Analysis

OPINION: 3D-printed firearms – known as ‘ghost guns’ – have been used in a wide range of criminal incidents by organised crime groups as well as political and religious extremists, with growing numbers of arrests in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia; Professor Nir Kshetri of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro believes that the use of ghost guns in violent and criminal activity will continue to increase, with governments and police facing significant challenges in regulating the firearms.

ANALYSIS: While the recruitment of minors into organised crime and terrorism is not new, a recent Europol briefing warns that youngsters aged 13-17 are now involved as perpetrators in more than 70% of all European criminal markets, with gangs using increasingly targeted messaging on social media platforms and “gamified” challenges and missions for minors to blur the lines between friendship and exploitation, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: In the wake of the recent terrorist arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the continuing efforts to develop collaborative approaches between congregations, communities and law enforcement to ensure the safety and protection of places of worship.

ANALYSIS: In the wake of the media outcry over Essex Police’s investigation of online comments by a Daily Telegraph journalist, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the history of non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), their impact on policing, and the effects of the code of practice introduced in 2023.

FEATURE: A new Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan launched in the UK by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Crown Prosecution Service commits police and prosecutors to work together more effectively and at earlier stages of investigations in order to increase successful judicial outcomes as well as improving the service to victims, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A partnership with the Leeds-based Domestic Violence and Abuse Voices Project providing “humbling, compelling and motivating” first-hand accounts of how women have been treated by police in the past is helping officers in West Yorkshire to gain greater insights and improve the service they deliver in domestic abuse cases, while giving victim-survivors a “life-changing” opportunity to vocalise their experiences and feel heard, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: This year’s high-profile National Crime Agency takedown of the LockBit ransomware group, and the subsequent Endgame global cybercrime operation, was hailed as an example of successful law enforcement international collaboration; but IÉSEG School of Management professors Christine Abdalla Mikhaeil, Carin Venter and Jennifer Ziegelmayer warn that with many new players stepping into the ransomware market – and LockBit’s revival – greater international collaboration will be needed in the future.

FEATURE: A recent Europol-supported cross-border operation targeting VAT fraud saw accounts containing more than €520 million frozen, hundreds of properties seized, and at least 200 people investigated; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the efforts of law enforcement to tackle organised crime’s increasing involvement in cyber-enabled fraud.

ANALYSIS: Police in England and Wales have, for the first time, collected and published detailed information gleaned from crime reports about child sex abuse and exploitation (CSAE) carried out by networks or groups, in a bid to put resources in the right areas and challenge assumptions with data along the way, as Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass reports.

FEATURE: With the “global health emergency” of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSAE) reaching harrowing levels, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the work of Protect and Prevent Through Support – a Europe-wide initiative led by the Polish Platform for Homeland Security – in collating data and co-ordinating services to prevent CSAE.

ANALYSIS: Fraud accounts for a huge proportion of crime in the UK as well as other countries, with romance fraud particularly prevalent – and having significant impacts on victims over and above financial losses; Aston University Senior Lecturer Dr Rasha Kassem, an expert in fraud, explores the methods of those perpetrating romance frauds, the impacts on victims, and what police officers can do to combat the crime as well as provide support and reassurance.

OPINION: In response to the call for a new national Police Agency as set out in the recent ‘Fit for the Future’ paper published jointly by the Police Foundation and Leapwise Advisory, Canterbury Christ Church University Senior Lecturer in Policing, Dr David Lydon, suggests that, rather than pushing for greater centralisation, the cornerstone for effective police reform should be agility, inclusivity, and technological innovation.

ANALYSIS: The latest survey of survivors of rape and sexual assault into their experiences of the response by police in England and Wales has found that overall, Operation Soteria is improving the service delivered, but still only 40% of victims would report another sexual offence because of a lack of trust – although a series of simple steps could dramatically improve that reporting rate, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Researchers at Europol have identified the challenges created by the enhanced privacy levels offered through home routing – a service established as part of the introduction and expansion of 5G – which could leave law enforcement agencies unable to undertake lawful interception of calls, messages and other data, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

OPINION: A new report from the five nations of the Five Eyes intelligence community highlights the increasing rates of online youth radicalisation, a threat borne out by the involvement of young people in every counter-terrorism case investigated this year by the Australian Federal Police; Greg Barton, Professor of Global Islamic Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute, argues that while Australia already has good systems in place, the report offers valuable advice for parents, teachers, and any other agencies working with children and young people.

FEATURE: A report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change warns that UK’s current policing model is “fundamentally ill-suited” to tackling the huge threat of serious and organised crime, and urges the Government to establish a single UK-wide police force to lead on all crimes and threats that cross force boundaries, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: In the last in a series of five articles looking at the big debates in police use of facial recognition (FR), extracted from this year’s ‘Facing the future: The rise of facial recognition in policing’ report, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland explores the remarkable global variations in the legal and regulatory frameworks governing FR use, and whether a more effective approach can balance the obvious risks against the potential benefits to secure the best possible outcomes for public safety.

FEATURE: A 27-year-old paedophile was creating cartoonish pseudo child abuse images and distributing them among an online network; Detective Chief Inspector Jen Tattersall from Greater Manchester Police’s online child abuse investigations team tells Ian Weinfass how the force managed to bring a case against the offender, and safeguard real children at risk.

FEATURE: The latest Race Discrimination Report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct has highlighted continuing racial disparities in the use of police powers such as stop and search, and called on forces to address disproportionality in an effort to end the cycle of mistrust in minority ethnic communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland has urged Police Scotland to allocate more posts to roads policing, improve training, and increase enforcement in an effort to cut down on the number of fatal and serious injury road accidents as well as deter poor and dangerous driving by the public, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: The importance of ‘political astuteness’ as a skill for leaders is increasingly recognised – particularly in roles with tricky issues and diverse stakeholders – but the subject has seemingly been little considered within policing; Open University Visiting Fellow Dr Jane Roberts and Emeritus Professor Jean Hartley explore the research around political astuteness in policing, and the challenges involved in the relationships between politicians and police leaders.

OPINION: The recent review of the Australian Central Intelligence Commission has led to a change of role for the agency, with a focus on intelligence aimed at combating serious and organised crime, rather than traditional law enforcement and investigation; but Dr John Coyne and Liam Auliciems of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warn that for the reorientation to succeed, challenges around operational responsibilities, resources, and ensuring intelligence is actionable will need to be addressed.

FEATURE: A new report argues that ignoring the role of women in organised crime – whether as criminal actors, as vulnerable victims, or as policy makers and leaders in law enforcement – is creating a ‘blind spot’ in the response to such criminal activity, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Twelve years ago this month the planned suicide bombing of a US airport by an employee fuelled by online extremist content was successfully thwarted by the FBI, in what became a benchmark for covert insider threat operations; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks back at the Terry Lee Loewen case, and also at ongoing work to develop a strategy to help businesses detect and deter potential internal hostile actors.