Latest News, Analysis and Opinion  (Page 16)

FEATURE: A recent report by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) highlights that over the past year more children in England and Wales have been harmed by serious violence, and the services meant to support them are under growing strain; but despite a ‘dismal decade’ of underfunding and failed support, the YEF believes that the current challenges can be overcome, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: Previous surveys by the Police Federation of England and Wales revealed the impact on female officers of experiencing the menopause while working in policing, and the scale of the problem; now new research by PC Beverley Beck of Dorset Police has highlighted how the institutional neglect of menopause contributes to the early exit of talented and experienced female officers, as well as the good practice underway in some forces to address the issues and support officers.

INTERVIEW: This week’s National Audit Office (NAO) report into police productivity in England and Wales highlights a range of barriers to forces improving productivity, the dangers of the current fragmented policing structure, and the risks of a short-term funding approach to long-term service delivery; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to NAO Report Director Oliver Lodge about the implications of the findings, and what forces and the Home Office can do to improve productivity and efficiency.

INTERVIEW: The Hellenic Police is a partner in the NOTIONES project, a European network bringing police agencies together to improve the capacity and capability of intelligence functions; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to Anthoula Bania and Christos Floros, Lieutenant Colonels in the Hellenic Police, about their work with the NOTIONES network, and the benefits of participating in European security research and innovation projects.

OPINION: South Yorkshire Police Detective Chief Inspector Aneela Khalil-Khan recently completed the Senior Leadership Programme at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia; in this article she shares some of the key lessons from the experience, including the contrast and similarities between UK and US policing, and the opportunities for learning for policing in both countries.

FEATURE: An initiative led by Leicestershire Police – working with fast-food chain McDonalds, the local authority, St John’s Ambulance and other partners – has seen serious violence in parts of the city’s might-time economy cut by half, leading to a global problem-solving in policing award and the prospect of the programme being rolled out in other parts of the country, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson has been credited with turning round the performance of the force since he took over the top job in 2021, as well as being vocal about the importance of getting the basics right in policing; he spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the need to focus on professionalism and impartiality, developing a proactive mindset among officers, GMP’s approach to neighbourhood policing, and the challenges and benefits of a National Centre of Policing.

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.

SERIES LAUNCH: We are pleased to announce the launch of the latest series of The Police Student, supporting degree-entry recruits to the police service. This new series looks at community and neighbourhood policing both as a philosophy and a practice.

FEATURE: In the first in a new series of The Police Student focusing on Community and Neighbourhood Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the development and definition of neighbourhood policing, and considers its importance in building relationships with the community, as well as its role in tackling public concerns about crime and strengthening confidence in policing.

ANALYSIS: New research into how perpetrators of repeat abuse “weaponise attachment” use grooming, trauma-sharing, and emotional manipulation to coerce victims – a relationship wrongly described by many professionals as ‘codependency’ – has highlighted the language and actions that police, social workers and others need to understand to be able to recognise coercive control, as research author and University of Cambridge Doctoral Researcher Mags Lesiak explains.

INNOVATION: Following the recent launch of a new framework and principles for the “ethical and responsible” use of artificial intelligence (AI) across police forces by the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA), Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to ANZPAA Policy & Research Officer Anastasia Pierakos about the aims of the guidance, the need to ensure the police use of AI is not “siloed” within specialist teams, and the importance of addressing issues such as transparency, accountability and oversight.

ANALYSIS: Findings of a study that focused on policing students’ decision-making suggest that while participants generally apply the National Decision Model impartially, subtle biases are evident in their reasoning processes; analysis also reveals that despite training efforts to reduce bias, socio-economic biases persist, influencing perceptions of suspects and victims – although not always resulting in overtly biased decisions – as study author and Professional Policing graduate Olivia Fowler explains.

FEATURE: A recent report into police-perpetrated family violence among officers from Australia’s Victoria Police is calling for an “urgent paradigm shift” away from the force’s role in responding to family violence to fund to more community-focused initiatives, amid concerns around a “culture of officers minimising and dismissing offending”, as well as colluding with perpetrators and misidentifying victim-survivors as perpetrators, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The collapse over the past decade of construction firms Carillion and ISG and provider Robin Hood Energy highlighted the dangers to public services and the risks for government of major single suppliers going bust; but as Content Guru Co-Founder and Deputy CEO Martin Taylor warns, the collapse of key policing supplier could disrupt critical communication channels, damage public confidence and compromise public safety – so what can forces be doing to reduce those risks?

INNOVATION: A recent Europol report on policing in an online world urges police forces to expand their online presence and work out how to address policing’s “capability and relevance gap” in the virtual world, or risk those online spaces becoming “lawless”; Europol also points to the success of countries such as Denmark and Norway in increasing their virtual police presence and engagement with communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: While many experts believe the illegal wildlife trade is closely linked to crimes such as human trafficking, drug smuggling and money laundering, evidence has been thin on the ground; now new research from the University of Oxford’s Dr Michelle Anagnostou, Stellenbosch University PhD candidate Ashwell Glasson, Dr Brent Doberstein of the University of Waterloo, and Dr Peter Stoett of Ontario Tech University highlights the intersection between wildlife crime and organised crime networks in Canada.

FEATURE: This week’s report published by the Environment and Climate Change Committee highlights the damage caused by organised waste crime in England, the “woeful” level of successful prosecutions, and the apparent lack of interest shown by the police in fulfilling their role; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the findings of the report, as well as European efforts to tackle the issue.

INTERVIEW: Vehicle manufacturers and security companies are being urged to join police and other agencies in a new public-private partnership to tackle organised vehicle crime, which researchers believe costs the UK economy more than £1.75 billion a year, as Mark Kameen, a former senior police officer and now project lead for the National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: After leading Merseyside Police for just over four years, Serena Kennedy recently stepped down from her role as the Chief Constable of the fifth largest force in England and Wales; speaking with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland shortly before her departure, she reflected on the changing nature of police leadership, debates about national reform, and shared her perspective on what the planned new National Centre of Policing (NCoP) should look like.

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: An Inspectorate report into the UK National Crime Agency’s National Data Exploitation Capability (NDEC) is warning that the Agency risks missing vital intelligence due in part to a mounting “technical debt” that means it spends much of its annual IT budget updating hundreds of legacy systems rather than investing in long-term technology solutions, with NDEC staff using outdated and obsolete IT when trying to work on large volumes of data, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: As International Control Room Week gets underway, Essex Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Contact Operations Lead, outlines the development of AI Post-Call Analysis, which produces concise, easy-to-read summaries of all incoming control room contact and automatically categorises calls by topic to enable rapid retrieval and analysis – one of a tranche of technical innovations designed to help forces “move from overwhelmed to empowered”.

OPINION: With continuing UK protests fuelled by polarised views presenting ongoing problems for policing, former South Wales Police detective Steve Dodd, a subject matter expert on intelligence professionalisation and advocate of the community intelligence-led policing methodology (CILPM), explores how CILPM could enhance both the delivery and impact of the new neighbourhood policing focus, and feed into addressing the challenges of policing a fractured society.