15th October 2020
OPINION: Since the advent of civilian rule in Nigeria, no police unit has been as severely criticised as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad; Dr Lanre Ikuteyijo explains the unit’s origin, mandate, achievements and governance, and why the recent decision to disband the squad still falls short of what needs to be done to end bad policing in the country.
OPINION: In the third in a series of articles linked to this month’s Policing in the Time of Pandemic workshops organised by the London Policing College, independent cyber and security consultant Graeme McGowan explains why the move of millions of employees to remote online working in response to the coronavirus could lead to a cybercrime legacy of that lasts long after any lockdown is over.
14th October 2020
OPINION: The cumulative trauma suffered by police and other first responders regularly exposed to serious injury, death and immediate threat can cause high levels of PTSD as well as depression, anxiety, stress, and suicidal thoughts; but as psychiatrist Professor Arash Javanbakht explains, help is out there – and first responders and their families deserve to be happy.
ANALYSIS: The recent Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Act was drafted in part to answer public concerns about collecting and retaining biometric samples; but the legislation, and corresponding laws in England and Wales, place Scottish samples on UK databases in a legislative and regulatory limbo, as Post-Doctoral Researcher Karen Richmond of the University of Copenhagen explains.
OPINION: The coronavirus pandemic has affected all areas of society, and all facets of policing; in the second in a series of articles linked to this month’s Policing in the Time of Pandemic workshops organised by the London Policing College, Polly Harrar, Joint Chair of the Met’s Harmful Practices Working Group and Founder of national BAME specialist charity The Sharan Project, shares her experiences of the policing response to harmful practices in the COVID-19 era.
OPINION: With the UK Government’s three-year Comprehensive Spending Review due to be announced in the next few weeks, UNISON National Officer Ben Priestley warns that an inadequate settlement could see police staffing levels fall – and the prospect of many of the additional officers promised by the Prime Minister restricted to station duties to plug the gaps.
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 - plus a short guide outlining how serving police officers and staff can get access, free, to many of the articles listed through the UK's National Police Library. You do not need to be a member of the UK College of Policing to access its library.
UCL COVID-19 SERIES: In this latest article from the UCL series, Graham Farrell from the University of Leeds and Shane D Johnson from the Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL discuss how a COVID-19 vaccine may trigger a crime wave on a global scale.
FEATURE: Faced with further austerity measures, Bedfordshire Police rejected another morale-sapping restructure and turned instead to management consultants PwC; Sarah Gibbons reports on how the resulting award-winning approach has led to performance improvement, £7m of reinvested savings and a legacy for the long term.
Feature: In the wake of the recent terrorist attack in France and British travellers to the country being warned another attack is highly likely, Policing Insight contributor Andrew Staniforth discusses how France is seeking to combat this very real threat.
OPINION: The coronavirus pandemic has affected all areas of society, and in turn, all facets of policing. In the first in a series of articles linked to this month's Policing in the Time of Pandemic workshops organised by the London Policing College, former officer and current police trainer Martin Edwards shares his experiences of delivering police education in the COVID-19 era.
ANALYSIS: In their second of two articles marking the centenary of the Baird Committee Report, which recommended that women should be employed as sworn police officers across England and Wales, Dr Wendy Laverick and Professor Peter Joyce look at the role of women of women in policing since the 1980s to today – including discrimination, the Gender Agenda and contemporary thinking.
OPINION: This month the UK Home Secretary has instructed the HMICFRS to carry out a thematic inspection of public order policing; crowd policing expert and former police Chief Superintendent Owen West looks at current guidance on the issue, and why the political context of this decision raises concerns over the curtailing of democratic rights.
8th October 2020
OPINION: Police in many countries have been given extraordinary powers to enforce lockdowns and tackle COVID-19; but as Dr John Coyne, Head of Strategic Policing and Law Enforcement Program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) points out, applying those powers could seriously erode the public’s trust in policing.
Analysis: Jamie Clinch, a former Masters student in Forensic Psychology, discusses the findings of research she conducted into the effectiveness of alcohol-related violence intervention programmes as part of a collaboration between Coventry University and West Midlands Police.
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 - plus a short guide outlining how serving police officers and staff can get access, free, to many of the articles listed through the UK's National Police Library. You do not need to be a member of the UK College of Policing to access its library.
UCL COVID-19 SERIES: In this latest in the series of COVID-19 briefing papers published by UCL’s Jill Dando Institute, Professor Graham Farrell of the University of Leeds highlights the changing nature of pandemic crime, from furlough fraud and fake PPE to cybercrime and civil law breaches.
ANALYSIS: Significant increases in cocaine purity, worrying levels of heroin seizures and emerging new threats from the COVID-19 lockdown are among the key issues highlighted in the latest European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction assessment, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.
5th October 2020
OPINION: Politicians and campaign groups in Australia are calling for coercive control to be criminalised as part of legislation to tackle domestic violence; but without wider consultation and consideration, the move could be counter-productive, as Professors Kate Fitz-Gibbon and Silke Meyer of Monash University, and Prof Sandra Walklate of the University of Liverpool, explain.
ANALYSIS: This year marks the centenary of the Baird Committee Report, which recommended that women should be employed as sworn police officers across England and Wales. In the first of two articles, Dr Wendy Laverick and Professor Peter Joyce present a historical account of the involvement of women in policing, the barriers and obstacles they faced, and the current and future situation regarding equality of opportunity.
FEATURE: The tragic shooting of Met Police Sgt Matt Ratana last month once again highlighted the horrific impact of the illegal trade in unlicensed firearms; Policing Insight contributor Andy Staniforth looks at at the latest trends in firearms trafficking, and the steps being taken across Europe to stem the flow of weapons.
FEATURE: The International Crime Coordination Centre was set up to lead UK policing’s fight against transnational crime, through Brexit and beyond; Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro talks to ICCC Head, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Martin, about the Centre’s work to date, the threat from globalised criminality, and the challenge of making the investigation of international crime ‘business as usual’.
OPINION: Adrian Timberlake, chief technical officer at 7Technologies, examines the potential uses of new technology in border control and missing person identification, and how intelligent technologies could help to combat modern slavery.
