Latest News, Analysis and Opinion  (Page 20)

OPINION: In 2023 the Home Office and College of Policing launched draft national guidance for community scrutiny panels (CSPs), offering a framework for greater public oversight of policing across England and Wales; police ethics advisor Montell Neufville, Chair of a long-standing tri-force CSP for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, looks at the work of his and other panels over recent years, and makes the case for the growing relevance of independent critical platforms in policing today.

FEATURE: With a Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry now underway into the channels, technologies and actors responsible for disinformation and misinformation in the UK, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at research efforts and funding to tackle disinformation across Europe, and how focusing on inclusivity can help to counter attempts to create discord and division.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The ANZPAA Police Conference 2025 (PC25) will be held in Melbourne, Australia this November. Hosted by Police Commissioners from across Australia and New Zealand, the conference will centre around the theme “Policing for the Future: What Matters Most” - to Commissioners, frontline officers, and the communities they serve.

ANALYSIS: The 2025 edition of the European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (EU TE-SAT) has highlighted the growing number of young people involved in terrorism, and the use of artificial intelligence, social media and gaming to target vulnerabilities such as mental health, isolation and digital addiction, while the impact of geopolitical developments in Russia, Syria and other parts of the African continent also pose a threat, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: From protestors declaring their support for Palestine Action on placards, to comedians and campaigners being questioned and charged over online posts, and politicians scoring populist points both here and internationally, officers have found themselves in the centre of the free speech debate and accused of policing words – a situation which former officer and now Leeds Trinity University Policing Lecturer Adam Stokes believes requires meaningful government support through less talk and more actions.

FEATURE: The recently published Queensland Police Service (QPS) Commissioner’s 100-day review has highlighted a force facing “significant mission creep” as officers perform roles outside their core remit, leaving many suffering from fatigue and burnout; the review also puts forward 65 recommendations providing a “fundamental opportunity” for QPS to reaffirm its core purpose and build a “resilient, responsive, and community-focused policing organisation”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With online cross-border financial scams driving fraud to new levels – it now accounts for 40% of all crime against individuals in England and Wales – most police and government efforts remain focused on preventative and defensive measures; but new research from Professor Mark Button and Associate Professor Branislav Hock at the University of Portsmouth highlights several ways to take more offensive actions against fraudsters, including embracing the work of the private anti-scam community.

FEATURE: The 9/11 attacks on the US, which took place 24 years ago this week, were both a shocking series of events on a horrific scale, and a moment which changed the course of world history; Policing Insight’s Andrew Stainforth looks back at the initial response from UK policing and political leaders to those terrorist atrocities, and what it meant for the country both in the immediate aftermath and the longer term.

OPINION: With the changing nature of terrorist threats and the proscription of Palestine Action, former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher, now an author, journalist and terrorism expert, looks at what is potentially emerging as a new ‘Fifth Wave’ of global terrorism, its relationship with crime, and the possible impact of branding criminal organisations as terrorist groups.

FEATURE: In the last article in this series of The Police Student, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly looks at the future challenges and trends facing the criminal justice system – from pressure on resources for both policing and their partners, to the issues of legitimacy, the changing nature of crime, and the transformative effect of technology – and considers how these will impact on the role of new police officers.

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: A trauma peer support (TPS) programme originally launched for officers and staff working in detention areas across the Metropolitan Police has seen more than 3,000 employees trained to deliver support to colleagues, and could now be expanded into other policing roles within the Met as well as to other forces, as former officer and TPS trainer Russell Hughes explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: The murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020 sparked global calls for racial justice and ignited a wave of police oversight reform across the US; but five years on, Hansel Alejandro Aguilar, public sociologist, former police officer, and Adjunct Professor at George Mason University, warns that civilian oversight of law enforcement in the US is now dying – but meaningful change can still emerge when residents organize, officials listen, and structures are preserved.

FEATURE: The latest Home Office evaluation of the work of violence reduction units (VRUs) across England and Wales highlights “encouraging” reductions in homicides and hospital admissions due to violence and knife crime – particularly among those aged 24 and under – but strengthening partnerships and improving data sharing could lead to better results for the VRU whole-system approach, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The creation of an FBI legal attaché post in Wellington, New Zealand in July was hailed by the US as a way to counter “some of the most important global issues” such as the threat from China, as well as boosting regional crime operations; but University of Tasmania Policing Lecturer Dr Nick Evans warns that the move could in fact threaten existing policing partnerships that Australia and New Zealand have with China, forcing officers to engage in new levels of diplomacy to maintain cordial relations.

INNOVATION: A new report from Europol which offers practical guidance on tackling artificial intelligence (AI) bias in law enforcement is calling for more regular training for personnel “to deepen their understanding of AI technologies”, routine and regular multi-stakeholder reviews of AI models, and more consistent frameworks around their use, to combat the dangers of AI bias – particularly in areas such as predictive policing – as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With an increasing focus on the impact of organisational stress on police officers, University of Cambridge researcher Dr Susannah Hickie explored the perceptions of Police Service of Northern Ireland officers of the formal mental health support available to them, and found that many viewed such provision as inaccessible, highlighting issues such as the repercussions of seeking support, the associated stigma, and a ‘tick-box’ culture as the main barriers.

INNOVATION: The results of a pilot study of wearable wellbeing technology used by new police recruits has highlighted significant positive lifestyle changes among those who used the new tech, along with better sleep patterns, more resilience, and a reduction in the number of young-in-service officers considering leaving the job, as Professor Carol Cox of Liverpool John Moores University explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: While concerns around the rise in Canada’s fentanyl use have focused on a rise in deaths and drug-related disorders, new research by Associate Professors Dr Marta-Marika Urbanik (University of Alberta), Dr Katharina Maier (University of Winnipeg), Dr Matthew Valasik (University of Alabama), and Wilfrid Laurier University Assistant Professor Dr Carolyn Greene, has highlighted the issue of drug gangs exploiting vulnerable people’s homes in Thunder Bay, Ontario, driving up homelessness and violence.

FEATURE: With children and young people increasingly becoming a target for a wide range of online scams, sexual exploitation, bullying and identity theft by cybercriminals, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on the inaugural INTERPOL Youth Cybercrime Awareness Webinar which aimed to increase awareness, provide guidance and offer support to youngsters to protect themselves against modern online threats.

ANALYSIS: In the third in this series of articles exploring the links between sport and organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Dalby looks at the opaque ownership arrangements, shady sponsorship deals and over-inflated transfer and services fees that have created an opportunity for criminals to launder illicit funds through professional football in England and across Europe.

ANALYSIS: Despite the Uplift recruitment programme, research suggests the public feel police are still less visible and less responsive, and the Government has now pledged a further 13,000 neighbourhood police officers by 2029; in the last in this current series of articles on workforce development, Ian Wiggett looks at the availability of the workforce, the way it is deployed, and why ultimately what will matter is whether the public notices the difference.

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.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Chris Nelson, the APCC joint lead on local policing, sets out what PCCs are now doing to drive action against anti-social behaviour, a crime experienced by more than one in 10 people at least weekly – often with a significant and long-lasting impact – as well as being a gateway to other criminality.