Happy New Year – now it’s time to take the positives into 2022

It’s a bit disorientating trying to write a coherent look back over 2021, and take an optimistic gaze into the 12 months ahead, when you’re stuck in that Christmas to New Year limbo where the usual routines – the bin collections, the TV schedules, the weekly deadlines – have either disappeared or are in disarray. How can you be sure what happened last February when you can’t even be sure what day it is today…

Of course, for those of you working a continuing shift pattern of earlies, lates and nights, with only the added influx of Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve calls to highlight the festivities, such uncertainties are an irrelevant luxury. We’ve said it before and we say it again now – thank you for all your commitment and dedication over the past 12 months, but especially at this time when the vast majority of us get to take a break with our families.

It is an often thankless job that you do, and 2021 has been no different. But at the moment, doesn’t every year feel like that?

A quick look back to the end of December 2020 shows my colleague, Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix, describing the previous 12 months as one that would be remembered “overwhelmingly for the wrong reasons”. It was a year when much of the world ground to a halt through the COVID-19 pandemic, policing found itself shoe-horned into the almost impossible position of interpreter and implementer of Covid regulations and legislation, and confidence in policing in relation to race was shaken by the murder of George Floyd by an American officer – a death that sent shockwaves first through policing in the US, and then more widely, as protests took place around the world.

Fast forward a year and where are we now? After another year of lockdowns and relative freedoms, vaccinations and isolations, the pandemic is still headline news, especially here in the UK. Debates are raging once again about new or potential lockdowns that would put police firmly back in the role of Covid legislation enforcers.

In truth, with the continuing anti-vaxxer, anti-lockdown movement taking to the streets on a fairly regular basis, policing has found itself regularly in the firing line as the upholder of a government policy which, again especially here in the UK, has sometimes appeared to lack credibility.

And while policing has continued to try to address issues around racism, representation and building stronger relationships with Black and minority ethnic communities, there was further damage to trust and confidence following the horrific murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens.

The case brought the policing of violence against women and girls firmly under the spotlight both in the UK and elsewhere, with investigations launched, policies drawn up and efforts to improve the response ramped up.

Policing behind the headlines

So it would be easy to write off 2021 as another year to forget, and consign it to the annals of history, alongside an apparent barrage of negative headlines. But one of the real pleasures of working on Policing Insight is the opportunity to look behind the headlines, to find and share best practice, fresh thinking and ground-breaking research. And in 2021 we’ve had more to share than ever before.

Over the past 12 months we’ve published more than 560 editorial articles, from interviews with senior officers, academics, practical experts and private suppliers, to research round-ups, conference coverage, best practice articles and explorations of new skills and approaches.

The subjects discussed have ranged from artificial intelligence to interview techniques, drones to DNA, fire starters to facial recognition, and every conceivable policing issue in between.

And that spread of topics has been matched by the geographical breadth of our coverage. While much of our content has focused on issues relevant to a range of international jurisdictions, we have also looked specifically at law enforcement issues in many individual countries outside of the UK, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Central Africa, Dubai, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and the US.

Alongside individual analysis, opinion pieces and feature articles, we have explored some issues in much greater depth. We were able to publish more than 20 contributions from the Violence Reduction Project, a series of essays from US practitioners, experts and academics, co-ordinated by Professor Peter Moskos of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

We have continued to publish papers from UCL’s COVID-19 special series – one of a number of ‘policing in the pandemic’ themes we have focused on during the last year – as well as a series of articles on workforce development, and an ongoing series on CPD in policing.

Our Police Student series, co-ordinated by our Academic Editor, Dr Carina O’Reilly, continues to be a must-read for those on policing degrees.

With demand on policing reaching ever higher levels, we were able to take a much deeper dive into one of the key challenges facing forces in the UK and elsewhere, with the Future Police Contact Management Report, published in partnership with Salesforce.

