ANALYSIS: Last week’s PCC elections in England and Wales were a combination of predictable wins, surprise victories and tight contests, against the backdrop of a low turnout and minimal media coverage; Policing Insight’s Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly takes a closer look at the policy and political implications of the results, and whether this year’s outcomes could affect campaigning techniques and voting intentions in future PCC elections.

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.

ANALYSIS: With the major media focus and political campaigning around the local council and mayoral elections last week, the police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections which were running in tandem slipped past largely unnoticed outside policing circles; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the significant ‘red tide’ that replaced 2021’s ‘blue wave’, as well as the challenges facing the new office holders, and the concerns over low voter turnout.

FEATURE: At a recent meeting of European police chiefs, both Europol Executive Director Catherine de Bolle and NCA Director General Graeme Biggar voiced concerns over the risks of end-to-end encryption undermining people’s safety online; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores the public-private partnerships between tech and law enforcement, and how the success of online terrorism regulation could offer solutions.

FEATURE: Chief constables in England and Wales are planning a strategy to promote policing history and say it will link to the National Police Race Action Plan and their work to prevent violence against women and girls; Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass spoke to national lead on police heritage Peter Gillett and other experts to explore the issue.

Analysis: The latest National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program report from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission suggested a 17% increase in drug consumption over the previous 12 months; the Australian Strategic Policy Institutes John Coyne believes that more attention should be paid to these sophisticated analyses, and that the findings highlight the need for a new approach to drug policies that should incorporate wider harm reduction and prevention strategies.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Join us for a series of forums in New Zealand and across Australia from 11th to 20th June, sharing the journey of a range of forces and other law enforcement agencies and their adoption of NICE Digital Evidence Management Systems (DEMS). The sessions will be invaluable to police forces in Australia and New Zealand as they plan to introduce the system.

INNOVATION: A new digital notebook app being rolled out across NZ Police – the latest step towards Commissioner Andrew Coster’s goal of a fully digitalised case environment – offers a real-time facility with clear time and date stamps, improved case management, and transparent audit trail to generate greater confidence in the criminal justice process, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: In the latest in a series of articles exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in policing, Chief Philip Lukens explores the potentially revolutionary benefits of AI X-ray vision in police searches and emergency rescue and recovery operations, as well as the technical, legal and ethical challenges that the use of such technology could bring.

OPINION: With many discussions around what policing’s core mission should entail and how it should be achieved, author, lecturer and former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher argues that a more Platonic philosophical approach to the debate could deliver some benefits in determining the role and remit of the service.

FEATURE: With money laundering continuing to pose a threat to security and safety through the use of funds for both criminal activity and terrorism, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on the latest European Union agreements which should improve detection and strengthen prevention across members states.

INTERVIEW: This month Avon and Somerset Police became the first UK force to launch an advocacy service for victims and witnesses of sexual misconduct within the workplace; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Vicki Moore, the force’s first Sexual Misconduct Liaison Officer, about the support that will be available to those reporting misconduct, the benefits to public trust and confidence, and the potential to expand the service to more issues.

FEATURE: In the latest in the new series of The Police Student focusing on Criminology in Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly looks at the New Penology approach, which highlights the role of measurement and the rise in metrics in responses to crime, but also underlines some of the dangers of focusing solely on risk and harm when allocating resources.

ANALYSIS: While mental health and wellbeing issues have risen up the policing agenda, very little is understood about the impact of pregnancy and becoming a parent on serving officers and staff; Dr Sarah-Jane Lennie and Dr Keely Duddin of the Open University, and Dr Krystal Wilkinson of Manchester Metropolitan University, have worked with Greater Manchester Police to undertake research with officers on the issue, and develop a toolkit to improve the response and support offered by forces.

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.

ANALYSIS: A new report by Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland has found that the Police Service of Northern Ireland has made significant progress on the “golden thread” of neighbourhood policing, but warns that high levels of officer abstraction, budget pressures and continuing security concerns are threats to the success of the approach, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: The issue of stop and search has come under close scrutiny for some time, but what about ‘stop and account’, and an officer’s ability to gather necessary information to lawfully detain? Barrister Stephen Forster, a Lecturer in Law and Policing at Leeds Trinity University, looks at the legislation and police powers around stop and account, and how they affect both the police and the public.

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INTERVIEW: With forces facing a range of competing priorities in fighting crime, a dedicated high-harm fraud unit set up by Thames Valley Police is supporting victims and securing convictions against fraudsters targeting vulnerable elderly people with romance and courier fraud, as DI Duncan Wynn explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: Martin Taylor, Deputy Chief Executive of Content Guru, reflects on the forthcoming local and national elections, which will have a profound effect on policing, arguing that for policing to transform, it needs to look forward as well as back – and that investment in people will not deliver the change that is required unless it is matched by investment in technology.

INTERVIEW: In the second of two interviews with long-serving police and crime commissioners ahead of next week’s elections, Hertfordshire Conservative PCC David Lloyd spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about putting victims “at the centre of everything we do”, how officers are now “far closer to society than they were”, and made the case for new PCCs to “be joyful and do the little things”.

INTERVIEW: Voters in England and Wales go to the polls next week in the police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections; in the first of two interviews with long-serving PCCs now stepping down, Labour PCC for South Wales Alun Michael spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the risk of “hubris” among chief constables, why the PCC-chief relationship “shouldn’t be too comfortable”, and his reflections on 12 years as a PCC and 50 years as an elected politician.

FEATURE: A new report by the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights, which assesses racism in policing across member states, has found discriminatory profiling practices, inappropriate racist communication and excessive use of force, leading to calls for better recording and reporting processes and improved exchanges of best practice, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Policing in the UK faces a major challenge around recruitment and retention, with much of the debate focused on recruits’ resilience, life experiences, and expectations; but Professor Tony Blockley, Head of Criminology, Investigation and Policing at Leeds Trinity University, believes that such discourse overlooks both generational differences and entrenched police practices, and argues that it’s time to “refocus the lens”.