Analysis

INNOVATION: A new digital ‘data-rich’ form introduced by the Metropolitan Police Service to improve the effectiveness of processing people detained under s136 of the Mental Health Act is also helping to reduce detentions, free up officer time, and gather valuable information about the barriers and pinchpoints relating to finding suitable health-based places of safety for those in mental health crisis, as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro reports.

FEATURE: The work of the European PACTESUR2 project to improve the protection of public spaces has led to the creation of a new EU-POLNET, a European network of more than 20 local police forces that aims to develop local forces’ expertise and promising practices through peer-to-peer exchanges, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to two officers from the South Australian Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (SA JACET) – one of a number of JACET units across the country – about their successes in protecting children and arresting offenders involved in online child sexual exploitation, as annual referrals to the national Centre to Counter Child Exploitation soar, increasing more than five-fold over the past seven years.

FEATURE: The first survey to focus specifically on the use of section 136 detentions under the Mental Health Act by police forces in England and Wales has revealed significant disparities in the way the powers are used – including the number of people detained, the use of police vehicles to transfer detainees, handover times, and the use of custody – as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro reports.

LONG READ: The riots that affected many English cities last summer following the Southport murders highlighted the increasing difficulty for policing globally in responding to social media disinformation; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend, a communications specialist, looks at the challenges that have faced police in the UK, Canada, Australia and the US in the response to digital communications, as well as efforts to use online platforms to better engage communities and build trust.

OPINION: Twenty years ago this week, UK policing faced one of its largest planned operational challenges – the G8 summit in Scotland – as well the 7/7 suicide bombings in London; in this second article, Policing Insight contributor Graham Wettone – then an experienced sergeant on the Metropolitan Police Public Order Intelligence Unit – describes the training and deployment of intelligence and evidence gathering teams during the summit, and the devastating impact of the London attacks.

FEATURE: A new National Police Chiefs’ Council Mental Health and Policing Strategy will place the Right Care, Right Person approach at the centre of the policing response to those in mental health crisis, with renewed emphasis on tackling disproportionality and measures to improve data capture also key elements of the as yet unpublished document, as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro reports.

FEATURE: Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Dr Brian Plastow has set out a range of steps Police Scotland should take to gain the maximum benefit from new technology that will “transform society and policing” – including backing greater investment in live facial recognition, particularly in the fight to prevent violence against women and girls – as Policing Insight’s Martin Gallagher reports.

INNOVATION: University of Sheffield Senior Law Lecturer Dr Joe Purshouse, and University of Southampton Law Lecturer Dr Joe Atkinson, set out the findings from a series of workshops and events hosted by the UK’s Predictive Policing Network, including the current implantation of predictive policing technology, the regulation governing its use, and the potential opportunities and challenges of future adoption of predictive policing tools – particularly in relation to the use of artificial intelligence.

ANALYSIS: Police forces have been urged to improve their data capture and analysis around non-fatal strangulation and suffocation after a new report from the Institute for Addressing Strangulation highlighted a 65% increase in the number of recorded cases in 2023-24, but 70% of cases failing to progress to court and little clear or consistent data about victims or suspects, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ANALYSIS: The UK Government’s latest Wastewater Analysis Programme report has highlighted an estimated 85% increase in ketamine use, prompting National Police Chiefs’ Council National Drugs Co-ordinator Mark Lay to call for more data sharing and closer collaboration between police and other agencies to make young people more aware of the dangers of the drug, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: New research suggests that Australians living in rural areas are more likely to support tougher penalties for crime than those in the cities; Caitlan Davey, Dr Kyle Mulrooney and Dr Sue Watt explain the reasons behind this divide, the implications for policing and the criminal justice system, and what can be done to address it.

FEATURE: A new report from animal welfare charity the Naturewatch Foundation is calling for mandatory training for UK police officers to recognise how animals are used in domestic abuse cases involving coercive control, after highlighting a “postcode lottery” in the current approaches of forces across England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: After the tragic murder of a 19-year-old woman in 2022, Essex Police set about changing how it assesses known and suspected perpetrators of domestic violence and developed an approach to stop them that had been “stolen with pride” from tackling gangs; Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass spoke to Detective Superintendent Matt Cornish and Detective Constable Robert Kedar about their work.

FEATURE: A Home Office-commissioned evaluation of the UK police use of naloxone highlights that not only is the opioid overdose reversal medication a potential life-saver, but its wider carriage by officers could help to build more trust and stronger relationships with drug-using communities – if challenges can be addressed around training and data collection, collaboration with healthcare agencies on handover and aftercare, and officers’ own stigma around drug users, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: Policing Insight's Sarah Gibbons spoke to Polly Harrar – founder of the Sharan Project, Chair of the London Harmful Practices Group led by the Metropolitan Police, violence against women and girls (VAWG) advocate, and women in leadership trainer – about the need to improve the systems in place for tackling VAWG, the dangers of weighing cultural considerations in the fight against sexual crimes and child abuse, and the importance of training for women leaders.

OPINION: The proposed Strong Borders Act, a bill currently before the Canadian Parliament, includes measures that will enable police to obtain information about an individual’s online activity by obtaining a warrant on a lower standard of reasonable suspicion of a crime, instead of probable cause; Thompson Rivers University Professor of Law Robert Diab argues that the new powers will turn tech companies such as Google, Apple, Shaw and Telus into agents of the state.

INTERVIEW: With this week’s official launch of the Neighbourhood Policing Programme (NPP) career pathway across England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Chief Superintendent Andy Sidebotham, Head of Uniformed Policing at the College of Policing, about the reasons for introducing the NPP, the make-up of the training modules, and what the new programme aims to achieve.

FEATURE: Chief constables, police and crime commissioners, and directors of public health across England and Wales have been sent new guidance and warnings about the dangers of a potential influx of harmful new drugs – including synthetic opioids – which could present greater risks to “those who are drug-naive or experimenting for the first time” at this summer’s music festivals, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: US President Donald Trump has declared himself as “the most police president in the history of America”; but Liverpool John Moores University Policing Lecturer James Williams argues that the administration’s latest legislative measures and approaches to immigration look set to undermine efforts to build trust with many communities across the US, and ultimately make the job of a US police tougher than ever.

OPINION: While the recent Government Spending Review left many chief constables, forces and police and crime commissioners in England and Wales saying the increase in police spending wasn’t enough, University of Leeds Professor of Crime Science Graham Farrell argues that more money and more officers doesn’t always lead to a fall in crime, with crime prevention and reducing crime opportunities by working with businesses, suppliers and manufacturers often a more effective approach.

FEATURE: A new report into male victim-survivor views on the criminalisation of coercive control in Australia, published by an international team of researchers, has highlighted both the majority support for new legislation, but also concerns about the potential misuse or ineffectiveness of an offence of coercive control, unless there is “whole of system change” across the criminal justice sector, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance has praised Scottish police superintendents for their role in leading innovation and collaboration that has ensured Police Scotland can meet the challenges of modern crime – despite a backdrop of a “challenging financial environment” which has left the force and the Government with “no quick fixes” and limited choices, as Policing Insight’s Martin Gallagher reports.

ANALYSIS: A recent court ruling on the routine use of in-custody strip searches of four teenage girls in youth detention found that the warrantless, standardless routine strip search of teenage prisoners is unreasonable, as is any law that authorizes it; Monika Lemke, PhD Candidate at Canada’s York University, believes the ruling importantly recognizes the goal of minimizing the use of strip searches in every context they are employed, and could have wider implications for Canadian policing generally.