Bernard Rix, Publisher of Policing Insight touring the UK on his Policing Friendship Tour

CPD and student learning are not the only themes that will continue into 2022. Bernard’s description of 2020 as a year to be remembered “overwhelmingly for the wrong reasons” was not only true from a policing perspective, but also a personal one. He had endured an 18 months that would have broken many people, losing his wife Debbie, and both his parents, in a period where the most straightforward acts of friendship and support were tested to the limit by lockdowns.

His response was very typically Bernard. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade – and not just the cloudy stuff, but something clear and sparkling – and so the Policing Friendship Tour was launched.

Bernard’s aim of walking with and talking to those involved in policing across the UK, discussing the big issues of the day while rekindling old friendships, making new ones, and raising awareness of charities along the way, has already seen him traverse much of the UK. On his travels he has spoken to chief constables and police and crime commissioners, PCSOs and private sector suppliers, and many other members of the law enforcement fraternity.

The Tour is set to continue across the UK throughout 2022, but Bernard has already accepted invitations from and walked with colleagues overseas; so wherever you are in the world, don’t be surprised to see the Policing Friendship Tour arrive near you over the next 12 months and beyond.

Our audience and our team

The success of the Friendship Tour, and of our content overall, owes as much to the engagement and support of you – our registered users, subscribers and supporters – as it does to the efforts of the Policing Insight team.

So it’s been encouraging and rewarding to see our audience grow both in size and spread, as well as in the level of interaction with the content we provide. During 2021 our global audience from North America, Australasia and Europe included more than 146,000 unique users, consuming 840,000 page views – a 40% increase on 2020.

Alongside growing numbers of individual subscribers we have welcomed a range of new organisational subscriptions from police forces, law enforcement agencies, commercial organisations and academic institutions around the world. These include the City of London, Dyfed Powys and North Yorkshire Police in the UK; the Australian Federal Police, South Australia Police, Western Australia Police and Queensland Police in Australia; and the Singapore Civil Defence Force.

To reflect the incredible breadth of interests among Policing Insight’s users, we look to find and publish content and contributions from the widest possible pool of resources.

One of the huge benefits of such a diverse audience is that many of our visitors and subscribers draw on their own knowledge and experience to submit contributions for publication (and if you have an area of expertise, a policing issue or informed opinion that you think would engage our audience, as always we would love to hear from you – [email protected], or [email protected]).

Since our launch in 2015, we have published contributions from more than 900 authors, and in 2021 we welcomed new external expert contributors from policing, criminal justice, the third sector, academia and industry.

Many of those quickly become regular contributors, and over the past 12 months we have published multiple articles from authors as diverse as Steve Ainsworth (NEC), former Det Chf Supt Gareth Bryon, Mark Cooper (Greymalkin Consulting), Dr John Coyne of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Police Scotland Chief Inspector Martin Gallagher, Transform Justice Director Penelope Gibbs, Professor Peter Joyce and Dr Wendy Laverick, Rick Muir and the Police Foundation team, Supt Simon Nelson (President of the Disabled Police Association), police ethics advisor Montell Neufville, Dr Karen Richmond, former BBC Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw, policing lecturer Owen West, Dr Emma Williams and the team from the Open University, and Dr Teagan Westendorf (ASPI).

We’ve also been able to strengthen our in-house team of writers and analysts. Previous regular contributor and experienced journalist Sarah Gibbons became Deputy Editor early in 2021, and has tackled some of the key topics and interviewed law enforcement leaders from around the world over the past 12 months. Researcher, lecturer and consultant Chris Allen also joined the team at the start of the year, and has given our audience a much stronger insight into organised crime.

During the year Nerys Musgrove joined the team as a researcher, focusing both on our highly regarded Media Monitor service and on standalone projects, and most recently journalist Christine Townsend became part of the Policing Insight family, as our US Publishing Developer and regular contributor, based in Austin, Texas.

The work of the team has benefited considerably from the experience, guidance, and support of Policing Insight’s International Advisory Board (IAB), whose network of global contacts and wide-ranging expertise have proved invaluable.

