Innovation

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons explores Ontario’s Mental Health Crisis Response programme, a virtual reality training model being rolled out to all officers across the province which research suggest can help to de-escalate those mental health crisis interventions, reduce the police use of force, and improve public trusts and confidence in law enforcement.

OPINION: The UK Government’s recent white paper on police reform contained a wide range of ambitious proposals for the future shape of policing; but Dale Peters, Senior Research Director at TechMarketView, warns that unless digital, data and technology developments are an integral part of that reform – rather than a separate workstream – a huge opportunity to structure and equip policing for the years ahead will be lost.

INNOVATION: A study of drug violence dynamics on Merseyside has highlighted the importance of understanding the “informal governance mechanisms” employed by organised crime groups (OCGs), and has led to the creation of a ‘co-operation index’ tool which can help police to more effectively target resources and prevent increased violence between OCGs, as researcher Dr Andrea Giovannetti explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: With the rapid growth of the internet offering law enforcement and security services huge new quantities of increasingly accessible open-source intelligence (OSINT), AI will play an invaluable role in policing and other organisations’ ability to collate, analyse and provide actionable intelligence from that information, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explains.

INNOVATION: A new Wellbeing and Trauma Resilience Programme launched by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – with funding secured from external sources – is focusing on stepping into the “proactive space” around wellbeing support, with group EMDR therapy, peer support groups, a new app, and psychoeducation for new recruits at the PSNI Police College among the range of measures that are already proving successful, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: The role played by artificial intelligence (AI) in the decision by West Midlands Police to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans – a move which led to the retirement of Chief Constable Craig Guildford – highlighted concerns about the police use of AI; organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson applies the latest research framework on the risks AI poses to civic institutions to assess the West Midlands Police case (in an article that itself contains analysis generated by Claude Opus 4.5 AI).

INNOVATION: The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in policing and the criminal justice system is gathering pace, and is being presented by some as ‘miracle tonic’; ahead of this week’s Beyond Bureaucracy 2026 free online conference exploring practical examples of what AI is working in the criminal justice system (and what’s not), Tamara Polajnar, CEO of event hosts herEthical AI, sets out some key points around AI fallacies, practical frameworks for development and procurement, and a checklist of questions to pose to vendors.

FEATURE: A recent report drawn from a series of Canadian roundtables focusing on the governance and use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the country’s police highlights the importance of the public helping to shape the use of AI by law enforcement, and the need for a “coherent, democratic framework” enabling AI to play a “legitimate, constrained” role in policing – without drifting towards a surveillance state and also avoiding “paralysing bureaucracy”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Following the publication this week of the police reform proposals for England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at how community and neighbourhood policing can remain a key focus for law enforcement throughout restructuring processes, and how similar reforms in The Netherlands and the work of the European KOBAN project can provide insights for UK policing.

ANALYSIS: As UK policing continues to wait expectantly for a new white paper, in the second of two articles on police reform organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson takes a closer look at other elements of the ‘Performance Paradox’ – including the technology trap, and the case for national capability – and sets out 10 provocations to challenge conventional reform thinking, in the hope that policing achieve real and sustainable change for victims and officers.

INNOVATION: As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes both increasingly exploited by criminals and dishonest actors, and offers significant opportunities for law enforcement, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores the latest European efforts to leverage AI in the fight against the growing levels of disinformation – much of which can lead to actions and events requiring a policing response.

INNOVATION: A new report from the charity JUSTICE into international lessons on the policing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and how these can be applied to the UK has called for the creation of an independent central body to set minimum standards for the use of AI in policing and act as a repository of good practice, in an effort to remove inconsistencies created by the 43-force structure in England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With more than 60 presenters from police forces around the world, November’s Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA) Police Conference 2025 explored the core question of what matters most in policing; and while artificial intelligence, technology and digital transformation were all high on the agenda, it was clear that the overriding focus was on putting people at the centre of policing.

FEATURE: With 2025 seeing some of the most disruptive cyberattacks in recent history, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores the likely challenges for the 12 months ahead, and the threats and opportunities posed by the increasing evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) which will trust and resilience becoming key themes in cyber security.

FEATURE: As law enforcement around the world prepares to face the challenges of 2026, Editor Keith Potter looks back over the key issues Policing Insight covered in 2025 – from structural reform and the approaches to ongoing and evolving crime threats, to workforce wellbeing, the opportunities from artificial intelligence and new technology, and leadership insights – and how these may affect the next 12 months.

OPINION: With UK police forces under growing pressure to increase efficiency and productivity, Darren Nicholas, Assistant Director of Criminal Justice Services at UK social justice charity Cranstoun, looks at the potential for more effective use of out-of-court resolutions – particularly when combined with technology – to save police and criminal justice resources while improving outcomes for offenders and communities.

FEATURE: A new report from Europol’s Innovation Lab on the impact of robotics and unmanned systems on law enforcement highlights the range of new threats posed by technology such as drones and robots generating new types and patterns of crime, as well as the potential for policing to leverage such technology to respond to many of the key criminal challenges, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: South Yorkshire Police’s Exercise Oak Apple is working with schools and other organisations to improve lockdown practice in response to on-premises knife crime incidents; Sergeant Simon Kirkham spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the programme came about, the work that has been done so far, and the potential to roll out the scheme more widely to forces across England and Wales.

FEATURE: In the wake of Ontario’s Building Bridges @ Blue conference, Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood explores the development of evidence-based policing across Canada, an approach that is gaining momentum but which faces significant challenges around governance, the disconnect between funding and outcomes, and the need to share outcomes.

INNOVATION: As forces adopt new approaches to digital evidence, integrating privacy with intelligence tools is proving key to efficiency, prediction, and community trust; Simon Randall, CEO of automatic redaction specialists Pimloc, explores the technology opportunities available to police forces to ensure that privacy and productivity advance hand in hand.

INNOVATION: A College of Policing evaluation of the use of enhanced video response to a range of calls coming in from the public to Avon and Somerset Police suggests that the approach could lead to significant improvements in response times, investigative standards, and overall case duration, as well as greater victim satisfaction and reduced stress and workloads for many officers taking part, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: An award-winning pilot project launched by the Norwegian Police Service utilises artificial intelligence (AI), assisted reality and automated processes to help crime scene investigators enhance the quality of investigations during the ‘golden hour’, improve outcomes, and reduce costs; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Dr Bente Skattør and Superintendent Kjeld Helland-Hansen about the AI4Interviews project.

INNOVATION: An evidence-based review of Thames Valley Police’s deployment of its Tactical Cycle unit in public order operations is calling on the College of Policing to develop Authorised Professional Practice for the approach, in an effort to encourage other forces in England and Wales to adopt the agile and versatile resource that can also improve public engagement and build trust and confidence, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: Automation and digitisation are delivering increased efficiency and other benefits across wider society, and there are significant potential gains for UK policing and the criminal justice system; police and technology advisor Paul Kennedy, and former Detective Inspector Tina Macleod, an out-of-court resolutions (OoCRs) specialist, explore some of the opportunities arising for policing and criminal justice across a range of areas, and take a closer look at how the use of OoCRs could be transformed by the new technology.