Latest News, Analysis and Opinion  (Page 11)

ANALYSIS: The UK Government’s recently published white paper on police reform included proposals for a Senior National Co-ordinator for public order policing, to be based in the new National Police Service; Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone, a former Metropolitan Police officer and public order specialist, explores the proposals outlined in the paper, as well as setting out the need for a wider review of approaches to public order policing as part of the reform process.

OPINION: With UK police reform now firmly on the agenda, ethics specialist Dr Richard Cockbain sets out why policing needs to shift its focus from the risk-averse approach of minimising failure at all costs to recognising, articulating and learning from successes, and the challenges around culture, structure and incentive that will need to be addressed if reform is to deliver positive transformation.

INTERVIEW: With the growth of online hate speech and disinformation, and its role in fuelling real-world criminal activity, tackling the damaging digital narratives has become a priority for many organisations and jurisdictions; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to Paula Gomila Marqués, who contributes to the implementation, stakeholder engagement, and dissemination activities of the European Union’s HATEDEMICS project, which seeks to address the intersection of online hate speech and disinformation.

OPINION: Failures around police vetting in the UK have recently been under the spotlight, particularly in relation to the relaxation of measures in order to hit recruitment targets; Avesta Afshari-Mehr, a Durham University student and scrutiny and accountability volunteer with Durham Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office, believes a national vetting standard is essential in light of his own experiences of the application and vetting process.

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.

INSIGHT: The Canadian Integrated Ballistics Identification Network (CIBIN) has become a valuable tool in firearms investigation, turning ballistic evidence into actionable intelligence capable of linking cases, suspects, and criminal networks; but to ensure that CIBIN increases the capability to combat gun crime, law enforcement must continue to prioritise data and intelligence collection and sharing, say Vernon White, former head of Ottawa Police, and Soham Thorat, a technical and strategic expert in firearms intelligence.

FEATURE: A report on the scale of violence experienced by young people aged 13-17 in England and Wales – one of four reports drawn from a survey undertaken by the Youth Endowment Fund – found that half of them had witnessed violence, nearly one in five had been a victim, and one in eight admitted carrying out violence themselves, while more than 80% of those aged 13-17 have viewed conversations online about hurting specific groups, 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).

OPINION: In response to an apparent surge in youth gang crime, Victoria Police in Australia have reportedly begun issuing ‘anti-association orders’ to prevent youngsters being drawn into gangs; but Dr Kathryn Benier of Monash University and Dr Angela Higginson of Queensland University of Technology argue that alongside clearer understanding of why young people join gangs, better funded early intervention and prevention programs are needed for sustainable reductions in youth violence and gang involvement.

FEATURE: This year will see the launch of two new counter-terrorism initiatives in the UK – a register of specialists who can provide protective security and preparedness advice for businesses and organisations, and a new regulation training individuals to provide counter-terrorism advice and preparedness measures in the workplace – which are both part of the broader response to the Manchester Arena bombing under the aegis of what has become known as ‘Martyn’s Law’, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explains.

OPINION: In the wake of last week’s UK Government white paper on police reform, Emily Spurrell, Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), explains that while PCCs welcome modernisation of the service, the APCC has concerns over the accountability of policing – and particularly the new National Police Service – under the reform plans, as well as the risks of stifling local innovation, and the need to safeguard the future of victim and crime prevention services pioneered by PCCs.

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FEATURE: In the latest in The Police Student series focusing on Community and Neighbourhood Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the issues of police visibility and public perception, its impact on reassurance and confidence in policing, and the effectiveness of foot patrols.

FEATURE: A report capturing key insights, challenges, and priorities identified during a roundtable on intelligence and serious and organised crime (SOC) – featuring officers and intelligence leads from more than 30 UK forces alongside regional organised crime units and overseas partners – is calling for intelligence to be repositioned as the “strategic engine” in the fight against SOC, and sets out steps to build capacity and embed an intelligence-led culture, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

FEATURE: As the scale and complexity of financial crime, fraud and cyber-crime continue to grow in the UK and globally, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons explores two new measures to tackle the challenges – the creation of the We Fight Fincrime Association, and the launch of the victim-centred Report Fraud service by City of London Police.

OPINION: In the wake of the publication of the UK Government’s white paper on police reform for England and Wales, former chief officer Will Kerr highlighted four key challenges, drawing on lessons learned during restructuring in Scotland and Northern Ireland; in this longer-read article, he expands on those points, exploring the challenges facing the reform intent set out in the paper, and suggests steps that can be taken to ensure the process is more effective.

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 new rural and wildlife crime policing strategy for England and Wales incorporates the ‘4Ps’ approach of prevent, pursue, protect and prepare to tackle criminal activity, alongside increased police powers, greater co-operation and better use of technology, with a particular focus on the actions of organised crime groups that are blighting rural communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The public perception of policing is of a straightforward chain of command; but experienced officer Keith F. Lazaron II, who currently serves with the West Kittanning Police Department in Pennsylvania, warns that in US law enforcement the behind-the-scenes pressure exerted by the ‘stakeholder table’ of elected officials, administrators, insiders and connected community voices can lead to a shift in policing away from professional standards and toward political survival.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The Australian Institute of Criminology will be hosting the AIC 2026 Conference on 17-18 March 2026. The theme of this year’s conference will be Transnational Serious and Organised Crime (TSOC) and the aim of the event is to present the latest research on TSOC and how this can be applied to policy and practice.

OPINION: In the wake of the recent controversy around West Midlands Police’s decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Aston Villa, a move which eventually led to the retirement of the force’s beleaguered Chief Constable Craig Guildford, former chief superintendent and policing lecturer Owen West, who specialised in crowd policing throughout his career, argues that the case highlights the paucity of good intelligence around football policing, and calls for a review of this major policing function.

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.

ANALYSIS: With the significant surge in the demand for cocaine over the past decade, drug traffickers have needed to find ways to launder huge sums of money; Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University Senior Lecturer Pierre-Charles Pradier explores the traditional processes for criminals to launder their cash, and how the development of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has prevented new challenges in the fight against organised crime.