So to our occasional and regular contributors, to the new members of the editorial team, to the IAB, and to our regular team – Director of Publishing Ian Barrett, Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro, Dr Carina O’Reilly (Academic Editor), regular writer Andrew Staniforth, writer and analyst Ian Wiggett, Simone Hatchard (Research Analyst) and Sales Manager Richard Place – as well as all of those who have helped us to achieve so much over the past 12 months, many thanks for all your efforts in 2021.

What next?

Which brings us to 2022. Given the events of the past couple of years, it would be a very wise man or a fool (and I lay claim to be neither, although there might be a few arguments about the fool) who would look to predict what’s in store for policing over the next 12 months. So let’s turn instead to Policing Insight.

We aim to maintain and build on our position as the leading global platform for the wider policing family to share and access opinion, knowledge and innovation, helping policing worldwide to identify and put in place ways of delivering even better policing outcomes.

That, as always, will rely on even more insightful content from as diverse a range of sources as possible, and building wider and stronger relationships with you – our readers and contributors.

It will also involve enhanced delivery and presentation, with a new addition to the Policing Insight stable set to lead the way. In November we reported on a round table event, Reflections and Ambitions in UK Policing ICT, organised by Policing Insight Events in partnership with Virgin Media Business, and produced by PolicingTV. The event was the first of many planned for the new PolicingTV platform due to be launched early in 2022.

We will keep all our readers, stakeholders and subscribers up to date with the new platform as things move forward, but for now – watch this space!

Just like Policing Insight, PolicingTV will focus on exploring the real challenges for police globally, and look behind the headlines to highlight and share fresh thinking, best practice, and new research and initiatives that really make a difference.

As already pointed out, and demonstrated from previous year-end reviews, successfully predicting what those fresh ideas and new research will be – along with the challenges policing is likely to face – is difficult and likely to be doomed to failure.

But what is clear is that while the challenges, mistakes and any failings need to be acknowledged and addressed, policing needs to be more active in setting the narrative, getting that good work and proactive approach out there to balance some of the negative headlines.

A good example would be the ongoing focus on violence against women and girls (VAWG). The murder of Sarah Everard in the UK sickened everyone, and rightly raised a range of questions about how a serving officer could survive in the job with those attitudes and behaviours, whether sexism and misogyny is a wider problem in policing, and how forces and others can work to improve the safety and protection of women as well as the successful prosecution of those who carry out such crimes.

That debate continues, but while those questions and the opinions of some of those asking them have remined high profile, the actions of policing in response have failed to attract the same level of attention.

For example, Project Bluestone, the initiative driven by Avon and Somerset Police to address failings in rape prosecutions, has been widely hailed within law enforcement and criminal justice as a significant step forward, and is now set to be rolled out across the UK. Yet there has been little mention of it outside of policing.

One of those who did mention Project Bluestone was Victim’s Commissioner Dame Vera Baird who, although critical of some of the policing culture around VAWG, described police forces as “ideally placed” to lead an inspirational societal change around misogyny and VAWG, and highlighted Devon and Cornwall Police for praise as one of the first organisations to take on the Bystander Project. Again, little coverage of this aspect of her comments in the national media.

And at the time of Sarah Everard’s murder, several forces (most notably Thames Valley Police) discussed efforts they were making to deploy both plain clothes and uniform officers in the night-time economy to identify potential perpetrators and target VAWG. The move received some fairly cynical responses, particularly online, where concerns over the prospect of trusting a plain clothes officer on a night out prompted plenty of criticism.

This month, findings from Thames Valley’s Operation Vigilant initiative revealed a 50% drop in stranger rapes, and 30% fewer sexual offences, in just three months; yet there was barely a mention in the wider media. I doubt a three-month, 50% increase in stranger rapes or 30% rise in sexual offences would have been quite so overlooked.

All of these stories were covered by Policing Insight, and it will be our job over the coming 12 months to continue to highlight the challenges faced and achievements secured by policing around the world.

We look forward to sharing those stories with the widest possible audience, and wish all of you a safe, healthy and happy 2022.

Policing Insight will continue to publish new content throughout the Christmas and New Year period; our first newsletter of 2022 will be distributed on 12 January.