Features

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The Police Foundation’s 2021 annual conference, running online from 23rd to 25th February, will explore what kind of skills and capabilities police officers and staff will require as we approach the middle of the twenty first century.

Analysis: A layered co-governance framework that co-ordinates police experience, social science expertise and the public perspective is the ideal structure for the implementation of automated facial recognition systems, and as such is urgently required, argues Isabella Duan, Laidlaw Scholar at University College London.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Frontline Fulfilment is a collaborative event between the emergency services and education sectors, highlighting the opportunities for a ‘people-first’ future by exploring both common concerns and potential shared solutions; Mightify CEO Tom Wheelhouse explains the thinking behind next week’s free event, and what it aims to achieve.

FEATURE: The Coronavirus pandemic has put huge pressures on the criminal justice system, and could have an impact on the courts and policing for many years to come; Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons looks at two recent reports that both warn of critical risks and the need for a radical overhaul.

FEATURE: Against a backdrop of unprecedented rising violence in 2020 – with murders across the biggest 65 cities in the US increasing collectively by a third – Professor Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer, launched the Violence Reduction Project; in this first in a series of essays from practitioners, experts and academics, he highlights the aims of the Project, and the need for urgent action.

Analysis: Amid concerns that rising levels of large scale VAT fraud now represent a national security threat, Andrew Staniforth examines how new working arrangements between the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and Europol will be vital in ensuring that essential information sharing mechanisms are in place for effective investigations.

OPINION: Debates around ‘warrior cop’ masculinity and excessive use of force in policing have continued in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests; but suggestions that simply hiring more women will change police culture are flawed, says Harvard Masters candidate Diane Liang.

INSIGHT: In an increasingly digital world, the role of forensic linguistics will be crucial to law enforcement as an aid to correctly identifying text authors and voices, so investment in research and awareness raising among police officers and the judiciary, are vital to its success. Georgina Heydon outlines how this powerful, yet little known, tool can be integrated into investigations.

OPINION: The Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA), which represents officers in forces across England and Wales as well as those in the Isle of Man, Bermuda and Gibraltar, recently announced the launch of a programme of CPD events for superintendents, in collaboration with the College of Policing; PSA President Paul Griffiths discusses why the need for professional development never ends, regardless of rank.

OPINION: Scholars and practitioners have debated the extent to which terrorism and organised crime form a nexus. Serving officer Martin Gallagher examines the evidence - and concludes that, regardless of the overlap, the criminal justice system needs to be alive to the distinction in motivations between serious and organised criminals, and those engaged in terrorist activities.

FEATURE: Now the dust has settled on the Brexit agreement, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen examines the impact that the UK’s deal with the EU will have on information exchange, collaboration and co-operation, and the policing of serious and organised crime.

FEATURE: A new book by the former Director of GCHQ the UK’s first Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator outlines some of the key skills and attributes required of spies; but as Policing Insight's Andrew Staniforth reports, the book includes approaches and attitudes that would benefit any police officer involved in intelligence gathering and analytical thinking.

OPINION: Paul Odle, Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales’ Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic & Belief group and a serving Metropolitan Police officer, believes that while current unconscious bias training is not fit for purpose, it should be updated and amended, not abandoned.

ANALYSIS: Ports have long been magnets for serious and organised crime - but in the post-Brexit environment these risks are magnified and the capacity of the UK police to counter them limited by the end of access to European databases. Dr Anna Sergi of the University of Essex analyses the risks.

ANALYSIS: Devon and Cornwall Police recently announced a scheme to pay volunteer special constables an enhanced allowance for completing a minimum number of hours; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett explores whether this could be the first step towards establishing a paid policing reserve, and how other services ensure they can call on vital added experience in times of greatest need.

OPINION: Police officers in schools across the US play an important role in safety and security, as well as often helping to mentor students; but a police-run scheme in Florida, which uses students’ school performance and behaviour to indicate potential future criminals under the guise of intelligence-led policing, risks pushing young people into the criminal justice system, warns Associate Professor Chris Curran.

FEATURE: The UK Biometrics Commissioner has highlighted variations between forces in the retention of DNA, software inadequacies in the fight against terrorism, and missed opportunities for the international exchange of samples that may have put the public at greater risk of crime, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: As advances in technology made drones more accessible and easy to use, so growing concerns about their potential use by terrorist organisations prompted the launch of the European DroneWISE project; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on the project’s operational briefing which contains clear messages for first responders, police and security agencies.

FEATURE: The work of modern slavery support charity Justice and Care with victims at home and abroad is helping those who have been trafficked to engage more easily with police, leading in turn to more targeted action against organised crime; now the charity is hoping to expand its Victim Navigator programme to more forces, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The coronavirus pandemic has called for an extraordinary response from law enforcement; but Dr Wendy Laverick and Professor Peter Joyce believe the increasing politicisation of policing during the pandemic, the sidelining of PCCs and introduction of tougher powers could threaten police legitimacy once the crisis is over.

FEATURE: The illegal trade in wildlife and plants threatens some of the world's most vulnerable and endangered species; but tackling this illicit activity can also help law enforcement agencies in the fight against other serious and organised international crime, as freelance journalist and specialist scientific and environmental writer Georgina Kenyon explains.

OPINION: Lie detector tests such as polygraphs, which use an individual’s anxiety levels to indicate the veracity of their statements, have been criticised as ‘theoretically weak’ and unreliable; but new methods which rely on the asymmetry in responses from liars and truth-tellers could be the way forward, as University of Portsmouth Senior Teaching Fellow Cody Porter explains.

ANALYSIS: Former senior police officer Richard James of community engagement specialists Intensive Engagement shares the company’s methodology on working with communities to reduce crime, and how the approach can be applied to a range of other social issues.

INNOVATION: Recent serious public disorder in Brussels, and the much-covered riots in Washington DC, highlighted the dangers facing police when they are overwhelmed by unexpected public violence; a new virtual reality platform providing immersive simulation of real-world public places could offer police and security agencies the best possible preparation for such events, reports Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth.