ANALYSIS: Almost two years after Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to recruit an 'Uplift' of 20,000 additional police officers, latest workforce figures show that the officer headcount has increased significantly; but in this first in a series of articles looking at the changing police workforce, Policing Insight's Ian Wiggett explains why a return to 2010 staffing levels will need to be more than just a numbers game, and how Government attempts to 'level up' could still leave a landscape of inequality.

OPINION: The killing of five people in Plymouth by Jake Davison (pictured), a man whose online activity included regular interaction with the incel sub-culture, has raised questions in the UK around the need for such groups to be targeted under counter-terror and extremist legislation; former Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Bryon explores the growth in the incel movement and related attacks on women both in the UK and the US, and looks at what can be done to tackle the sub-culture.

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FEATURE: Speaking at the launch of this year’s Australia and New Zealand Society for Evidence-Based Policing Annual Conference, Society President Supt David Cowan encouraged officers and staff to lead evidence-based policing “that will make a difference”, and highlighted the “slowly shifting relationship” between policing and academia, reports Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: While lockdown led to a reduction in many crimes, speeding motorists abusing the empty roads led to an increased demand for driver retraining schemes; crisis communication consultant Amanda Coleman spoke to Ruth Purdie, Chief Executive Officer of UK Road Offender Education (UKROEd), about working with forces during the pandemic, the move to online retraining courses, and how the service will be delivered moving forwards.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix’s Policing Friendship Tour recently caught up with Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye, to walk and talk about the policing challenges facing the county including the disproportionality in the number of Black and Asian stabbing victims and offenders, the importance of stop and search – done properly and lawfully – and the task of tackling county lines drugs.

ANALYSIS: COVID-19 has seen fraudsters taking advantage of the pandemic economy, and Africa has not escaped the attentions of those intent on fraud; Research Associate Nataliya Mykhalchenko and Lecturer Jörg Wiegratz, both of the University of Leeds, set out some of the key findings from their latest research into the responses to fraud, and the major characteristics of anti-fraud measures, across 11 African countries.

FEATURE: Online gaming platforms and forums have offered violent extremists new routes to recruit and radicalise young people, but law enforcement practitioners largely admit to lacking the skills and knowledge to tackle the problem; Policing Insight’s Andy Staniforth reports on a new funding initiative encouraging police, public authorities, the private sector and academia to work together to improve knowledge on the use of online gaming culture and structure by extremists.

FEATURE: The resurgence in outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) in Australia and around the world has highlighted the need for a better understanding of their criminal activities; Dr Christopher Dowling of the Australian Institute of Criminology – a speaker at this week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference – outlines the work of the Serious and Organised Crime Research Laboratory, and its crime science approach to the criminal activity of OMCGs.

OPINION: The requirement for UK police recruits to either be graduates or achieve a degree as part of their training is still a subject of much debate; but University of Sunderland lecturers Dr Jerry Pearson and Adrian Smiles – both former serving officers – believe one area of the PEQF that needs to be addressed is delivering a degree qualification which recognises the skills and experience of those serving officers who are currently non-graduates.

ANALYSIS: The recent upsurge in gang membership and conflict in New Zealand has prompted a fresh focus on their criminal activity; but ahead of this week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Dr Jarrod Gilbert of the University of Canterbury warns that equating patched gangs with organised crime ignores the evidence, and will result in law enforcement and socio-economic approaches to gang issues that are unlikely to be effective.

ANALYSIS: Crime prevention programmes in many countries often adopt a blanket approach to communities, with little regard to race or culture; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, researchers Dr Kabir Dasgupta, Dr André Diegmann, Professor Tom Kirchmaier and Dr Alexander Plum discuss their latest study which highlights the role of ethnicity in the criminal behaviour of young fathers, and suggests that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy response to crime reduction is likely to fail.

OPINION: The UK Government’s Beating Crime Plan unveiled last month gives police forces the option to permanently relax the rules around Section 60 stop and search; but Anglia Ruskin University Researcher Winifred Agnew-Pauley, and University of Kent PhD candidate Bisola Akintoye, argue that Section 60 is ineffective in reducing crime, and that the Government’s own assessment of the changes recognises they are likely to disproportionately affect black and minority ethnic people.

FEATURE: The volume and accessibility of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has increased considerably in recent years, prompting concerns from police, legislators and the public; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Dr Rick Brown, Deputy Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, outlines some of the key research and initiatives already underway to reduce CSAM in the future.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix’s Policing Friendship Tour recently caught up with Ian Bell, CEO of the Police Digital Service (PDS), for a stroll around the urban landscape of Wembley; after 18 months of rapid technological change in policing and across the public sector – driven in large part by the pandemic – Mr Bell spoke about the challenges of COVID-19, the development of the PDS and the National Policing Digital Strategy, and the organisation’s aims and ambitions move forwards.

FEATURE: Targeting family violence and gender-driven crimes is a challenge for law enforcement around the world; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Lauren Callaway, Assistant Commissioner of Family Violence Command for Victoria Police, outlines some of the key steps taken by the force – both in its approach to crimes in the community, and in tackling issues within the organisation – to make people safer.

ANALYSIS: A network of programmes seek to provide pathways out of criminal behaviour for at-risk youth in New York City; Greg Berman, former Director of New York’s Center for Court Innovation, looks at both the challenges and the potential of the Cure Violence approach, and underlines the importance of empirical research in establishing if, why and how the various programmes achieve their aims.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on a terrorist drone attack in India that has raised concerns among security policymakers around the world, and highlighted the fact that unmanned aerial vehicles present a clear and present danger to the public – one for which police and security authorities remain poorly prepared.

INTERVIEW: Professor Paul Taylor, who became the UK’s first Police Chief Scientific Adviser in May, believes policing leaders recognise that science and technology will be crucial to the service going forwards; he spoke to Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons about what his role will be, the importance of partnerships with education and industry, and how the National Crime Laboratory will drive evidence-based good practice in communities across the country.

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FEATURE: The rape and murder of Sarah Everard in the UK has been a wake-up call to the wider issue of violence against women and girls, a problem that has resonated with female communities globally; former Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Bryon looks at both the legislative and law enforcement responses in the UK and the US, as well as moves to tackle the subjugation of women and reinforce women’s rights around the world.

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: From fake big-name brands to illegal livestock sources and sub-standard products that are a danger to public health, the illicit food and alcohol industry is big business that attracts organised crime; Policing Insight’s Chris Allen looks at the latest efforts from Europol and Interpol to tackle the problem, as well as the UK’s response.

OPINION: Last month Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the UK Government’s new ‘Beating Crime Plan’ – not in parliament or at a press launch, but in a Sunday newspaper column; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett examines the lack of consultation, paucity of new ideas and absence of additional funding in the plan, and considers whether tone and public perception have become much more important than evidence-based actions and initiatives.