From Canberra to Edinburgh: Rethinking adaptive policing through a visiting fellowship

How do police organisations adapt when faced with new and emerging forms of harm and rapidly changing environments? 

This question sits at the centre of research led by Associate Professor Jarrett Blaustein through the Adaptive Policing Lab (APL) at RegNet, which examines how policing actors and security networks respond to the interconnected crises, including climate disruption to social inequality. 

From April to June 2026, Associate Professor Blaustein pursued this work during a three-month research sabbatical in the UK, including a Visiting Fellowship at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), University of Edinburgh. 

At EFI, he worked with researchers from the Scottish Prevention Unit (SPU) to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the drivers of adaptation and maladaptation within police organisations. 

The framework, which will be launched later this year, examines why police organisations respond differently to emerging risks and pressures. It considers how organisational cultures, institutional histories, leadership, resources, partnerships and processes of learning can enable—or constrain—meaningful adaptation in the face of new and emerging forms of harm.  

This work builds on Associate Professor Blaustein’s research on climate policing and the APL, while extending it towards broader questions of organisational change and resilience. 

The fellowship also connected him with researchers working on policing, vulnerability and crisis governance in Scotland, Norway, as well as colleagues at the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre at the University of Leeds, England. These exchanges opened important conversations about the implications of vulnerability and extreme weather for policing, as well as the changing demands placed on police organisations.  

The fellowship also marked a return to Edinburgh for Associate Professor Blaustein, who completed his PhD there in 2013. He used the sabbatical to reconnect with colleagues and develop new international research collaborations.  

The collaborations will support research examining how police organisations navigate institutional change, including persistent challenges such as institutional amnesia, organisational learning and the institutionalisation of systems-thinking methodologies.  

“These collaborations will strengthen the international reach of the Adaptive Policing Lab and open new opportunities to better understand how police organisations can adapt effectively to complex and uncertain futures,” says Associate Professor Blaustein.