Latest News, Analysis and Opinion  (Page 24)

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2024 in Staffordshire, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2024 in Suffolk, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2024 in Surrey, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2024 in Sussex, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2024 in Thames Valley, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2024 in Warwickshire, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2021 in West Mercia, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2024 in West Midlands, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: The office of West Yorkshire police and crime commissioner was abolished on the date of the 2021 elections and the role was taken up by the office of the to be elected mayor of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

POLICE FORCE FOCUS: Candidate details for the PCC Elections 2021 in Wiltshire, along with details of previous PCC election outcomes.

FEATURE: This month marks the 20th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack on Madrid that killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500 others; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks back at Al Qaeda’s bombing of the Spanish capital and how it changed counter-terrorism approaches across Europe, ahead of European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism on 11 March.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Defined as a tactic that uses advanced analytics for proactive crime prevention and supporting investigations, predictive policing identifies intervention targets, solves past crimes, and makes effective crime prevention policies. Due to the adoption of knowledge graph databases and their rigorous nature, such analysis is starting to become commonplace.

INTERVIEW: Channel 4’s To Catch a Copper series revealed shocking incidents of misconduct in Avon and Somerset Police; in a two-part interview with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, Chief Constable Sarah Crew talks about why she let the cameras in, footage of misconduct by officers that left her feeling “horrified” and “exhausted”, and her views about institutional racism.

ANALYSIS: The latest statistics for England and Wales indicate that levels of recorded crime have fallen to an all-time low, yet there has been little mention of the significant drop by the media, the Government or forces themselves; in this first of two articles, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the latest crime data and longer-term trends in crime, and why the apparent success in crime reduction remains something of a secret.

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: With the recent report from the Angiolini Inquiry the latest high-profile criticism of UK policing culture, former officer turned police trainer Graham Goulden believes it is time to drop conformity, e-learning and a ‘whack a mole’ approach to misconduct in favour of an active bystandership that will help to instil critical loyalty among colleagues.

FEATURE: The potential of technological advances to transform policing has generated enormous excitement across the sector; but while many in law enforcement are aware of the opportunities offered, much less attention has been paid to the fundamentals needed to actually deliver this kind of tech-driven policing, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland explains.

FEATURE: New research by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and social justice group Equally Ours has found that existing ‘myth-busting’ messaging used to refute rape misconceptions actually reinforces those beliefs; instead researchers have called for a ‘suspect-centric’ and values-based approach across the CPS as well as wider criminal justice organisations including the police, the Law Commission and the Home Office, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: A recently published article on Policing Insight regarding modern slavery highlighted concerns about the impact of UK Government reforms on victims of trafficking, but the outcome in Scotland differs significantly to England and Wales, says SNP policing spokesperson Allan Dorans MP, who believes researchers and others need to pay closer attention to the emerging divergence in policing north and south of the border.

FEATURE: A three-month facial recognition trial in Southampton has seen door staff equipped with body-worn cameras to check pub and club goers against a database of excluded offenders; the success of the scheme – described as the first of its kind in the country – has led to suggestions that it could be extended to other areas, as well as to other situations such as preventing those with football banning orders from attending matches, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

OPINION: When a social media post earlier this month announced Met Police Commander Karen Findlay as the new Assistant Chief Constable of the British Transport Police, the response included a barrage of misogynistic and homophobic comments that drew strong criticism from the leaders of both forces and many other senior officers; former police officer Oliver Laurence, now host of the Protect and Serve podcast, believes more could and should be done to protect officers from online abuse.

FEATURE: Former senior Sussex detective Alison Eaton, and former Cheshire detective Chris Howarth, are working with the Ministry of Defence’s British Peace Support Team (Africa) to deliver ‘train the trainer’ programmes that will help to improve investigative and interviewing skills for officers in sexual and gender-based violence cases in post-conflict countries, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Police officers in many jurisdictions are trained to be in a “state of heightened alert” when on patrol, both to detect and prevent crime, and for self-preservation; but Prof Jesse Cheng of DePaul University College of Law in Chicago argues that such an approach can lead officers into “addictive hypervigilance” behaviours which significantly increase the unwarranted use of force.

FEATURE: A recent report from the European Commission into the implementation of the Terrorist Content Online (TCO) Regulation has found that EU member states are making good use of the tool, with around 350 orders issued by authorities to service providers to remove online terrorist content, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.