Latest News, Analysis and Opinion  (Page 53)

OPINION: Despite increased awareness of and action to tackle domestic violence, support and intervention services for male victims are still largely lacking; Criminology professor Dr Alexandra Lysova believes that, with the most common pattern of abuse, bidirectional violence, helping male victims could save lives and help to break the intergenerational cycle of violence.

ANALYSIS: Cybersecurity is a critical part of the delivery of public services, with increasingly sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals using bait attacks and other new techniques to target organisations; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at some of the main cybersecurity threats over the coming year, and what organisations can do to counteract them.

FEATURE: Data obtained from digital devices is now as essential to modern police investigations as DNA evidence or fingerprints; but a recent a report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services presents a damning assessment of how forces in England and Wales are handling digital forensics, and calls for new governance structures and more funding, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: Another new report into stop and search has called for major reform and the launch of a taskforce on the topic; Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone looks at the findings of the report, the context and application of existing powers, and how – in the absence of any viable alternative – police and communities could help to ensure that stop and search is used effectively to detect and prevent crime and increase community safety.

New Year Honours: We are pleased to publish and recognise the policing and public safety recipients of the UK and overseas New Year Honours as well as the New Zealand Order of Merit. The team at Policing Insight offer our congratulations and thank all the recipients for their service.

END OF YEAR REVIEW: As 2022 draws to a close, Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter looks back over some of the key law enforcement themes covered over the past 12 months, the challenges met and opportunities offered, and our continuing commitment to provide a platform for sharing expertise, understanding and best practice throughout 2023.

ANALYSIS: The pandemic presented new challenges for policing across the world, along with valuable lessons around the response; latest research by Dr Manja Nikolovska and Professor Shane D Johnson of the Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL reveals what law enforcement stakeholders thought worked well in relation to Covid-19 (and what didn’t), and how these might shape the response to future threats such as climate change and the technological advances of crime.

INTERVIEW: Metropolitan Police Commander Dr Alison Heydari, the UK’s national lead on out-of-court disposals, is looking to rebrand the sanctions to reduce reoffending, address offender needs and improve public trust, confidence and legitimacy, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons in this second part of her recent interview.

FEATURE: Vulnerable members of the community experiencing mental health challenges account for a significant proportion of repeat callers to the police and other services; but Occupational Therapy Degree student Bridget Townsend believes a pilot project in which occupational therapists accompany police officers in response to those repeat callers could improve the service to individuals while reducing the resource burden on policing.

ANALYSIS: New research by Dr Jens Binder of Nottingham Trent University and Dr Chris Baker-Beall of Bournemouth University has found that terrorism radicalisation now takes place predominantly online, and that those recruited without face-to-face interaction are less likely to carry out violent attacks – but there is still a thin line between online only activity and mixed radicalisation processes, so internet extremism must still be taken seriously.

INNOVATION: Recent commercial research in the US has highlighted the key role that technology could play in increasing public trust in policing; Kinana Hussain, Vice President of Product Management at Digi International, explains how connectivity solutions can keep law enforcement and first responders safe while increasing trust in the communities they serve.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The complexity of policing challenges is ever-evolving. In this article, we discuss how we made strides, with your feedback, to strengthen the Axon ecosystem in 2022 to help solve pain points and offer better support for positive policing outcomes.

ANALYSIS: With inspectorate reports highlighting concerns over the use of anti-rip clothing in police custody, the Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) recently undertook a pilot project with Dyfed Powys Police to improve the monitoring, recording and risk assessments around the use of such clothing, with a long-term aim of ending the measure altogether, as ICVA Interim Chief Executive Sherry Ralph explains.

FEATURE: Despite several examples of terrorist attacks being livestreamed and online games being used to spread extreme propaganda and groom young fanatics, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth warns that the full extent of the terrorist use of the internet remains poorly understood by many frontline practitioners, and a multi-faceted, holistic approach is essential to tackle the threat.

OPINION: Law enforcement agencies around the world often rely heavily on eyewitness testimony, but unreliable eyewitness evidence is often a contributing factor in miscarriages of justice; Dr Michel Funicelli a Lecturer in Police Studies at Teesside University and a 33-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, believes new technology analysing brainwaves could be a significant asset for policing in assessing the credibility of witnesses.

OPINION: With societies around the world facing continuing financial pressures, and a cost-of-living crisis biting hard in some communities, it may be a struggle to see this Christmas as the season to be jolly; but Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter believes that while joy may be in short supply, officers should be proud – and the public thankful – that the efforts of police throughout the year have enabled them to enjoy a safe and happy festive period.

OPINION: New research by Dr Kate Puddister, an associate professor at the University of Guelph, and Queen’s University doctoral candidate Danielle McNabb, suggest that not only is sexual violence by police officers in Canada more common than expected, but that allegations of sexual assault against officers are less likely to be fully investigated, or lead to charges or convictions, than other such assaults reported to police.

INTERVIEW: Metropolitan Police Commander Dr Alison Heydari is the UK’s most senior black female officer, leading for the force on neighbourhood policing and nationally on out-of-court disposals; in the first in a two-part interview, she spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the importance for leaders of listening to staff, the need to recognise and praise work done well, and the vital role of resilience in coping with change.

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.

INTERVIEW: Policing Insight’s Chris Allen regularly speaks to leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, as part of our ‘Spotlight on Organised Crime’ series; this week the spotlight turns on Chris, who answers the same questions he poses to others, this time in his role as Senior Police Practice Tutor at Bucks New University and Director of Criminis Training and Consultancy Services.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Ensuring a safe community and supporting victims of crimes are core missions of Merseyside Police. But as digital evidence continued to grow, Merseyside Police’s investigative resources were stretched to the limit. The force found a solution to all of these challenges in NICE Investigate. NICE Investigate collapses Merseyside’s digital evidence silos into a single login, so investigators can do all of their work in one place, and it eliminates long wait times for evidence. Now, cases can be resolved successfully and sooner.

FEATURE: A Northamptonshire initiative has seen growing numbers of community carers trained to recognise the dangers of doorstep scams and prevent their elderly clients from becoming victims of fraud, burglaries and other opportunist crimes, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With growing poverty and social exclusion – driven by the UK’s cost-of-living crisis – set to increase low-level crime, anxiety and poor mental health, Revolving Doors Chief Executive Pavan Dhaliwal says that new polling highlights public concern about the potential for a crisis of crime, and believes innovative policing approaches could be the key to criminal justice reform that would protect resources while supporting those who offend onto better lives and desistance.

FEATURE: A new review by the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody has called for closer partnerships between policing, health and other criminal justice agencies to address mental health issues and help to prevent deaths in custody as well as suicides after release from police custody, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.