OPINION: Is the College of Policing working as well as it should be? Serving officer Nathan Constable says the relationship between the College and serving officers is strained, and sets out an urgent plea for the College to reflect and rebuild - before it's too late.
ANALYSIS: Last week, the policy think tank Reform published their report on the digital future of policing, to considerable controversy. Here, serving officer Nathan Constable and Emma Williams of Canterbury Christ Church University argue the report is lacks evidence, academic rigour, coherence, and a basic understanding of what policing is, what people want from it, or how it is held to account.
OPINION: Is policing going in the right direction? Do we even know, let alone agree, what direction policing is heading? Serving officer Nathan Constable and Emma Williams of Canterbury Christ Church University debate whether policing is on 'the Bus to Abilene'.
OPINION: Serving officer Nathan Constable reflects on last week's Canterbury Police Research Centre conference, and highlights the need for people to translate between academia and policing, explaining not just the passion for reform but the purpose.
OPINION: Evidence-based policing makes sense in theory - but what about the practice? Serving officer Nathan Constable looks at the problems in embedding new initiatives, and argues that the police service might need to slow down if it wants to speed up the effective implementation of EBP.
OPINION: Yesterday's report from the HMIC - The State of Policing in England and Wales - emphasised the lack of proper funding for mental health, and the way policing has been forced to become the service of first resort. Serving officer Nathan Constable - who has warned of this for some time - highlights the key issues around police responses to mental health crises.
OPINION: Police cells are no place for people in mental health crisis, but new legal provisions due to come in will allow their detention in 'exceptional circumstances'. Serving officer Nathan Constable warns that people presenting as violent and unmanageable - the symptoms of 'excited delirium' - are the most likely to be detained, but also the most at risk from restraint.
OPINION: Increased demand and the push to professionalisation can have a human cost. Police blogger and serving officer 'Nathan Constable' says the number of officers considering leaving the job is higher than he can ever remember - but explains why he's personally decided to stay in the service.
OPINION: Earlier this week, Laura Knight, Director of the IPSCJ, outlined some of the barriers to barriers to evidence-based policing and her thoughts on how to overcome them. Here, serving police inspector and police researcher Nathan Constable outlines his thoughts on the challenges of evidence based policing.
OPINION: "Police officers deal with enough grief and trauma during the service and are exposed to such constant negativity that it must do – and does – affect their mental health". Police blogger and serving officer "Nathan Constable" takes a personal look at the effect that policing can have on an individual, and commends the Police Dependants' Trust on research findings they have recently published..
OPINION: Police officers are increasingly asked by other agencies to undertake 'welfare checks' on people in mental health crisis. Serving officer 'Nathan Constable' argues that not only do the police have no powers to intervene in many cases, but their involvement can often make matters considerably worse.
OPINION: Should the use of Tasers be banned on psychiatric wards, as suggested by Liberal Democrat Health spokesman Norman Lamb? Serving officer Nathan Constable says the proposal fails to acknowledge that there are times when people become so dangerous that staff cannot control them, and that simply banning Tasers doesn't deal with the real issues at stake.
OPINION: Armed police officers have made headlines again, this time for shopping in Morrisons. Police blogger and serving officer 'Nathan Constable' outlines the the security threat and the professionalism of armed officers, and argues for a grown-up debate about armed response.
