The £3.4m 3PO project, which aims to understand the unique risks faced by police officers, police staff and their families online and to develop tools to keep them safe, has won the inaugural Academic Innovation Award at the Official UK Government Security & Policing Global Security Event.
Led by CENTRIC (Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research) at Sheffield Hallam University, 3PO (Protection-public-facing professionals and their dependents online) is a first-of-its-kind research initiative to develop solutions against online harms to police officers, police staff and their families.
3PO systematically investigates and maps out the extent of online harms against police and investigates work-related harms and harms outside work (private and personal impacts), including to families and children of police members.
Based on this evidence, 3PO develops 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.
The project has won the Home Office 2025 Security and Policing Academic Innovation Award, which aims to identify capabilities and services that have significantly advanced the UK’s ability to prevent, respond to, reduce the impact of, or investigate risks and incidents.
Professor P. Saskia Bayerl, CENTRIC Head of Research and 3PO Project Lead, said: “I am very proud of the work we have done with our academic and police partners to support the protection of police officers, staff and their families online. 3PO shows how research can lead to positive real-life impacts to improve safety and security of public-facing professionals.”
The project also involves researchers at the University of Oxford, Cambridge University, UCL and Edinburgh Napier. The Home Office and six UK police forces are also partners in the project.
This project has been supported through the UKRI Strategic Priority Fund as part of the wider Protecting Citizens Online programme and is part of the National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online (REPHRAIN) Network.
Professor Babak Akhgar, Director of CENTRIC, said: “This award is testament of CENTRIC’s vision delivering impactful research for security and policing. I am grateful for HM Home Office and UK Police forces for their support and contribution to our success in the past 14 years.”
Security & Policing is the official UK Government global security event at Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre is hosted by the Home Office’s Joint Security & Resilience Centre (JSaRC). Security & Policing offers a world‐class opportunity to meet and discuss the latest advances in delivering national security and resilience with leading UK suppliers, UK and overseas Government officials and senior decision makers across the law enforcement and security sectors.
