Analysis

FEATURE: A recent report by RAND Europe on behalf of the Ministry of Justice has highlighted a lack of experience and training among police officers among the main challenges in improving the use of out-of-court disposals (OOCDs) for adults with health vulnerabilities in England and Wales, and has also created a series of guides and a data collection prototype tool to enable forces to implement OOCDs more effectively, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores the findings of a new report from the Dublin-based Enhancing Faith Institutions consultancy, which highlights the increase in crimes against all religious communities and places of worship in Europe in the 12 months since the tragic attack in Israel on 7 October, and the subsequent devastating loss of life and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

OPINION: To coincide with the launch of a discussion paper on a stronger national centre for policing in England and Wales – jointly published by the Police Foundation and consultants Leapwise – Foundation Director Rick Muir and Leapwise Managing Director Tom Gash set out their arguments for a new national policing agency and a reformed approach to national decision-making.

FEATURE: Senior police leaders in England and Wales are drafting guidance on governance for the hundreds of staff networks for the first time, but their efforts to establish a consistent framework have already drawn criticism from some groups, and the potential of a legal challenge, as Ian Weinfass reports.

INNOVATION: With domestic abuse (DA) now recognised as a policing priority for UK forces, a new approach to tackling the issue has been launched by Dyfed Powys Police, with neighbourhood policing teams adopting the 4Ps model (prepare, protect, prevent, pursue) usually associated with terrorism and organised crime to provide an improved service to medium-risk DA victims and target offenders more effectively, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Latest findings from research with Queensland Police Service indicate that organisational and operational stressors such as poor leadership, work/life balance and lack of resources can be up to three times more harmful to officers’ mental health than trauma, as Griffith University Associate Professor and police psychologist Dr Jacqueline Drew told the recent Global Evidence-Based Policing Conference.

LONG READ: A record number of police forces in England and Wales have been put into special measures (formally known as ‘Engage’) over the past three years – but what does Engage mean, and how do forces move out of it? Policing Insight’s James Sweetland spoke to HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke, as well as two Chief Constables who have led their forces out of special measures – Staffordshire’s Chris Noble and Wiltshire’s Catherine Roper – to find out more.

OPINION: The latest figures for gun crime in parts of Canada make for worrying reading, with shootings in Toronto increasing by 58% on last year, and the average age of those involved dropping to 20; Professor Ardavan Eizadirad of Wilfrid Laurier University argues that the best way to tackle the issue is through a data-driven public health approach that addresses the root causes of violence using evidence-based interventions.

FEATURE: The ‘It Does Matter’ campaign – launched jointly by Thames Valley Police and campaigner Lisa Squire, whose daughter Libby was murdered by a sexual predator – aims to encourage reporting of non-contact sexual crimes to prevent offenders from escalating to more dangerous behaviour; now the force is hoping to share the campaign and its resources more widely with police colleagues and other agencies, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With public trust and confidence in policing reportedly at record low levels, University of the West of England Criminology Lecturer Finley MacDonald, and University of Hull Policing Degree Programme Director Mike McKue, explore the often overlooked changes and developments in police training which could help to address trust and confidence challenges.

FEATURE: Academics from two Canadian universities have raised concerns about the country’s law enforcement use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, claiming that police bodies aren’t transparent enough when procuring new tech, and that failing to make policing subject to new AI legislation could undermine justice in Canada in the future, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: A new report from the University of Portsmouth and Perpetuity Research urges more UK police forces to overcome a “risk averse” approach to working with the private sector and tap into a “wealth of expertise” – particularly in banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions – to tackle the complex and evolving landscape of economic crime, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: An evaluation of an expanded restorative justice (RJ) approach in the Australian Capital Territory, which includes RJ referrals for suitable family and domestic violence cases as well as sexual violence offences, has seen strong support and satisfaction rates from victims, and a reduction in the number of repeat offences committed by perpetrators, as the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Dr Siobhan Lawler explained to delegates at the recent Global Evidence-Based Policing Conference.

ANALYSIS: In the third in a series of five articles looking at the big debates in police use of facial recognition (FR), extracted from this year’s ‘Facing the future: The rise of facial recognition in policing’ report, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland explored human involvement in overseeing FR systems – often seen as an essential requirement for a trustworthy use of the technology, but does the human presence really reduce bias?

FEATURE: With cuckooing – the exploitation of vulnerable people by drug gangs who take over their home – not currently classified by the Home Office as a specific crime, the true scale of the problem in the UK remains unclear; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to North-West Regional County Lines Co-ordinator DI Adam Norton, and Intelligence Analyst and PhD candidate Ruth Lewin, about the nature of the crime, and what more can be done to identify and improve support for victims while also strengthening enforcement.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of the upcoming Investigator Wellbeing Week of Action, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Sarah-Jayne Bray, Programme Manager for the National Police Chiefs’ Council Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing of Investigator Programme, and researchers Dr Liam Curran and Mark Dimelow, about the pressures and stressors facing senior investigating officers (SIOs), and what individuals and forces can do to improve SIO wellbeing.

OPINION: The Australian Federal Police’s recent Operation Kraken targeted organised criminals who were using the Ghost encrypted app, and among those arrested was a senior syndicate member believed to have run a disinformation campaign; Dr John Coyne and Justin Bassi of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warn that, with the demand for disinformation activities growing, the threat posed by fee-for-service organised criminals needs to be addressed.

FEATURE: Speaking at an international workshop hosted by the University of Gothenburg and CRISP, Research Fellow Amir Cahane of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem warned that Israel Police engage in “a disturbing pattern of acquire first and ask questions later” when deploying domestic AI surveillance tools – with “a lack of legal constraints” meaning that court battles over individual cases play an outsized role, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: While law enforcement agencies around the world look at co-responder models and health partnerships to answer the growing demands of those in mental health crisis, new research from the US suggests that teaming up mental health clinicians with police officers to respond to behavioural health-related calls has no better outcome in terms of reducing arrests or improving treatment engagement than simply sending a uniformed officer, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Author, journalist and former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher explores the links between organised crime, terrorism and state-sponsored violence – from Indian-backed assassination attempts on Canadian soil, to firebombs in UK and European warehouses, and the efforts of Irish crime groups and Northern Irish paramilitaries to cultivate links with Russia and Iran.

FEATURE: The recent Safety of Our Cities conference in Ontario, Canada, highlighted the continuing debate between closer collaboration with other agencies or tougher enforcement of existing legislation as the way forward to cutting crime and ensuring the safety of urban communities; Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood looks at some of the key points put forward by chiefs and politicians from various jurisdictions.

INTERVIEW: With almost half of police forces in England and Wales having adopted and implemented the Operation Soteria model to tackle rape and serious sexual offences, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to City University of London Professor Katrin Hohl and Avon and Somerset Chief Constable Sarah Crew about the continuing roll out of the programme, the expansion of the approach to address domestic abuse, and concerns that an end to funding could threaten the progress already made.

FEATURE: A new Queensland Police Service (QPS) approach to responding to volume crimes which focuses on attendance by scenes of crime officers has seen an increase in evidence obtained from the scene while saving more than 180,000 hours for general duties officers, as QPS Senior Sergeants Lisa Weller and Josh White explained to delegates at the recent Global Evidence-Based Policing Conference.

ANALYSIS: The National Cabinet of the Australian Government has set out a $4.7 billion package of measures to tackle the “national crisis” of gender-based violence that has become “a source of national shame”, after a ‘rapid review’ of the potential prevention measures to end domestic, family and sexual violence highlighted not only a problem of “overwhelming” scale and complexity, but also “many areas ripe for meaningful reform”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.