Latest News, Analysis and Opinion  (Page 23)

OPINION: With the policing focus in London inevitably drawn towards next week’s Notting Hill Carnival, Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone – a former Metropolitan Police officer and public order specialist who was involved in the policing of Carnival for 28 years – looks at the challenges of the event, the fears around public safety and the pressures of funding, and considers what would be the price to pay for a safer and more financially stable Carnival.

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: New research highlights how organised crime groups and long-term corporate actors are increasingly involved in a range of waste crime, attracted by the significant profits as well as the relatively low level of deterrents and punishments, as Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen reports.

FEATURE: British Transport Police (BTP) is believed to the first force in the UK to recruit police officers specifically to work part time, in an effort to both increase the representation of women and meet the force’s business needs more effectively; BTP Director of People and Culture Rachael Etebar told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons that while the approach had seemed to shock some people, the first round of recruitment had attracted a cohort of higher quality, more mature candidates.

ANALYSIS: Recent horrific events and the accompanying media headlines have led some to believe Australia is in the grip of a knife crime epidemic; in this final article in a series from The Conversation on weapons and violence in Australia, Bond University Associate Professor Terry Goldsworthy explores the statistics around violent crime and weapons offences across Australia, and how the public perception in some quarters of a significant rise in crime is not reflected by the data.

OPINION: The story of the Special Air Service (SAS), entertainingly told (with some creative licence) in the BBC SAS Rogue Heroes drama series, highlights the impact of embracing the unorthodox and encouraging innovative and analytical ideals when traditional approaches are not succeeding; Jonathan Jackson, Associate Professor of Policing and Investigation at Leeds Trinity University, believes policing in the UK would do well to learn from those approaches in tackling some of the current complex challenges.

FEATURE: A recent joint inspection on case building across England and Wales, undertaken by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, has highlighted continuing challenges around communications between the police and CPS, a lack of ‘fit for purpose’ IT, and the need for a new over-arching national criminal justice system strategy, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Police wellbeing is increasingly a matter for serious concern in the UK, highlighted most recently by the results of the National Police Wellbeing Survey; Dr Ashley Cartwright and PhD Researcher Ellie Hutchison of the University of Huddersfield’s Crime and Policing Research Centre believe new research into individuals’ character strengths could lead to an evidence-based interventions programme that will proactively build psychological resources to help shape a healthier, more resilient police service.

FEATURE: Organised crime groups (OCGs) are driving a significant increase in UK vehicle thefts, with international and online market places and criminals stealing to order, against a backdrop of dwindling detective numbers and a lack of specialists, says a new study from the Royal United Services Institute, which calls for a new national co-ordination body to tackle the “complex, cross-jurisdictional and international threat”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Recent horrific events and the accompanying media headlines have led some to believe Australia is in the grip of a knife crime epidemic; in this third article in a series from The Conversation on weapons and violence in Australia, Griffith University Professor Janet Ransley warns that while police and politicians are focusing on tackling weapons in public, current approaches have little effect, with stronger efforts to target knife use in domestic violence likely to have greater impact.

INNOVATION: With the ‘Internet of Things’ – that vast network of physical objects embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies to connect and exchange data – continuously expanding, the cyber threat landscape and the level of opportunities for criminals and bad actors grows with it; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the recently introduced Cyber Resilience Act, one of the first pieces of legislation aiming to improve the cybersecurity of products or software with a digital component.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Network analysis can identify criminal leaders with 92% accuracy—a precision that manual investigation rarely achieves. But even with this mathematical precision, the volume of insights generated from criminal networks can overwhelm human analysts, leaving critical intelligence buried in complex data relationships.

ANALYSIS: In the second in a series of articles exploring the links between sport and organised crime – from street level to international syndicates – Policing Insight’s Chris Dalby looks at the issue of modern slavery in football across the UK and Europe, where young players from Africa and Asia are trafficked thousands of miles from home on the promises of opportunities that don’t exist, often to end up broke and abandoned, or further exploited through illegal labour, drug dealing and the sex trade.

FEATURE: More than 140 potential chief officers in England and Wales have now passed through the College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme, the replacement for the Strategic Command Course, where activities include placements at non-policing organisations; the reformed process has seen a rise in women taking the course, but is far from hitting one of its main aims, as Ian Weinfass reports.

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.

INNOVATION: With the response to those in mental health crisis a challenge for policing in many jurisdictions, a new programme launched by New Zealand Police has seen handover times to emergency departments for those detained under the country’s Mental Health Act reduced to one hour, with a long-term aim of completing successful handovers within 15 minutes, as programme lead Inspector Matthew Morris explained to Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro.

INTERVIEW: Following the recent launch of a new Mental Health Crisis Line offering around the clock support to police officers and staff in England and Wales who are experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts, Andy Rhodes – Service Director for Oscar Kilo, which has commissioned the service – spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the reasons behind the launch, how the line will operate, and why he was “worried but proud” to do something positive about saving lives.

ANALYSIS: Recent horrific events and the accompanying media headlines have led some to believe Australia is in the grip of a knife crime epidemic; in this second article in a series from The Conversation on weapons and violence in Australia, Macquarie University lecturers Professor Alex Simpson and Dr Vince Hurley argue that the latest crime data suggests the use of weapons and violent crime in the country is decreasing, and that compared to many other others, Australia fares well on these issues.

INTERVIEW: New discipline regulations implemented in An Garda Síochána as part of the reform of the service under the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024 will mean Gardaí are “treated differently from every other employee in the state”, says Garda Representative Association General Secretary Ronan Slevin, who fears members could face “far more serious sanctions for far more minor breaches”, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: The recent Independent Criminal Courts Review endorsed expanding the use of out-of-court resolutions – which can provide effective resolutions to crimes, and save victims from the stress and lengthiness of court – but what do victims think? New research by Transform Justice highlights considerable support for the approach among victims of crime, and identifies some of the reasons behind their dissatisfaction with the process – including lessons for policing – as Transform Justice Research and Policy Officer Ella Thomson explains.

FEATURE: A new report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has found that most countries have gaps in their understanding of terrorism financing trends, with terrorist organisations exploiting vulnerabilities both in traditional financial systems, and increasingly through online opportunities; the FATF is calling for greater international collaboration and the harmonisation of legal frameworks, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: In the first in a series of articles from The Conversation on weapons and violence in Australia, Griffith University Principal Research Fellow Dr Samara McPhedran looks behind claims by the media and politicians that the country is in the middle of a violent crime crisis to explore the statistics and the real picture when it comes to the use of weapons and violent crime rates in Australia.

FEATURE: As daily life for many people moves increasingly online, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the recent Europol report exploring how law enforcement can deliver community policing in the digital age, the “capability and relevance gap” that police urgently need to address, and how the work of the EU’s Koban project could help to build the future capabilities of community policing in both the physical and virtual domains.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from Canada's York Regional Police, who now have FREE subscriber access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of readers from many other UK and international police, government, academic, criminal justice and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.