Better educated policing is the focus of a two-day conference which ends in Canterbury today.

Christ Church University’s department for crime and policing studies has an established track record for training police officers of tomorrow and is hosting the gathering.

Former chairman of the Police Federation Jan Berry is among the speakers.

Today she will address the need to better equip serving officers with other skills and qualifications, so they can find other employment when leaving the force.

“There’s a big role for academia to play, not just for when people join the service, but also for when they leave, so that they can be accredited with their skills and use them in other walks of life,” she said.

“Let’s use some research to improve policing at a very practical level so that it’s based on empirical evidence and not just gut instinct, but secondly, let’s prepare those people who are going to be delivering it.”

Listen to Jan Berry speaking about the conference>>>

Met Police Commander Simon O’Brien’s opening address looked at the need to increase academic influence when new policing strategies and targets are established. He said: “We are sending more and more of our colleagues into academic institutions so that they can hone their skills and ensure we really deliver a good and effective policing service for the future.”

Ms Berry, a former Kent police officer, has recently retired from her post at the Police Federation and is due to take up a role with the Home Office on October 1 as their new bureaucracy reduction champion.