Analysis

ANALYSIS: With nearly 50 million people estimated to be in modern slavery, and global money laundering flows reaching up to $2 trillion a year, the connection between human trafficking and financial crime has never been more consequential for international policing; strategy and reform consultant Kavitha Vipulananda examines how Interpol co-ordinates measurable responses across 196 member states – despite resource gaps, the political misuse of some tools, and persistent corruption continuing to constrain what it can achieve.

OPINION: With growing concerns in many countries about the online radicalisation of young people, Dr Soumya Awasthi, a fellow of the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation, and Dr Fitriani, a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Cyber Technology and Security Program, believe that Australia and India could learn much by sharing their country’s experiences.

FEATURE: The nature of digital radicalisation across Europe is changing significantly, reports Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth, with the rapid increase in ‘awful but lawful’ content that is ‘gamifying’ extremist violence to ‘seduce’ people – especially children and young people – already acknowledged by European security agencies as a specific threat that needs to be addressed.

FEATURE: This week is the first anniversary of Restorative Solutions delivering the Appropriate Adult Service for vulnerable adults in police custody across West Yorkshire, having launched the service on 1 June 2025; Volunteer Appropriate Adult Dr Kathryn Sharratt and Service Delivery Manager Kate Brooksbank provide an insight into the organisation’s partnership with West Yorkshire Police, the invaluable contribution of volunteers, and the positive difference their support can make to vulnerable adults in police custody.

INTERVIEW: Proposals for an Animal Protection Disclosure Scheme, known as Holly’s Law and modelled on Clare’s Law (the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme), could soon be debated in the UK Parliament; former police officer Mark Randell, a campaign manager at the Naturewatch Foundation, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons why the link between animal abuse and coercive control and violence could be crucial in tackling domestic abuse, and how officers can play their part.

OPINION: With over 1.3 million domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in the year to March 2025, it’s a complex and challenging area for policing; postgraduate Evian Karlsen and Policing Lecturer Lee Curran of Liverpool John Moores University warn that amongst that complexity, male victims remain under-reported, under-recognised, and often underserved, with better training, challenging assumptions and improved partnerships the key to addressing the issues.

ANALYSIS: The new Domestic Abuse Protection Order (DAPO) will bring together the best elements of the existing civil order regimes in England and Wales, providing a flexible court order that also has teeth, explain Joe Purshouse and Jamie Wilson of KBW Chambers in Leeds, who believe this “sea-change in the landscape of civil preventive orders” offers policing and legal teams an exceptionally powerful resource for disrupting perpetrators of domestic abuse and securing the safety of victims.

FEATURE: The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has been given six months to work with the Home Office to produce a long-term, costed IT strategy after the first agency-wide HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services inspection found that existing systems were “not fit for purpose”; the NCA has also been urged to address staff shortages that impact on analysis capabilities and act on workforce concerns over bullying, harassment and discrimination, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: Implicit bias training has become the default policy response to disproportionate use of force, but evidence suggests it changes knowledge, not behaviour; organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson looks to an unexpected source – the world of professional poker – for a more effective approach, grounded in neuroscience rather than sociology.

FEATURE: A study into building procedural justice in street-level drug law enforcement in Australia suggests that the decriminalisation of drug use and possession offences, expanding harm reduction approaches, and giving all alleged offenders the chance to tell their side of the story, could help to build positive interactions between officers and people who use drugs, as well as increasing the willingness of users to co-operate with police and abide by the law, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Public debate often frames fatal knife crime as a problem of serious youth violence in public space, but data from the National Child Mortality Database complicates this narrative, says the University of Bristol’s Dr Jade Levell, who argues that with children experiencing violence in a range of scenarios – including in education and as a result of domestic violence – there needs to be a fundamental shift to ensure they always have the right to violence support at the earliest opportunity.

ANALYSIS: Four months after the UK Government unveiled its proposals for the reform of policing in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett explores the challenges that the process is already facing, from concerns over accountability, governance and the uncertainty around police mergers, to questions over centralisation, the true of costs of reform, and whether the Government will have the political will or resilience to see the measures through to completion.

