Opinion: Chair of Bedfordshire Community Scrutiny Panel Montell Neufville shares his concerns that lockdown measures have prevented panels from scrutinising the police use of Covid-19 powers which could undermine transparency and damage community relations.
INNOVATION: As drone technology develops and their use increases at pace, Policing Insight's Andrew Staniforth says INTERPOL's Framework for Responding to a Drone Incident will help close the gap in law enforcement's knowledge of how to deal with these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
Book Review: Former Met Commander John Sutherland's latest book - Crossing the Line - is billed as a love letter to police officers and those vulnerable people they protect and serve. CoPaCC Director Bernard Rix says the book is a riveting read that should be read by everyone in the policing family.
Opinion: The lockdown and social distancing means trainers and course providers have had to find different ways to deliver their courses. Despite the challenges of moving a CPD-accredited settlement course for leavers to a virtual setting, Mightify's Tom Wheelhouse found many participants preferred this new style of delivery.
Analysis: The latest in our Report Watch series summarises a report by Europol on how Covid-19 will shape serious and organised crime landscape in the EU beyond the pandemic.
IN THE NEWS: 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 National Police Library. You do not need to be a member of the College to access its library.
ANALYSIS: For the final article in our series on police workforce numbers in England & Wales, Ian Wiggett revisits his first article, which forecast likely officer numbers for each force in 2023, to take into account data just published by the Home Office that clarifies the calculations used to measure progress in recruiting the planned 20,000 uplift in officers.
Analysis: Senior Business Manager at Frazer-Nash Consultancy Martin Soltau says that current discussions among chief constables about the future of police air support represent a rare and significant opportunity to transform a service that is exceptionally valuable – and extremely complex.
Analysis: Many countries are beginning to ease lockdown restrictions, but as the world charts a path out of the pandemic, the future remains uncertain for all including policing. Assistant Director of Strategic Foresight for the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA) Mike Richmond examines the different post-pandemic 'scenarios' that law enforcement may be faced with in the coming months and years.
Analysis: While many forces have trialled alternative energy vehicles, Gloucestershire Constabulary is now the trailblazer for UK policing, with electric vehicles (EVs) making up more than 20% of its fleet. Policing Insight spoke to Head of Transport Services Steve Imms about all things electric – including rural charging infrastructure, range anxiety EV response capability, and the holy grail of alternative fuelling.
18th May 2020
ANALYSIS : The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for policing are far-reaching. Dr Liz Aston, Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR), explores some of them further, particularly from a Scottish perspective.
OPINION: The global pandemic has illustrated that policing does not operate in a vacuum when it comes to delivering public services. Policing Insight's Publisher Bernard Rix looks at how one supplier worked with UK police forces, the Police ICT Company and the National Police Technology Council to ensure previously office-based work could be rapidly undertaken by police officers and staff in their own homes.
BOOK REVIEW: Crisis communication strategies are all about processes and systems, but communications expert Amanda Coleman argues in her new book - Crisis Communication Strategies: How to Prepare in Advance, Respond Effectively and Recover in Full - the key to the success of any strategy is how people are treated.
Analysis: In the fourth article of our series looking at police workforce numbers in England and Wales, Ian Wiggett examines the current police funding formula and how it increases disparity between forces, impacting decisions, including recruitment.
Opinion: Since the Covid-19 lockdown began, knife crime has fallen significantly across the UK, but former gang member and founder of Gangsline Sheldon Thomas warns that the respite will be short-lived as this and other gang-related crime can only be tackled through societal change.
IN THE NEWS: 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 National Police Library. You do not need to be a member of the College to access its library.
12th May 2020
Opinion: Tom Nolan, Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology at Emmanuel College, Boston University, explores how the pandemic is affecting crime statistics in the United States and the impact it is having on the police response.
Innovation: In the second of a series of articles, Charlie Norman, managing director of road safety organisation DriveTech, argues that temporary changes to the way that motoring offenders are dealt with, brought about by the Coronavirus, are proving so successful that there’s a strong case for making them permanent.
INSIGHT: Two years ago, the Police Superintendents Association pioneered a coaching and mentoring scheme to help improve diversity in senior police ranks. Policing Insight reports on how the scheme is benefiting those that have taken part.
EXCLUSIVE: As the government begins to ease some Covid-19 restrictions, including allowing people to meet in parks, what does this mean for policing? In an exclusive article, Professor Clifford Stott and others* explore the huge challenges 'liberalisation' presents policing and how policing can maintain legitimacy.
Analysis: USA: Covid-19 has presented law enforcement with huge challenges, but Dr. Joseph A. Cortez, Associate Professor at the University of Southern California and Lieutenant at the Santa Monica Police Department, argues it is also an unprecedented opportunity to switch off 'auto-pilot' and use the lessons learnt to help re-shape the future of policing.
7th May 2020
Opinion: With some daily headlines in Britain focused on the use of police powers in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Ian Loader from the University of Oxford considers the role of the police and how effective the current police response has been.
7th May 2020
Analysis: Dr Alex Oaten from the University of Birmingham and Dr Chris Allen from the University of Leicester consider the principle of policing by consent and whether this has been lost in the policing reponse by some forces to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Opinion: The elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales, were due take place today (7 May) and were cancelled due to the pandemic, but has anyone noticed? Prospective Labour candidate for Warwickshire Ben Twomey argues that in 2021, following the fallout from the pandemic, it will even more important the public cast their vote.
