Opinion

OPINION: Amid the furore to call a halt to Dame Cressida Dick's time at the helm of the Metropolitan Police, the Government and - crucially - the rank and file respect and support her leadership style and believe she remains the right person for the job with no obvious successor yet identified. Former BBC Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw examines some of the reasons why the Commissioner's contract has, indeed, been extended.

OPINION: As new police and crime commissioners contemplate the content of their policing plans, Charlie Norman, MD of DriveTech argues that road safety deserves greater visibility than it sometimes gets – and that the concept of education and retraining has the potential to make an even greater contribution to reducing danger on our roads as the nature of hazards on those roads continues to evolve.

OPINION: While many governments are continuing their efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan, the return of the Taliban has left the country’s 4,000 female police officers at particular risk; Dr Melissa Jardine, an international police consultant and former Victoria police officer, believes the international community must do more to protect those who put their lives on the line to secure the safety of their communities.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Avon and Somerset PCC Mark Shelford is leading the force’s hunt to find a new chief constable following the departure of Andy Marsh; but while traditionally the top job has been filled by existing chiefs or deputies, the force is widening the recruitment pool to include assistant chief constables and overseas applicants who possess the right leadership and Peelian qualities, as Mr Shelford explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Tour.

INTERVIEW: In the first in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised criminals, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen spoke to Dr Anna Sergi, Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Essex and an expert on the Mafia, on how her career has developed, her current research and plans for future projects, and the key challenges presented by organised crime moving forwards.

OPINION: Operations by police and security teams to clear homeless encampments around the city of Toronto have been defended as an attempt to ensure the safety of occupants and the general public; however, Professor Joe Hermer of the University of Toronto argues that not only is this untrue, but it also represents a betrayal by police and the mayor, who had previously pledged to listen to and build a relationship with the city’s most marginalised and vulnerable people.

OPINION: The Home Office recently put out a revised draft of the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice for public consultation in the UK; Tony Porter, the former Surveillance Camera Commissioner and now Chief Privacy Officer at Corsight AI, believes there is a need for more guidance and clearer governance of surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology, and that regulation of their use and deployment should be a role for the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office.

OPINION: A temporary law introduced in New Zealand last summer allowing buyers of drugs to have them independently checked without risking prosecution looks set to become permanent this year; if it does, Professor Alexander Gillespie of the University of Waikato believes it will make the citizens of New Zealand safer, and reflect a legislative trend towards harm reduction

opinion: Promoting a single equality cause as overtly as this week's pictures of the LGBT rainbow emblem on police liveried vehicles could inadvertently discriminate against other protected groups, argues Evan Morris, Vice Chairman of the National Association of Police Fire and Crime Panels

OPINION: Last month an Australian couple were jailed after being found guilty of enslaving a vulnerable Tamil woman for eight years, in one of the few cases where people have been prosecuted for slavery offences rather than related crimes; Dr John Coyne of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute believes the case should act as a reminder for police, prosecutors and the public that modern slavery exists in many areas of society, and also highlights latest UN policy guidance to help states tackle the issue.

OPINION: The recent tragic shootings in Plymouth, and the concerns over how gunman Jake Davison came to be in possession of a licensed shotgun, have prompted calls for a more thorough vetting of applicants and licence holders in the UK, including their online activity; but former Chief Constable Stuart Hyde believes we need more than just social media monitoring, and a move to a national licensing regime may be the way forward.

OPINION: The killing of five people in Plymouth by Jake Davison (pictured), a man whose online activity included regular interaction with the incel sub-culture, has raised questions in the UK around the need for such groups to be targeted under counter-terror and extremist legislation; former Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Bryon explores the growth in the incel movement and related attacks on women both in the UK and the US, and looks at what can be done to tackle the sub-culture.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix’s Policing Friendship Tour recently caught up with Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye, to walk and talk about the policing challenges facing the county including the disproportionality in the number of Black and Asian stabbing victims and offenders, the importance of stop and search – done properly and lawfully – and the task of tackling county lines drugs.

OPINION: The requirement for UK police recruits to either be graduates or achieve a degree as part of their training is still a subject of much debate; but University of Sunderland lecturers Dr Jerry Pearson and Adrian Smiles – both former serving officers – believe one area of the PEQF that needs to be addressed is delivering a degree qualification which recognises the skills and experience of those serving officers who are currently non-graduates.

OPINION: The UK Government’s Beating Crime Plan unveiled last month gives police forces the option to permanently relax the rules around Section 60 stop and search; but Anglia Ruskin University Researcher Winifred Agnew-Pauley, and University of Kent PhD candidate Bisola Akintoye, argue that Section 60 is ineffective in reducing crime, and that the Government’s own assessment of the changes recognises they are likely to disproportionately affect black and minority ethnic people.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix’s Policing Friendship Tour recently caught up with Ian Bell, CEO of the Police Digital Service (PDS), for a stroll around the urban landscape of Wembley; after 18 months of rapid technological change in policing and across the public sector – driven in large part by the pandemic – Mr Bell spoke about the challenges of COVID-19, the development of the PDS and the National Policing Digital Strategy, and the organisation’s aims and ambitions move forwards.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on a terrorist drone attack in India that has raised concerns among security policymakers around the world, and highlighted the fact that unmanned aerial vehicles present a clear and present danger to the public – one for which police and security authorities remain poorly prepared.

INTERVIEW: Professor Paul Taylor, who became the UK’s first Police Chief Scientific Adviser in May, believes policing leaders recognise that science and technology will be crucial to the service going forwards; he spoke to Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons about what his role will be, the importance of partnerships with education and industry, and how the National Crime Laboratory will drive evidence-based good practice in communities across the country.

FEATURE: The rape and murder of Sarah Everard in the UK has been a wake-up call to the wider issue of violence against women and girls, a problem that has resonated with female communities globally; former Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Bryon looks at both the legislative and law enforcement responses in the UK and the US, as well as moves to tackle the subjugation of women and reinforce women’s rights around the world.

OPINION: Last month Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the UK Government’s new ‘Beating Crime Plan’ – not in parliament or at a press launch, but in a Sunday newspaper column; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett examines the lack of consultation, paucity of new ideas and absence of additional funding in the plan, and considers whether tone and public perception have become much more important than evidence-based actions and initiatives.

OPINION: Until now, UK police IT systems have received much less attention from the public and the media than new technologies such as facial recognition and predictive policing, but recent problems have brought increased attention; Dr Katerina Hadjimatheou, Lecturer in Criminology and Ethics at the University of Essex, believes it’s time the spotlight was shone on the three big private technology companies behind these reportedly failing systems.

OPINION: Police canteens have largely disappeared from the police estate, and with them the opportunity to socialise, offer emotional support, and share hopes and fears; Liverpool John Moores University Lecturer Nick Kealey, and Open University Lecturer Dr Sean Bell – both former Merseyside Police officers – argue that reinstating police canteen or night-kitchen facilities could be an important step in improving mental health support and reducing stigma.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix’s Policing Friendship Tour recently caught up with Andy Marsh, Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset, for a stroll around Bristol ahead of his retirement from the service in July; following a busy year for the Constabulary, which included the BLM protests and the Kill the Bill riots, Mr Marsh talked to Bernard about the challenges over the past 12 months, the changes during his 34 years in policing, and the work of the COPS charity.

FEATURE: Alongside the COVID-19 health crisis, devastating natural disasters and criminal threats ranging from cyber attacks to terrorism have left policing and protective forces around the world – including the UK – at full stretch; now a call for evidence to develop a new UK National Resilience Strategy is underway, and as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explains, input from the country’s emergency responders will be vital.