies

Emma Tuschick is a doctoral candidate, lecturer, and research associate in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Law at Teesside University. Her research focuses on community reintegration for men convicted of sexual offenses, as well as suicide risk in this population. She has a background in forensic psychology and has previously worked in prisons.

Katy Turner is the Suicide Prevention Coordinator for Northumbria Police and North-East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board. Her key responsibilities include making support referrals for those bereaved by suicide and submitting local data for the Near Real Time Suspected Suicide Alert dashboard and the National Police Chiefs’ Council dataset. Strategically, she is involved in a number of Suicide Prevention projects around key risk factors such as Domestic Abuse and Criminal Justice Involvement, as well as targeted work at high-harm locations. Outside of this role, Katy is a qualified counsellor working for Tyneside and Northumberland Mind.

Catherine Robinson is Professor of Social Care Research and Director of Social Care and Society at the University of Manchester, leading work on social care, long‑term care and global mental health. Her research focuses on the intersection of health and social care, family care, mental health, self‑harm and suicide. She has led major research‑capacity initiatives in the UK and internationally. Current projects include work on the social care needs of people in custody, COVID‑19’s impact on the workforce, and self‑harm surveillance in South Asia. She also leads several NIHR social care programmes and mentors emerging research leaders.