Latest News, Analysis and Opinion  (Page 83)

ANALYSIS: A fatal shooting by An Garda Síochána officers in 2000 prompted close scrutiny of the force’s critical incident command structure, but there has been little formal review since reports into the incident were published in 2006/7; as part of his dissertation for an MSc in Policing, Policy and Leadership, serving specialist firearms officer Colin Dowling has compared current critical incident structures available to the force, identifying the best practice option for the Garda.

ANALYSIS: Fraud has been one of the biggest crime growth areas in the UK and internationally over the past five year, yet successive reports have highlighted an ineffective police response and a lack of support for victims; Portsmouth University Lecturer Paul Gilmour, a former police detective, examines why financial crimes are often the ‘poor relation’ when it comes to police investigation, and what can be done to address the challenges.

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 Michael Skidmore, a Senior Researcher at UK policing think tank the Police Foundation, whose numerous research projects include recent work on combatting fraud, and on the effectiveness of law enforcement in tackling online child sexual abuse.

ANALYSIS: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College workshop on UK Policing Legitimacy – the fourth in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – former Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rod Jarman, Director of the College, looks at the risks and challenges emerging for policing in a ‘post-pandemic’ world, and assesses what steps need to be taken to maintain police effectiveness and legitimacy.  

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen believes some gambling companies are on a par with drug dealers when it comes to targeting those with disorders and addictions, and the resulting harms can often include acquisitive crime; it’s an issue which she hopes the APCC will be able to tackle in partnership with other agencies, as she explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

INNOVATION: The recent European Police Chiefs Convention was the setting for the first Europol Excellence Awards in Innovation, with a project creating a new tool to target online child sex abuse and a multinational collaboration tackling global malware scooping the prizes; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the two award winners, as well as the wider issue of the importance of innovation in policing.

OPINION: The number of fatal police shootings in Australia reached a record high in 2019-20, against a backdrop of historically low levels of homicide and a general decline in crime; Dr Terry Goldsworthy of Bond University, who spent 28 years as a serving officer in Australia, believes that while policing is an inherently dangerous occupation, forces must avoid adopting an enforcement-only mentality.

INNOVATION: As delegates gather in Coventry for this week’s BAPCO public safety technology event, Simon Hall, CEO of police digital mobility platform PoliceBox, looks back at the predictions he was invited to make regarding police IT in 2006 – and the success stories, disappearing initiatives and surprise arrivals on the policing technology scene over the intervening 15 years.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Salesforce and Sopra Steria have worked together to provide an interoperable link between the market leading STORM Command and Control platform with the world's leading CRM. This partnership will enable data to be viewed, synchronised and reported on from a single screen and despatch officers, shifting engagement from incident lead to a citizen lead basis.

FEATURE: While the Met Police’s performance in relation to violence against women, misogyny and sexual abuse have come under close scrutiny and prompted a high-profile inquiry, a project to improve working conditions for women and parents and deliver a cultural change within the force in relation to family friendly employment practices is already reaping rewards, as Policing Insight’s Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: The recent rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer has prompted a greater focus on police who use their position to commit sexual offences, an area that has been the subject of research by a team at Bournemouth University for a number of years; in this article Lecturer Fay Sweeting, Dr Terri Cole and Professor Peter Hills highlight some key measures that can be taken to address the abuse of position.

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: Measuring something as complex and disparate as organised crime has always been a challenge, but a new initiative should drastically improve the ability to gauge the influence and impact of global levels of crime, and resilience to it; Policing Insight’s Chris Allen takes a look at the Global Organised Crime Index.

FEATURE: Within weeks of the introduction of a new agreement ensuring Victoria Police officers in Australia can disengage from work when off duty, the pandemic arrived, and with it one of the few exceptions to the deal; but as The Police Association Victoria Secretary Wayne Gatt explains, officers understand the distinction between “what’s trite and what’s important”, and the spirit of the policy remains in place.

FEATURE: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College UK Preparedness workshop – the second in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Stuart Hyde, the former Chief Constable of Cumbria, highlights the importance of the third sector response (including police charities) to COVID-19, and how that will shape the role of the voluntary sector in responding to future emergencies.

OPINION: With employees having more rights to take a claim to a tribunal, and policing teams often working under constant pressure, situations where a thoughtless comment or well-intentioned joke could be used as grounds for legal action are becoming increasingly common; the answer, according to workplace relationships expert Arran Heal, is to promote conversational integrity and a ‘clear air’ culture.

OPINION: Despite more than 12 months of negotiations to agree a bipartisan route for police reform in the US, talks between the Republicans and Democrats formally broke down last month, with no end result in sight; but Professor Thaddeus Johnson and Dr Natasha Johnson of Georgia State University believe that while congressional reform may have been doomed to failure, the federal government could still have a vital role to play in supporting change at a local level.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Marc Jones, Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), is keen for PCCs to play a greater role in improving the criminal justice system for the public; but he’s also concerned that some election candidates may have fuelled public confusion over the role of a PCC and overpromised on what they could deliver, as he explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

INNOVATION: With global digitalisation, an increasingly complex international security landscape and the rapid advances in technology, new intelligence gathering tools and techniques are developing at pace; now a new European collaboration of 15 intelligence and security agencies has been established to focus and share research and development, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

FEATURE: Ahead of this week’s London Policing College UK Preparedness workshop – the first in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Supt Hannah Wheeler, the National PPE Lead for Operation Talla, explains how her team secured and distributed more than 80 million items of PPE, the steps taken to protect police and public, and the ongoing impact of the pandemic on policing.

Announcement: Policing Insight has launched a new Events section to highlight forthcoming policing, criminal justice and security related conferences, exhibitions, seminars, webinars and roundtables from around the world.

FEATURE: Although there are early signs that COVID-19 is entering a more manageable stage which could ease the burden on frontline officers, new research suggests the long-term impact of the pandemic on the wellbeing and morale of police officers could far outlast the restrictions themselves, as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports.

OPINION: In the wake of the horrific murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer and the wider debates about misogyny and the need for cultural change in policing and society, West Midlands Chief Constable Dave Thompson sends out a powerful and poignant message to his fellow male officers – along with some simple ambitions that can instigate change.

OPINION: A proposed pilot scheme to allow football fans to drink alcohol in view of the pitch during some lower league games has been branded “irresponsible” by some senior police officers; but former Chief Superintendent and crowd policing specialist Owen West, now a Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University, believes the “unevidenced” policing narrative lacks coherency, and could leave the service marginalised as reform of the sport moves forward.