Northamptonshire Police have outsourced training to the University of Northampton as part of a partnership agreement.

Initially the training will involve detectives and student officers, but this will be extended later to include community support officers, reservists, special constables and possibly cadets.

Angela Packwood, Criminal Justice Services Co-ordinator and Work Based Assessment Centre Manager at the University of Northampton, said: “Since 2006 the partnership between the University of Northampton and Northamptonshire Police has gone from strength to strength. Today marks additional progress for the partnership to grow further.

“We have some exciting projects ahead of us which we look forward to developing over the coming months. We will have the extended police family training at the University which will include PCSOs, Special Constables, Cadets, Volunteers and regular officers. This builds on our success from the Foundation Degrees in Policing. The future is promising with an agreement to develop an Evidence Based Policing institute here at the University.”

Sergeant Damian Hiscocks, core policing team leader for East Midlands Collaborative HR Services, said: “We have had a close working relationship with the University for several years, but this move represents an exciting step forward. This partnership enables us to maximise some excellent facilities at the University where we can train all our officers and staff in a multi-disciplinary context.

“We will have the opportunity to train alongside paramedic, social services and law students to create a full criminal justice training environment.”