Latest News, Analysis and Opinion

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Former Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith shares his thoughts on leaving his role leading Warwickshire Police and joining one of the worlds largest technology companies. He reflects on how moving into the technology sector revealed the true scale of the digital and AI transformation facing policing. He argues that future success will depend on continuous learning, stronger technical expertise and leaders who can confidently manage teams where people and AI work together, while protecting public trust.

FEATURE: New research undertaken by the Australian Institute of Criminology on behalf of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner is highlighting the need for improved co-operation between federal, state and territory law enforcement to help tackle modern slavery, as well as more specialist training and easier access to justice for victims, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The prisoner early release scheme in England and Wales was recently paused by the Prime Minister, who announced plans for an urgent review of the policy; former Met Detective Chief Superintendent Marcus Barnett argues that the scheme is a symptom of a wider problem of a criminal justice system in retreat, and one which is damaging public confidence, punishing victims, and leaving police forces and frontline officers to pick up the pieces from decisions they have no part in making.

OPINION: Far from providing a deterrent to vandalism, burglary and violence, increased traffic on roads running through residential neighbourhoods leads to an increase in residents’ assessments of crime, according to new research by Professor Jose Pina-Sánchez and Associate Professor Toby Davies of the University of Leeds, who argue that low traffic neighbourhoods and 20mph zones already introduced on road safety, health and environmental grounds could also contribute to crime reduction.

FEATURE: Tackling human trafficking and modern slavery remains an ongoing challenge in the UK and across many European countries; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the opportunities to use legislation in Scotland that has been in place for more than a decade, and the latest EU funding to identify new and effective approaches to investigate the links between human trafficking and other forms of serious crime, including migrant smuggling, corruption and drug trafficking.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Emily Spurrell, APCC Chair, voices her support for many of the measures in the recent Police Leadership Commission report – including a leadership ‘fast stream’, a senior constable rank, and modernising recruitment, training and performance monitoring – but bemoans the lack of emphasis on driving improvement in the culture, ethics and inclusive leadership of forces.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

INTERVIEW: Cop Care, a new support system for serving and retired officers in Queensland, will soon launch with AU$5.5million funding from the State Government and run by the Queensland Police Union; Cop Care CEO Dr Jackie Drew spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the importance of the initiative’s independence from Queensland Police Service, the need for evidence-based support, and the collaboration with the existing Copline service operating in Canada and the US.

OPINION: As British policing talks increasingly about exploiting AI and digital innovation – much of which was highlighted in the recent reform white paper – technology entrepreneur Kamila Hankiewicz, co-founder and CEO of Untrite, highlights some of the key challenges to the adoption and implementation of new technology from a supplier perspective, and sets out five key steps that policing could take to ensure that the reform process is effective in “unleashing technology”.

FEATURE: New research by Anglia Ruskin University into the risks of child exploitation in unregistered children’s homes in England and Wales highlights that with youngsters often “institutionally invisible” in such settings, many are easy targets for organised crime gangs, county lines drug networks and sexual abusers, as the location of such homes and the lack of monitoring create a “perfect storm” of exposure for vulnerable children, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: Special constables were introduced in Nigeria in 2020, and play a vital role in supporting the Nigeria Police Force’s community policing efforts, gathering community intelligence, and increasing the police presence in areas that have been under-policed; however, University of Ibadan Senior Lecturer Dr Usman A. Ojedokun warns that the new volunteer force has also prompted concerns over police powers given to unsuitable people, instances of public extortion, and the deadly risks faced by some special constables.

FEATURE: Victim-survivors of violence against women and girls regularly find themselves treated as offenders, according to new research from the Centre for Women’s Justice, with issues such as a culture of disbelief, a lack of understanding of domestic abuse and coercive control, a failure to implement a trauma-informed response, and discrimination against marginalised women all contributing to injustice for victim-survivors and lack of trust, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: Former long-serving police officer Ben Jones, now a Data Protection Officer managing information governance and information rights issues within the public sector, warns that despite the best efforts of policing, many investigators are still getting it wrong when it comes to managing personal data – and their mistakes can bring down an investigation.

FEATURE: A review of conduct and discipline in Police Scotland, undertaken by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, highlights a lack of consistency in misconduct cases with chief officers appearing to be treated more leniently, as well as the damaging impacts of lengthy investigations into misconduct allegations and a lack of wellbeing support for officers involved, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Several recent shootings in Canada have been labelled as extremist violence, but the reality may be more complex, says University of Winnipeg Adjunct Professor Kawser Ahmed, who warns that the country’s ongoing urban violence problem is increasingly about a brokered violence market in which young people can be recruited, paid, coerced or gamified into attacks whose purpose is supplied by someone unknown to them.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Police forces already hold vast amounts of intelligence. The challenge is turning fragmented information into operational understanding before opportunities are missed. In this joint article, GraphAware and Neo4j explore how connected intelligence helps analysts surface critical relationships faster while keeping every insight explainable and evidence-based.

FEATURE: With cyber attacks continuing to grow in number and evolve in approach, and the UK’s National Cyber Force acting as the country’s own offensive cyber arm, a new collection of articles published by the UK Cyber Effects Network and the Royal United Services Institute provides unique insights into how and why UK cyber agencies are fighting back, and how police cybercrime investigations and preventative resilience efforts remain a critical component of UK cyber defences, reports Policing insight’s Andrew Staniforth.

REPORT EXTRACT: As policing in England and Wales ponders the momentous structural and technology changes proposed under the reform programme, the recent UK Police Digital Experience – User Perspectives report published by Policing Insight underlines the existing technology challenges; here we share an extract from the report looking at the two survey questions on overall frontline satisfaction.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

FEATURE: The record-breaking success of Merseyside Police’s Project Medusa (the force’s long-term initiative tackling county lines drug dealing) reflects a multi-channel approach encompassing traditional and online investigations, social media monitoring, criminal behaviour orders, and prevention partnerships with local sports community youth organisations – an array of tactics that are also having an impact on other areas of crime, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: Policing is coming under growing pressure to adopt the latest AI technologies in order to meet the ever-increasing demand; Anglia Ruskin University Senior Research Fellow Richard Harding warns that there are plenty of examples from history that highlight the need to empower police policy makers and practitioners to question the magical offerings of suppliers and to point out the ‘naked emperors’ managing projects, in order to protect themselves, their colleagues, their organisations, and the public they serve.

FEATURE: New research into domestic abuse (DA) victimisation in the police workforce highlights that officers and staff who are victim-survivors of DA receive a worse service than members of the public – particularly in cases of police-perpetrated domestic abuse – because of ideas around officer resilience, an “institutional reluctance” to acknowledge victims’ circumstances, and forces’ reputational defensiveness, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Martyn’s Law, which forces venues, operators and policymakers to take public protection more seriously, came into effect last year, with new guidance introduced by the UK Government in April; but Gareth Brearley of AI company Augur argues that while additional CCTV, risk assessments, and the right paperwork may enable organisations to comply with the legislation, it is operational readiness, situational awareness and understanding information at scale that are truly needed to keep people safe.

INTERVIEW: A new research project will explore the extent and impact of loneliness – recognised by both the World Health Organisation and UK Government as the next big public health challenge – among police investigators, whose role often means they are unable to discuss their work with family or colleagues, exposes them to trauma, and can leave them feeling isolated, as Project Supervisor Dr Marie-Louise Sharp explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.