Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Helen Wells' Outputs (13)

“Free Text Is Essentially the Enemy of What We’re Trying to Achieve”: The Framing of a National Vision for Delivering Digital Police Contact (2024)
Journal Article
Wells, H., Andrews, W., Clayton, E., Bradford, B., Aston, E. V., & O’Neill, M. (2024). “Free Text Is Essentially the Enemy of What We’re Trying to Achieve”: The Framing of a National Vision for Delivering Digital Police Contact. European Journal of Policing Studies, 7(1-2), 14-35. https://doi.org/10.5553/ejps.000017

Police organizations in England and Wales, as in many other contexts, are increasingly shifting crime reporting and other public-facing contact online. In this article, we explore the beliefs, motivations and objectives of those tasked with “deliveri... Read More about “Free Text Is Essentially the Enemy of What We’re Trying to Achieve”: The Framing of a National Vision for Delivering Digital Police Contact.

‘Channel Shift’: technologically-mediated policing and procedural justice (2023)
Journal Article
Wells, H., Aston, E., Bradford, B., O'Neill, M., Clayton, E., & Andrews, W. (2023). ‘Channel Shift’: technologically-mediated policing and procedural justice. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 42-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/14613557221132962

In recent years, UK police forces have introduced various technologies that alter the methods by which they interact with the public. In a parallel development, many forces have also begun to embrace the concept of procedural justice as a method thro... Read More about ‘Channel Shift’: technologically-mediated policing and procedural justice.

Taking the right course: the possibilities and challenges of offering alternatives to prosecution for drivers detected using mobile phones while driving (2022)
Journal Article
Wells, H., Briggs, G., & Savigar-Shaw, L. (2022). Taking the right course: the possibilities and challenges of offering alternatives to prosecution for drivers detected using mobile phones while driving. Accident analysis and prevention,

There is a considerable body of literature that outlines the dangers of mobile phone use by drivers. However, there is very little research that explores the role and effectiveness of attempts to tackle this specific road user problem. Generally, nor... Read More about Taking the right course: the possibilities and challenges of offering alternatives to prosecution for drivers detected using mobile phones while driving.

Taking the right course: The possibilities and challenges of offering alternatives to prosecution for drivers detected using mobile phones while driving. (2022)
Journal Article
Wells, H., Briggs, G., & Savigar-Shaw, L. (2022). Taking the right course: The possibilities and challenges of offering alternatives to prosecution for drivers detected using mobile phones while driving. Accident analysis and prevention, 106710 - ?. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2022.106710

There is a considerable body of literature that outlines the dangers of mobile phone use by drivers. However, there is very little research that explores the role and effectiveness of attempts to tackle this specific road user problem. Generally, nor... Read More about Taking the right course: The possibilities and challenges of offering alternatives to prosecution for drivers detected using mobile phones while driving..

The inconvenient truth about mobile phone distraction: understanding the means, motive, and opportunity for driver resistance to legal and safety messages (2021)
Journal Article
Wells, H., Savigar-Shaw, L., & Briggs, G. (2021). The inconvenient truth about mobile phone distraction: understanding the means, motive, and opportunity for driver resistance to legal and safety messages. British Journal of Criminology, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azab038

Evidence for how phone-use impacts driving is clear: phone-using drivers are four times more likely to crash; demonstrate poor hazard detection ability; take longer to react to any hazards they notice; and can look yet fail to see. However, drivers a... Read More about The inconvenient truth about mobile phone distraction: understanding the means, motive, and opportunity for driver resistance to legal and safety messages.

Scrutinising the appeal of volunteer Community Speedwatch to policing leaders in England and Wales: Resources, Responsivity and Responsibilisation (2019)
Journal Article
Wells, H., & Millings, M. (2019). Scrutinising the appeal of volunteer Community Speedwatch to policing leaders in England and Wales: Resources, Responsivity and Responsibilisation. Policing and Society, 376-391. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2018.1515945

This article focuses on ‘Community Speedwatch’ (CSW) - a particular volunteering approach that has apparently attracted the attention of senior police decision-makers in England and Wales over recent years. It considers the significance of decisions... Read More about Scrutinising the appeal of volunteer Community Speedwatch to policing leaders in England and Wales: Resources, Responsivity and Responsibilisation.

Introduction: Contemporary policing and non-warranted volunteering (2019)
Journal Article
Millie, A., & Wells, H. (2019). Introduction: Contemporary policing and non-warranted volunteering. Policing and Society, 29(4), 371-375. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2019.1584624

Research on policing has tended to focus on paid and warranted officers, often overlooking the large and, in many jurisdictions, expanding army of volunteers working with or for the police. Where there has been research on police volunteering this ha... Read More about Introduction: Contemporary policing and non-warranted volunteering.

Keeping up, and keeping on: Risk, acceleration and the law-abiding driving offender (2017)
Journal Article
Wells, H., & Savigar, L. (2019). Keeping up, and keeping on: Risk, acceleration and the law-abiding driving offender. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 19(2), 254-270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895817738555

Roads policing is the most likely generator of an adverse-outcome encounter between the general public and the police and is therefore one of the most likely situations in which individuals are confronted with their own ‘law-abidingness’, or lack of... Read More about Keeping up, and keeping on: Risk, acceleration and the law-abiding driving offender.

The Angered Versus the Endangered: PCCs, Roads Policing and the Challenges of Assessing and Representing ‘Public Opinion’ (2016)
Journal Article
Wells. (2016). The Angered Versus the Endangered: PCCs, Roads Policing and the Challenges of Assessing and Representing ‘Public Opinion’. British Journal of Criminology, 95-113. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azw079

Part of the rationale for introducing elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) was a suggestion that the police and public needed to be ‘reconnected’, with the public more readily able to shape the type of policing they wished to receive. Appare... Read More about The Angered Versus the Endangered: PCCs, Roads Policing and the Challenges of Assessing and Representing ‘Public Opinion’.

Grey areas and fine lines: negotiating operational independence in the era of the police and crime commissioner (2015)
Journal Article
Wells. (2015). Grey areas and fine lines: negotiating operational independence in the era of the police and crime commissioner. Safer Communities, 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1108/SC-06-2015-0023

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the negotiation of boundaries of strategic vs operational responsibility between Chief Constables and Police Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

Design/methodology/approach
– The discussion reflects on i... Read More about Grey areas and fine lines: negotiating operational independence in the era of the police and crime commissioner.

PCCs, roads policing and the dilemmas of increased democratic accountability (2015)
Journal Article
Wells. (2015). PCCs, roads policing and the dilemmas of increased democratic accountability. The British Journal of Criminology: An International Review of Crime and Society, 274-292. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azv037

In the era of the Police and Crime Commissioner, when the benefits of democratic accountability are placed centre stage, and the public are encouraged to believe that they should dictate the type of policing they receive, this article considers the p... Read More about PCCs, roads policing and the dilemmas of increased democratic accountability.

Getting around and getting on: self-interested resistance to technology in law enforcement contexts
Journal Article
Wells. (2015). Getting around and getting on: self-interested resistance to technology in law enforcement contexts. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 175-192. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-120814-121639

This review considers the use of technology in law enforcement contexts, focusing on evidence of resistance to particular forms of intervention. Whereas Big Brother and civil liberties narratives dominate the academic discussion of opposition in this... Read More about Getting around and getting on: self-interested resistance to technology in law enforcement contexts.