FEATURE: A lack of understanding around the management of sexual and violent offenders and child sexual abuse and exploitation teams, coupled with staff shortages and skills gaps, is damaging the wellbeing of officers and increasing the risk to the public, according to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which is urging forces to stop neglecting “these important areas of policing” by refocusing on safeguarding and support at both force and national level.

OPINION: The ongoing legal proceedings against Queensland Police Service by an Indian Uber driver is the latest case to highlight a culture of racism and lack of accountability in this and other Australian forces, says strategy and reform consultant Kavitha Vipulananda, who argues that for policing in the country to earn the trust of the communities it serves – including growing and diverse migrant and Indigenous communities – “the cycle of incident, apology and impunity must be broken”.

FEATURE: A evaluation of the effectiveness of violence reduction units (VRUs) across England and Wales following their first five full years of funding indicates that the initiative has contributed to significant falls in hospital admissions due to knife crime and violent assaults, but also highlights that a range of structural and cultural challenges arising from the multi-agency approach – particularly around data sharing – are preventing VRUs from realising their full potential, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: A new survey of European law enforcement officers by investigative analytics software specialist Cognyte has highlighted gaps in police analytics and skillsets which are limiting agencies’ ability to take effective action, alongside a “widespread” convergence of organised crime and terrorism that is adding to the scale and complexity of threats facing law enforcement, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The Canadian Government looks set to bring in a range of bail reforms as part of a new “tough on crime” agenda, which is likely to see more offenders remanded while awaiting trial; Canadian safety and security professional Vernon White says that while the measured approach to targeting bail reform at specific types of offences is welcomed, a wider range of measures – such as tougher release conditions, in-prison programmes and early interventions – could provide greater benefits in the fight against violent crime.

FEATURE: A report by Canada’s Auditor General into recruitment for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) highlights that despite application numbers exceeding targets, delays in processing has seen many would-be recruits drop out, and a lack of accurate data around the staffing gaps that need to be filled, leaving the RCMP short of more than 3,000 officers, which could impact police officer morale and wellness while increasing risks to public safety and national security, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly being used in law enforcement globally, University of Virginia Postdoctoral Research Fellow Maria Lungo and Associate Professor Steven Johnson explore how AI can lead to mistreatment of people because of technical flaws as well as misplaced human faith in the technology’s supposed objectivity.

INTERVIEW: Dr Joe Whittaker, Programme Director of the MA in Cyber Crime & Terrorism at Swansea University, spoke to Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth about his research into extremists’ use of the internet, the unintended consequences of the removal of terrorist content online, and the need for policing to recognise that while the internet is often integral to radicalisation, most terrorists and extremists are involved in offline physical networks that play an important role in the process.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Emily Spurrell, APCC Chair and Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside, explores the developments in monitoring police performance already being introduced by the Home Office, highlighting that while performance frameworks and metrics are vital measures of service delivery to the public, getting the balance between national consistency and local flexibility is crucial.

INTERVIEW: With concerns over the rise in poor mental health in policing, new research by criminologist and former police officer Dr Mark Brain, now an Associate Lecturer at the University of the West of England, suggests that far from being a product of exposure to traumatic incidents, mental ill-health in policing is largely driven by organisational issues such as poor management of professional standards investigations and an ongoing organisational “machismo” culture, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: Victim and witness statements can play a vital role in shaping an investigation, but new research from Dr Cody Porter of the University of the West of England and Dr Mircea Zloteanu of King’s College London suggest that the emotionality of witnesses can unintentionally mislead decision-makers including police officers, especially when filtered through unconscious gendered expectations.

OPINION: Youth offending in Victoria is rising, burglary is at record levels, and retail theft is the fastest-growing crime category, yet the prevailing response remains largely reactive; evidence from Victoria’s own prevention programs shows that upstream investment in youth justice produces measurable reductions in offending, says strategy and reform consultant Kavitha Vipulananda – the harder question is whether the structural conditions exist to deliver it at scale.