Leicestershire Police Chief Constable Simon Cole will be awarded the Sir Robert Peel Medal for outstanding leadership in evidence-based policing.

The University of Cambridge honour recognises the contribution of Leicestershire Police, under the leadership of Chief Constable Cole, to research which has "helped to advance knowledge of how police can prevent harm" and has helped to "make the UK the world's leading nation for applying research evidence to policing."

This includes a study around the way crimes are counted and using this to deploy neighbourhood teams more effectively to the areas which are suffering most harm.

The medal is awarded annually by the university's Police Executive Programme and will be presented to Chief Constable Cole by Professor Lawrence Sherman, Director of the Cambridge Programme, at the keynote session of the International Evidence-Based Policing Conference 2021 on Monday (12 July).

Contributions of Leicestershire Police, under the leadership of Chief Constable Cole, to evidence-based policing include:

"Pioneering use" of the Crime Harm Index in reorganising patrol beats. In 2016, Leicestershire Police put the Cambridge Crime Harm Index (CHI) into practice – one of at least five forces to do so at the time. Whereas previously all crime types were counted equally when analysing how an area was affected, the CHI sees each crime category measured by the harm it causes. Putting the CHI into practice therefore helped to provide a clearer picture as to which areas were being harmed the most and least by crime, thereby helping to organise neighbourhood policing teams more effectively across the area. An article about Leicstershire was published in The Economist in 2016.

A study looking at the comparisons between early warnings of self-harm in a person's record and the likelihood of the person committing domestic homicide or attempted domestic homicide. More than 100,000 custody bookings in Leicestershire were looked at as part of the study which was published in 2017 in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing.

A study into crime and harm associated with individuals who are known to police as both victims and offenders of crime. The study was published in 2018 in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing.

Professor Sherman, who has worked with police forces in 30 nations, said: "These findings and their application have helped to make the UK the world's leading nation for applying research evidence to policing.

"We are honoured to be able to present the Peel Medal to Simon Cole, whose outstanding contributions as a leader have helped to advance knowledge of how police can prevent harm."

Chief Constable Cole said: "I am very honoured to receive this award which is named after the founder of modern policing. The award also reflects the work of a lot of other people who have taken evidence-based ideas and sought to use them to improve policing across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

"To go back to the place where I studied criminology 20 years ago as part of the policing command course in order to receive this award is also a very special moment for me."

The hybrid conference will be attended in person by 50 people, in line with Covid-19 regulations, with approximately 500 more people attending online from around the world.