Features

FEATURE: The first spotlight report from the Ontario Inspector General of Policing Ryan Teschner looking at the policing of protests and major events has highlighted the changing shapes, frequency and complexity of demonstrations, as well as a policing model that puts too much demand on specific services, leaving officers facing significant fatigue and adding to recruitment challenges for the specialised role, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: With police leaders facing traditional challenges alongside often unrelenting change and the development of new technology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice professors Dr Maria Haberfeld and Detective Corey Simpson outline the qualities and attributes that leaders of the future will need – including social intelligence, change intelligence, and artificial awareness intelligence.

FEATURE: A new report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services into the UK police response to organised immigration crime (OIC) has called for greater collaboration between forces, better intelligence gathering and sharing, and for OIC to become a higher law enforcement priority in order to tackle the organised crime groups involved, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The Seventh International Conference on Law Enforcement & Public Health (LEPH 2025), supported by Policing Insight as media partner, convenes in Ottawa, Canada, July 13-16, 2025, at a crucial moment when communities worldwide seek innovative approaches to public safety and health equity.

ANALYSIS: A unique study in Queensland, Australia, followed more than 80,000 people born in 1983 and 1984 to understand who offended and how their offending patterns changed over time; Griffith University PhD candidate Ayda Kuluk explores the findings from the research, the gender differences in criminal offending, and how this knowledge can be used to improve the targeting of crime prevention programs and interventions.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell, Chair of the APCC, looks ahead to this week’s much-anticipated UK comprehensive spending review that will determine the funding available for large-scale police reform heralded by the Home Secretary, and underlines the crucial role that PCCs and deputy mayors will need to play in providing effective oversight of that reform.

INTERVIEW: Humberside Police has become a story of turnaround success, from being the first UK force to be rated ‘inadequate’ to becoming graded in most areas as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’, and technology has played key part in the transformation; Police Insight’s James Sweetland spoke to the force’s Chief Digital and Innovation Officer Scot Dunn about the role artificial intelligence has played in that journey, the importance of focusing new tech on supporting victims, and the difference a national policing centre could make.

INTERVIEW: In this final instalment of Policing Insight’s series dedicated to chemically concealed cocaine, Chris Dalby spoke with Gary Goldberg, a veteran chemist who spent 36 years with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) specializing in chemically concealed narcotics; he offers critical insights into the evolving strategies of traffickers, practical frontline detection methods, and actionable recommendations to equip policing and customs personnel in their fight against this increasingly prevalent threat.

FEATURE: A new report from the Scottish Institute for Policing Research exploring efforts to implement anti-racist strategies in UK policing and the wider public sector highlights persistent institutional racism, resistance to organisational change, and defensive attitudes among officers as some of the key barriers to reform, with training and minority recruitment drives labelled as “shallow and tokenistic”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With knife crime increasing in many countries, piecing together the forensic puzzle around stabbings can be key to the pursuit of justice, and stabbing simulations can play a vital role; new research by Associate Professor Paola Magni, Associate Professor Alasdair Dempsey, Adjunct Professor Ian Dadour, and PhD Candidate Stevie Ziogos, all of Perth’s Murdoch University, suggests that combining manual simulations with robotic and mechanical systems can bridge crucial gaps in crime scene reconstruction.

FEATURE: A new report from the Police Foundation and Virgin Media O2 is calling for a systemic overhaul of the police response to fraud – a crime which now accounts for 43% of all offence against over-16s in England and Wales – after highlighting “unsustainable” outdated structures, inadequate resources, and a lack of skills and prioritisation in the way law enforcement deals with the “fraud epidemic”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With the radicalisation of Muslim youth a continuing concern for governments, communities and counter-terrorism policing, Birmingham City University Senior Lecturer Dr Lily Hamourtziadou, University of Salford Lecturer Dr Anna Kruglova, and Detective Superintendent Matt Davison, national lead for the Identify strand of Prevent, explore three non-violent ways to counter radicalisation and terrorism that combine moral and practical approaches to security.

FEATURE: A new report into barriers preventing An Garda Siochána officers from engaging with mental health support warns that a police culture that stigmatises mental health issues, fears over the impact on career progression, and other concerns about trust and confidentiality, are leading to officers “toughing it out” amid deteriorating conditions – despite the fact that support provision in the force is at the best level researchers have seen in more than 30 years, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from Ottawa Police Service, who now have FREE subscriber access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of readers from many other UK and international police, government, academic, criminal justice and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.

FEATURE: In the wake of the trial and conviction of a Nazi ‘virtual’ terrorist cell in Sheffield for planning attacks on mosques and synagogues in England, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the lessons learned from the European PROTECTOR initiative, which highlighted the importance of collaboration and co-operation between law enforcement, faith communities, local authorities and other partners in improving the security of religious sites and places of worship.

INNOVATION: A wellbeing programme for investigators in Essex Police and Kent Police, which combines awareness and training with one-to-one meetings and online resources, has been highlighted as good practice by the College of Policing; Health and Wellbeing Delivery Manager Janine Jury spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the programme works, the buy-in from officers and senior leaders, and the potential benefits for victims as officers “pay forward” the compassion they’ve received.

INTERVIEW: RCMP Deputy Commissioner Jodie Boudreau, Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, believes its time “to get our swagger back” and restore pride in policing; she spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about restoring confidence in the profession, working closely with Indigenous communities and other under-represented groups to build relationships and increase recruitment, and the strengths that new young officers can bring into the job.

OPINION: Having played a key role in delivering the New Met for London cultural reform programme for the UK’s largest police force, Public Safety Tech Consultant Michael Calderaro-Tracey shares some insights into the importance of psychological safety, the dangers of trying to make a broken system work, and the need for continuous commitment to transformation in an environment where change is essential rather than optional.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Leadership, knowledge and application are the fundamentals to continuous education and training across all policing fields, essential to keep updated on best practices, legal changes and evolving community needs. The Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies (LCAPS) offers a comprehensive learning portfolio featuring academic policing programs designed to equip police professionals with the essential skills needed to apply to the everchanging complex challenges of modern policing.

FEATURE: A new report is calling for every child victim of domestic abuse to have a police assessment around their age, risk and need, with officers urged to be “professionally curious” and confident in identifying and responding to safeguarding concerns, amid fears that around 1.5 million children in the UK could be affected by domestic abuse, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: A lawsuit heard in the Supreme Court this month regarding “degrading and humiliating” unlawful strip searches carried out by New South Wales Police has again highlighted the issue of police sexism in Australia; Deakin University Associate Criminology Lecturer Dr Michael Cain argues that forces across the country are failing to learn from previous inquiries into sexism, and suggests that an independent police ombudsman to investigate complaints could be the best solution.

FEATURE: With evidence-based policing (EBP) now a strong focus for many law enforcement agencies, Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood looks at the 10 benchmarks for the approach set out by Dr Cynthia Lum, a former police officer and now Professor of Criminology at George Mason University – and one of the foremost authorities on EBP – during her presentation at the last Building Bridges at Blue Conference.

INNOVATION: The use of an evidence storage and sharing app rolled out across Hertfordshire Constabulary has seen positive outcomes more than double compared to the force average, with investigation times reduced and demand on digital forensic unit and data storage also cut; now more forces across England and Wales are looking at adopting the technology, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen examines the findings of a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime into maritime drug trafficking, including the scale of the challenge, the available resources and logistical approaches of organised crime groups, and what steps could be taken to improve law enforcement’s efforts to tackle the traffickers.