The University of Greenwich is proud to announce its leadership of a major new European research initiative: BTL-COP (Building Trust and Leadership to challenge global aporophobic crime in a police Community of Practice).

Aporophobia is a term invented by Spanish philosopher Professor Adela Cortina to describe hostility towards the poor and a community of practice is a group of people who share a concern and work together to improve it. Trusted, long-term police-community engagement in such a group protects communities from crime pathways linked to poverty.

The €3 million Horizon-funded project brings together a diverse, committed consortium of 11 partners from the UK, Ireland, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Poland, and Portugal. This cross-sector collaboration includes police authorities, judicial actors, academic institutions, youth organisations, and training providers working together to tackle poverty-driven crime and aporophobia through innovative community-police collaboration.

At the heart of BTL-COP is the development of Trust in Neighbourhood Groups (TING), a new sustainable community of practice model proposed by project coordinator Professor Jill Jameson. Inspired by early democratic assemblies, TING aims to strengthen long-term shared intelligence to build trust and leadership through in-depth truthful dialogue between communities and police.

The initiative includes co-created police training in leadership and community engagement, the trialling of a multi-alert device for vulnerable individuals to contact emergency services and support networks, and new problem-solving practices for safe, inclusive dialogue.

Working with key partners, including Second Wave Youth Arts, the Metropolitan Police, and EU experts, we also aim to strengthen the creative and critical skills of young people as the next generation of community leaders. This deepens shared intelligence for resilient communities in the future.

“This is more than just a project,” said Professor Jill Jameson, Principal Investigator for BTL-COP, Professor of Education, Chair of Leadership Research, and Centre Lead for the Centre for Professional Workforce Development at the University of Greenwich’s Institute for Lifecourse Development,

“We are building on a 21-year collaboration with Second Wave and the Met to develop trust in community-police engagement for safer neighbourhoods. By enhancing social learning, shared dialogue, and leadership in communities of practice, we aim to foster high trust, low-cost, long-term community partnerships that help protect vulnerable people from crime and build a more trustworthy, sustainable and safer Europe.”

Innovation and impact

BTL-COP is designed to transform how police and communities co-learn, respond to vulnerability, and build resilience. The project delivers:

The TING model: scalable, sustainable and co-designed approaches to low-cost, high-trust sustainable neighbourhood policing
Training curricula in long-term trust-building and leadership for police authorities
Technology-enabled safety: a prototype multi-alert device for rapid connection to emergency services
Cross-sector knowledge exchange: fostering mutual learning and shared intelligence across borders
Support for young community leaders through creative, critical thinking and civic engagement
Collaboration and strategic impact

Key partners include Second Wave Youth Arts, the London Metropolitan Police, and experts across Europe. Together, the consortium brings over 90 years of collective experience in community-police engagement and builds on insights from previous Horizon-funded research and international aporophobia conferences.

The project supports national and international priorities including the UK Government’s Safer Streets mission and several UN Sustainable Development Goals:

SDG 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
SDG 10 – Reducing Inequalities
SDG 1 – End Poverty
SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 4 – Quality Education