Latest News, Analysis and Opinion  (Page 66)

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: Almost a third of women experiencing the menopause consider quitting their jobs because of the severity of their symptoms, yet employers including police forces have been slow to offer support and advice; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons looks at the efforts within Thames Valley Police to address those issues and ensure that its growing female workforce have the support they need.

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OPINION: Despite the high murder rate in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi, few cases ever make it to the courts; Dr Douglas Lucas Kivoi of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis believes that poor evidence gathering, police negligence and recklessness, a lack of forensic capability and claims of police involvement in extra-judicial killings are among the reasons behind the failure to solve so many murders, and sets out some key steps to address the issues.

INTERVIEW: In the second part of his interview with Policing Insight, Superintendents’ Association President Paul Fotheringham spoke to Keith Potter about the structural and operational challenges facing the rank, the pressures on measuring and improving performance, and the importance of focusing on wellbeing and good leadership.

INNOVATION: A start-up project pioneered by four UK universities is using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify patterns of tech-facilitated coercive control sent by perpetrators through text messages; researchers believe the project, which recently received a £115,000 funding boost from the Home Office, could develop an AI tool that will encourage more victims of domestic abuse and coercive control to come forward, reports Policing Insight’s Keith Potter.

ANALYSIS: Purposeful community engagement is now widely recognised and recommended as a crucial step in delivering social change, including policies around crime reduction, preventing radicalisation, and building trust and confidence in policing; in the first of a series of articles, Intensive Engagement’s Richard James (a former police territorial commander) and Associate Professor Dr Tim Curtis explore the essential processes needed to create focused, sustainable and effective community engagement.

OPINION: The decriminalization of hard drugs such as cocaine and MDMA in Canada’s British Columbia province follows many years of campaigners calling for a public health approach; Professor Andrew Hathaway of the University of Guelph looks at the background to the decision, and considers what lessons can be learned from similar processes undertaken in other countries.

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: Technological advances in extracting valuable knowledge and information from Big Data could deliver significant benefits for the security and safety of smart cities and their residents; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores a new European research and innovation project that is looking to maximise those benefits for all stakeholders, including policing.

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INTERVIEW: Paul Fotheringham took up his post as President of the Superintendents’ Association in March, with policing facing a range of operational and structural challenges, and concerns over pay, pensions, and conditions; after three months in post, he spoke to Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter, and in the first of a two-part interview explores the strained relationship with government, and why there might be cause for optimism.

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FEATURE: New research has recommended that police forces in England and Wales should improve their awareness and responses to gambling-related harms after identifying custody suites as the ideal ‘gatekeepers’ to challenge the narratives about the nature of gambling-related crime, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.  

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen spoke to Emma Jones, Deputy Head of Intelligence at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), about the importance of multi-agency approaches, the strength of the IPO’s Project POISE, and the worrying lack of separation between consumers and organised crime.

OPINION: In the same month that Lord Geidt resigned as ‘ethics adviser’ to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Government also published its response to proposals for the reform of data protection laws, advocating a seemingly light touch on the governance and scrutiny of the police use of technology; Dr Marion Oswald, Chair of the West Midlands Police Data Ethics Committee, believes the two topics are linked by the importance of accountability and standards.

FEATURE: Several UK police forces have pushed ahead with pilot schemes and the wider roll out of opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone for frontline officers, despite opposition from some staff associations; now a new report by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has called for increased support and training for officers as part of a ‘national joined-up approach’ to its use, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

OPINION: Recent campaigns have led to longer sentences for those who assault emergency services workers, but a new report from Transform Justice analyses why such sanctions are not working; Transform Justice Director Penelope Gibbs believes better support for staff, improved training and alternative responses to those in mental health crisis may be more effective.

OPINION: Recent operations by the Australian Federal Police against organised crime have brought the activities of the ‘ndrangheta Calabrian mafia under the spotlight; but Professor of Criminology Dr Anna Sergi argues that the organisation has been well-established across Australia for many decades, and any attempt to take the ‘ndrangheta seriously will require sustained political will and resources, rather than a sporadic focus on drug importation.

FEATURE: With the scale of child sexual abuse in the UK reaching record levels, and offenders using encryption and other technology tools to carry out increasingly severe and abhorrent abuse, National Crime Agency Deputy Director Sarah Blight has urged law enforcement, government, industry and other stakeholders to develop a ‘whole of system response’ to the threat, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

FEATURE: Despite the rapidly increasing use of technology in law enforcement intelligence gathering, humans continue to play a vital role in assessing, rationalising and contextualising data sources, based on their experience and expertise; and while officers may be susceptible to a degree of cognitive bias, digital methods can amplify those biases or trigger new ones, explains Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth.

FEATURE: With the need for greater focus on the ‘voice of the victim’ and ‘voice of the child’ having been highlighted both in serious case reviews and legislation, the National Policing Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP) is researching how those victim experiences can be better recognised, gathered, and used in investigations and to shape policing services, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

OPINION: Former police officer and police and crime commissioner Martyn Underhill urges police forces in the UK to adopt and exploit the potential of existing technologies and systems to keep pace in the digital world – particularly in the face of ongoing financial challenges and budgetary constraints.

FEATURE: The recently published Police Race Action Plan has prompted more discussion around the issues of racial disparity and institutional racism in UK policing; but for Dr Kul Verma, a former officer and now a leadership coach and diversity and inclusion adviser, attempts to address issues around race in policing will be doomed to fail without brave conversations based on evidence rather than opinion.