OPINION: The recently published Police Leadership Commission’s Professionalism and Performance report offers a blunt verdict that leadership development is inconsistent, talent is wasted, and something structural must change, says Dr Aksar Bashir, Manager of West Midlands Police Force Contact Training Academy, who argues that while the report is a significant examination of police leadership in England and Wales, it offers mainly structural and managerial solutions to what are cultural and relational problems.

LONG READ: With UK police forces facing a range of challenges including complex demand, declining trust and confidence, and widescale reform, the importance of leadership in policing has never been greater; in his second long-read article for Policing Insight, Dr Aksar Bashir of the West Midlands Police Force Contact Training Academy explores the SHIELD (support, health, inspiration, ethics, listening, development) leadership concept and how it could be a step towards “a more engaged workforce, an ethical service, and renewed public confidence”.

LONG READ: With policing facing both growing demand and increasingly complex challenges, the role of leadership has never been more crucial; in this long-read article that draws on his own PhD thesis, Dr Aksar Bashir of the Force Contact Training Academy at West Midlands Police explores the concept of IDEA leadership – which fuses inspirational, distributed, ethical, and authentic leadership – as the ideal approach to equip the next generation of police leaders.