OPINION: Victoria’s Supreme Court recently decided to keep Abdul Nacer Benbrika – Australia’s most notorious terrorist – under an extended supervision order, after police surveillance highlighted his continuing radical intent; but the lack of coverage of the case has prompted warnings from Dr John Coyne, Henry Campbell and Justin Bassi of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), who argue that such successes should help to reassure the public that Australia’s counter-terrorism policy is working well.

FEATURE: The latest report on the MDMA drugs market, published by Europol and the European Union Drugs Agency, points to increased European production with significant health and environmental impacts, as well as EU criminal gangs reversing traditional cocaine routes to export MDMA to South America and Asia – in some cases bartering their product for other drugs – as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

INTERVIEW: Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh took up the top job with Canada’s Lethbridge Police Service in the aftermath of a reputational crisis for the organisation, and set about building stronger, trust-based relationships with both the community and the workforce; as he approaches five years in posts, he spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about the progress that has been made, his leadership style, and the importance of creating and maintaining a sense of shared ownership.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes students and staff from Canada's Wilfrid Laurier University, who now have FREE subscriber access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of readers from many other UK and international academic, government, police, criminal justice and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.

FEATURE: A review of public order policing in Ireland published by the Garda Síochána Policing Authority (now the Policing and Community Safety Authority) has highlighted a shortage of officers and training, outdated policies, the need for more support for the frontline from managers, and inconsistency and lack of understanding among senior operational ranks about the role of public order policing, as key concerns that need to be addressed, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With the three-year European PERIVALLON initiative – which aims to build a better intelligence picture of organised environmental crime, and develop tools and solutions to combat it – drawing to a close later this year, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the work of the project so far, and what more needs to be done by law enforcement and others to tackle the problem.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The World Police Summit 2025, supported by Policing Insight as media partner, is to take place in Dubai this May, bringing together thought leaders, law enforcement professionals, and global speakers from over 100 countries. Register your place today!

FEATURE: Speaking at an international workshop hosted by the University of Gothenburg and CRISP, Research Fellow Amir Cahane of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem warned that Israel Police engage in “a disturbing pattern of acquire first and ask questions later” when deploying domestic AI surveillance tools – with “a lack of legal constraints” meaning that court battles over individual cases play an outsized role, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

OPINION: Recent research by Dr Azwihangwisi Judith Mphidi of Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria highlights concerns over the levels of corruption and moral degradation across the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department; in this article she sets out the main findings from that research, as well as the steps that need to be taken to reform the Department policing South Africa’s capital.

ANALYSIS: Terrorist attacks targeting police officers in Nigeria resulted in the deaths of more than 900 officers between 2009 and 2022; Dr Usman A. Ojedokun, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Nigeria’s University of Ibadan, looks at the statistics behind the attacks, the groups carrying them out, the weapons they use, and the lessons to learn from the current trends.

FEATURE: The latest report on the MDMA drugs market, published by Europol and the European Union Drugs Agency, points to increased European production with significant health and environmental impacts, as well as EU criminal gangs reversing traditional cocaine routes to export MDMA to South America and Asia – in some cases bartering their product for other drugs – as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ANALYSIS: A new report exposes the financial mechanisms that are enabling the online sexual exploitation and abuse of children on a global scale, as well as highlighting that financial institutions, tech companies and online payment platforms are also profiting from this “grotesque marketplace”, as Deborah Fry, Professor of International Child Protection Research at the University of Edinburgh and Global Director of Data for Childlight, the Global Child Safety Institute, explains.

FEATURE: The latest report on the MDMA drugs market, published by Europol and the European Union Drugs Agency, points to increased European production with significant health and environmental impacts, as well as EU criminal gangs reversing traditional cocaine routes to export MDMA to South America and Asia – in some cases bartering their product for other drugs – as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ANALYSIS: The increase in drug-related extreme violence and the scale of drug seizures across Europe suggest Mexican and South American cartels already view the EU as the ideal location for expansion; former DEA Special Agent Michael Brown, Global Director of Counter-Narcotics Technology at Rigaku Analytical Devices, believes steps can be taken by European governments and law enforcement to thwart that expansion – but will require political will, increased co-operation, and better use of technology.

FEATURE: A new report on county lines, policing and vulnerability, published by the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre, has highlighted the “postcode lottery” of UK policing approaches and outcomes in relation to viewing young people and vulnerable adults as victims of criminal exploitation, and called for more training, a new national policing strategy on exploitation, and a rethink over the use of the term ‘county lines’, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

FEATURE: A new report into artificial intelligence (AI) and online crime, published by the Alan Turing Institute, has warned that UK policing needs to “get serious” about the threat posed by AI or risk a rapidly escalating problem, with calls for a new taskforce to be based in the National Crime Agency to work with national security and industry partners to tackle the threat, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.