Innovation

FEATURE: A recent report into serious and organised crime (SOC) sets out the need for a new international alliance to “match the speed, reach and ambition of the threat” from organised crime networks, which are currently taking advantage of law enforcement’s traditional geographical boundaries, siloed working, and legacy technology and structures more suited to a “bygone age”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A College of Policing evaluation of the use of a video first response (VFR) approach to non-emergency domestic abuse calls has found that VFR can significantly reduce response times for victims, while also improving victim safeguarding and perceptions of being believed by officers – but there’s little evidence so far to suggest an increase in positive criminal justice outcomes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: With law enforcement increasingly looking to artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency and enhance outcomes, forensic psychologist Dr Brandon May, Assistant Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, fears that policing is becoming over-reliant on AI – particularly generative AI in areas such as investigative interviewing, which he argues require skills such as intuition, emotional intelligence or judgement that AI doesn’t have, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: Greater Manchester Police’s Chief Superintendent Phil Davies leads for the force on data strategy, as well as on data foundations for the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Data and Analytics Board; he spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the benefits of police borrowing the “digital twin” concept widely used in industry, the need for efficient data quality and management, and how realisation around the importance of data is finally hitting home in policing.

FEATURE: With serious and organised crime recognised by Europol as one of the greatest security threats currently facing the EU, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the latest funding opportunities for police forces across the continent including the UK, as well as New Zealand and Canada, to develop projects seeking to improve the intelligence picture and the “enhanced prevention, detection and deterrence” of organised crime.

FEATURE: Victims of violence against women and girls who may be susceptible to repeat attacks are being given cans of chemically marked forensic spray as a deterrent against potential attackers; an evaluation of the scheme found that the approach helps to build trust and confidence in policing, speed up court processes, and helps to reduce investigator workloads, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: Waterloo Regional Police Service has become the first police force in Canada to adopt the stratified policing model, encouraging officers to change their focus to targeted crime suppression and prevention while increasing accountability at all levels and improving community engagement and multi-agency partnerships, as Deputy Chief Jen Davis told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: The recent completion of the two-year EU PRECRISIS project has culminated in the publication of a series of operational briefings designed to “inform and add value” to all stakeholders engaged in delivering safety and security at public spaces, including law enforcement, other first responders, local authorities and urban developers, as well as private-sector partners, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

OPINION: The recent use of live facial recognition (LFR) by the Metropolitan Police at Notting Hill Carnival brought the new technology back under the spotlight; Dr Asress Gikay, Senior Lecturer in AI, Disruptive Innovation and Law at Brunel University of London, argues that LFR is here to stay, and rather than “pushing unrealistic proposals of bans or moratoriums”, the debate should be weighing the trade-offs between human rights and public safety to ensure the proportionate use of the technology.

FEATURE: With a Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry now underway into the channels, technologies and actors responsible for disinformation and misinformation in the UK, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at research efforts and funding to tackle disinformation across Europe, and how focusing on inclusivity can help to counter attempts to create discord and division.

OPINION: With online cross-border financial scams driving fraud to new levels – it now accounts for 40% of all crime against individuals in England and Wales – most police and government efforts remain focused on preventative and defensive measures; but new research from Professor Mark Button and Associate Professor Branislav Hock at the University of Portsmouth highlights several ways to take more offensive actions against fraudsters, including embracing the work of the private anti-scam community.

INNOVATION: A new report from Europol which offers practical guidance on tackling artificial intelligence (AI) bias in law enforcement is calling for more regular training for personnel “to deepen their understanding of AI technologies”, routine and regular multi-stakeholder reviews of AI models, and more consistent frameworks around their use, to combat the dangers of AI bias – particularly in areas such as predictive policing – as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: The results of a pilot study of wearable wellbeing technology used by new police recruits has highlighted significant positive lifestyle changes among those who used the new tech, along with better sleep patterns, more resilience, and a reduction in the number of young-in-service officers considering leaving the job, as Professor Carol Cox of Liverpool John Moores University explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: With children and young people increasingly becoming a target for a wide range of online scams, sexual exploitation, bullying and identity theft by cybercriminals, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on the inaugural INTERPOL Youth Cybercrime Awareness Webinar which aimed to increase awareness, provide guidance and offer support to youngsters to protect themselves against modern online threats.

INNOVATION: Northumbria Police has become the first force in England and Wales to recruit officers from all entry routes directly onto the neighbourhood policing pathway in an effort to widen workforce skillsets, support the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, and get “the right people in the right roles”, as Northumbria’s Assistant Chief Officer Joscelin Lawson explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: New research by Paris Graduate School PhD researcher David Graves, a former UK fraud squad detective, suggests that the creation of a National Crime Co-ordination Centre could enhance collaboration between police and private investigators, co-ordinate the multi-agency response to major and emerging threats including organised crime, and improve public confidence in policing, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen.

INNOVATION: In the latest in a series of articles exploring the opportunities and challenges presented to police by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), Chief Philip Lukens explores the unintended exposure of potentially sensitive information through a short-lived OpenAI experiment that left ChatGPT conversations not meant for public consumption accessible via Google Search, and the lessons that policing can learn from this.

INNOVATION: Operation Yellow Card, an innovative scheme launched by Cambridgeshire Police and local football clubs to tackle youth offending at matches, has already significantly reduced reoffending among youngsters and could soon be rolled out across other forces, as scheme founder and Cambridgeshire PC Mike Price – the Dedicated Football Officer (DFO) for Peterborough United – explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INNOVATION: With the ‘Internet of Things’ – that vast network of physical objects embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies to connect and exchange data – continuously expanding, the cyber threat landscape and the level of opportunities for criminals and bad actors grows with it; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the recently introduced Cyber Resilience Act, one of the first pieces of legislation aiming to improve the cybersecurity of products or software with a digital component.

INNOVATION: With the response to those in mental health crisis a challenge for policing in many jurisdictions, a new programme launched by New Zealand Police has seen handover times to emergency departments for those detained under the country’s Mental Health Act reduced to one hour, with a long-term aim of completing successful handovers within 15 minutes, as programme lead Inspector Matthew Morris explained to Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro.

FEATURE: As daily life for many people moves increasingly online, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the recent Europol report exploring how law enforcement can deliver community policing in the digital age, the “capability and relevance gap” that police urgently need to address, and how the work of the EU’s Koban project could help to build the future capabilities of community policing in both the physical and virtual domains.

INNOVATION: The Offending 2 Recovery (O2R) programme pioneered by West Midlands Police is credited with life-saving support to get addicts off of drugs, while also significantly reducing the shoplifting crimewave faced by retailers; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to the officer who first created O2R, the police and crime commissioner who funds it, and the former addict who stole more than £30m of goods to feed her habit and who believes O2R saved her life.

FEATURE: With the policing landscape changing “faster than ever”, Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) Learning and Development lead David Bamber, and Dr Sean Bell, Lecturer in Policing Organisation and Practice at the Open University, explain why the two organisations are working together to introduce a “fully accredited, recognised and validated programme in professional practice” for PFEW reps to ensure they have the skills required to take on a role that is “becoming more challenging”.

INNOVATION: New Zealand’s Resilience to Organised Crime in Communities (ROCC) initiative – a community-based, multi-agency initiative in which NZ Police are taking a lead role – is combining enforcement against drugs and gangs while also working to provide pathways for youths to avoid being drawn into gang culture, building trust with the public, and supporting communities to make their own decisions, as NZ Police ROCC Manager John O’Keeffe explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.