Analysis

ANALYSIS: Despite repeated recommendations for forces in England and Wales to record ethnicity data of the people they deal with, two new reports from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services have highlighted continuing failures to gather data on ethnicity and gender that “presents a real risk to plans for improving the service provided by police”, and could lead to regulations being imposed by the Home Secretary, as Policing Insight's Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Recent reviews of the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade have described both organisations as ‘institutionally misogynist’; Professor Catherine Durose of the University of Liverpool, and University of Birmingham Professor Emerita Vivien Lowndes, explain how new research on proposals for forces to classify misogyny as a hate crime has highlighted that officers struggle to identify or empathise with female victims of crime, and with the emotional complexities of misogynistic offending.

POLICE SUPERS' CONFERENCE: As superintending ranks from across England and Wales gathered this week for the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) Annual Conference, PSA President Paul Fotheringham defended operational officers’ engagement with community groups and their efforts to promote diversity, and warned that language used by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and others was positioning the service as “political rather than inclusive”, reports Policing Insight's Keith Potter.

ANALYSIS: Police engagement in UK schools suffered a significant reduction in funding and resources during the austerity era; but University of Portsmouth Policing Lecturer David Knowles, a former police officer, believes that recent trials of his Your Choice Matters engagement exercise highlight the potential for reducing vulnerability to knife crime and hate crime among young people.

ANALYSIS: With gang membership on the rise in recent years in New Zealand, the country’s novel approach – prioritising deep engagement with gang communities through bodies such as the Gang Harm Insights Centre, alongside tough enforcement – is under more pressure than ever, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INTERVIEW: In the second part of our extended interview series with Metropolitan Police Chief Scientific Officer Professor Lawrence Sherman, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland spoke to him about VAWG 100, the force’s innovative new approach to tackling high-harm offences against women and girls.

ANALYSIS: A new report from the Police Foundation assesses the implications, opportunities and risks for the police service of adopting new contact and engagement technology as it seeks to rebuild public trust and confidence; the Foundation’s Research Director Andy Higgins explains more about the key points from the report.

OPINION: Earlier this year British Columbia began Canada’s first drug ‘decriminalisation’ policy, removing criminal sanctions for adults in possession of small amounts of certain illegal drugs; but research scientist Dr Kanna Hayashi, an Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University, warns that while police continue to seize drugs even when users aren’t charged with offences, toxic drug deaths will remain a major problem.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth takes a look at the UK's new National Risk Register, the most open and transparent Register to date, and considers the implications for policing and other emergency services of the increased focus on partnership approaches.

FEATURE: Researchers from the University of Birmingham have identified key warning signs that indicate which survivors of domestic abuse may be most at risk of attempting suicide, and believe that sharing the assessment tool with police and healthcare professionals could help to keep more abuse survivors alive, as Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: The Government of British Columbia has introduced new policing standards in relation to the response to and investigation of sexual assault, in a bid to ensure a “victim-centred, trauma-informed approach”, as well as highlighting the need for police policies to be “culturally-appropriate and legally-informed”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: New research by Dr Jackie Alexander and Professor Sarah Charman at the University of Portsmouth has highlighted gender disparity in the temporary promotions process in UK policing, which they believe is likely to have as great an impact on gender advancement as the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’; but with forces and the Government “at best ignorant of, and at worst disinterested in” these areas of gender bias, they argue that little will be done to address the disproportionality unless data is collated and examined in more detail to understand the scale of the disparity.

ANALYSIS: Earlier this month the Australian Government released new action plans to end violence against women and children, including the first dedicated to addressing violence against women and children in First Nations communities; Monash University Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon and Associate Professor Marie Segrave, and Griffith University Professor Silke Meyer, explore the aims of the plans, how their progress will be measured, and what is needed to ensure effective change and a reduction in violence.

FEATURE: Drones are increasingly a vital tool in policing, playing an important role in areas of search and surveillance; but with concerns highlighted around the manufacture of unmanned aircraft systems in China, and the increasing use of drones by criminal gangs, law enforcement must ensure that the risks around the procurement and deployment of drone and counter-drone technologies are acknowledged and understood, says Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth.

ANALYSIS: HM inspectors recently highlighted the concern that poor data gathering and analysis is affecting police performance management in England and Wales; Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass looks at the issues involved and puts the spotlight on two of the forces that are getting things right.

ANALYSIS: The police use of stop and search powers has come under significant scrutiny and criticism in relation to concerns over discrimination on racial grounds; but new research carried out among frontline officers in the Met has found substantial variability in decision-making around the threshold for grounds to search, but no racial bias regarding the use of stop and search.

ANALYSIS: Government, industry, law enforcement and many other parts of civil society have been attempting to harness and leverage the potential benefits of burgeoning AI; but as Mercedes Page, Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) explains, in recent weeks the dark web has become a breeding ground for a new generation of AI tools designed to cater to a cybercriminal’s every illicit need.

INNOVATION: Gloucestershire Constabulary no longer needs to take rape victims’ phones from them for data analysis; Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass hears how this new approach has improved the service and experience for victims, while also saving police time and money.

ANALYSIS: With the criminal justice system in England and Wales facing court backlogs, growing prison populations and a range of other pressures, Transform Justice’s latest report Close to Home sets out how localising many criminal justice services could reduce waste, cut crime, increase public confidence and improve the experiences of victims, as Research and Policy Lead Fionnuala Ratcliffe explains.

FEATURE: Earlier this month the United Nations held a series of ceremonies as part of the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism; but Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports that while victims can play a vital role in the fight against terrorism, a recent survey of UK survivors of major terrorist atrocities highlighted a creaking compensation scheme and gaps in the support available.

ANALYSIS: With “more mobile, connected” youth gangs responsible for “an escalation in the harm that they can cause to the community and themselves”, Victoria Police has launched a new holistic and integrated approach to detect those most at risk of gang activity, divert them from gang involvement, and disrupt the gang-related violent offending that has been taking place, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: An inspection report into policing’s contribution in England and Wales to the prevention of homicide has highlighted a range of concerns in some forces including a lack of oversight by chief officers, a shortage of analysts, a “misplaced confidence” in the ability to link precursor incidents, and an inadequate allocation of resources to manage the most dangerous people that represents a “failure to protect the public”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Earlier this month the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) published its security threat assessment – the first time the public has had access to the information; University of Waikato Professor of Law Alexander Gillespie argues that while the threat assessment makes for welcome but occasionally unsettling reading, having such conversations in the open demystifies aspects of national security.

ANALYSIS: In the latest in our series of articles on the policing workforce in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett reviews the official data for the 2022/23 financial year, and explores some of the resulting challenges facing police forces – including the significant reduction in staff and PCSOs, the struggles for some around retention and resignations, and how to adapt to the ‘new normal’.