Edinburgh Napier University have published the results of the three year INTERACT study which concluded in November 2024.

INTERACT is a wide-ranging study of the use of technology in interactions between the police and public. It explores recent shifts towards technologically-mediated contact, to explore whether, and how, police organisations can pursue their aims of providing a procedurally just experience for users, and build legitimacy with various publics, whilst fundamentally changing the nature and form of police contact. The project has advanced the current theorisation of procedural justice to take account of technologically-mediated interaction and its compatibility with police legitimacy.

UK police forces have begun to offer an increasing range of options to the public who wish to report an incident or access information, including live chat functionality, reporting via social media accounts, direct messaging option. Each of these developments offers an alternative to traditional phone contact using the established emergency (999) or non-emergency (101) numbers, or indeed to an in-person encounter in the street or a police station, and means that the public is increasingly likely to interact with policing in ways that are mediated through technology.

The findings of this project are applicable across several policing domains when considering the use of technology in public contact.

This project utilised a novel mix of qualitative and quantitative elements to pursue a broad understanding of increasingly technologically mediated police contact as both a police and public experience.

The following questions were asked:

1. How do the police and public experience and perceive technologically mediated contact across the UK in a diverse range of contexts?
2. What is the potential impact of different types of technologically mediated contact on police legitimacy for various publics?
3. What does ‘visible’ and ‘accessible’ policing mean in the digital age, to both the police and various publics?
4. What is the role of technologically mediated contact in building police legitimacy, and how can police organisations best work towards this end?
5. How can theories of legitimacy and procedural justice be developed such that they are applicable in times of rapid technological development?

INTERACT have published five briefing papers which outline the key points, methodologies and key findings.

The papers are:

1. INTERACT-Briefing-1_strategic-vision-for-digital-contact.pdf
2. INTERACT-Briefing-2_public-views-on-live-chat.pdf
3. INTERACT-Briefing-3_public-focus-groups.pdf
4. INTERACT-Briefing-4_needs-of-autistic-individuals.pdf
5. INTERACT-Briefing-5_deaf-BSL-users-experiences.pdf

For more information about the project, please visit - SIPR