Australia

Opinion: CoPaCC Director Dr Steve Watts attends the National Policing Summit in Melbourne, Australia on behalf of Policing Insight and discovers that while good policing is the same the world over in protecting communities, Australia is taking an innovative approach to some familiar issues.

NEWS: Policing Insight attended its first international conference in Melbourne, Australia this month. Our staff writer, a stalwart of many police conferences, found the innovative and holistic approach to familiar policing issues at the Australia & New Zealand Police Advisory Agency (ANZPAA) Police Conference 2019 a refreshing experience.

Long Read: Former UK police officer and now Research Fellow at Western Sydney University Alan Beckley has analysed the findings of over 60 different studies of body-worn cameras (BWC) providing an insight into the different perspectives on their effectiveness in gathering evidence, lowering police rates of use of force and violence towards the police.

Insight: Development of the concept of emotional intelligence began in the 1980s and its four attributes of self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and social skills are all essential factors for a successful police officer. Former UK police officer and now Research Fellow at Western Sydney University Alan Beckley looks at how consideration of emotional intelligence is influencing the recruitment and development of police personnel.

LONG READ: The deaths of six young people from drug overdoses at music festivals in Australia in the last five months has shone a light on the risk of taking drugs at these events. Former UK police officer and now Research Fellow at Western Sydney University Alan Beckley examines the issues and considers whether pill-testing offers the solution.

ANALYSIS: Attitudes towards and the treatment of mental health in the Australian police have changed over the years. However, after 20,000 police and emergency workers responded 'Answering the Call', the first national survey of mental health in this sector, former UK police officer and now Research Fellow at Western Sydney University Alan Beckley says the police still have a long way to go.

OPINION: Alan Beckley was a police officer in the UK for 30 years, before moving to Australia to teach and conduct research on policing and law enforcement, most recently as a Research Fellow at Western Sydney University. In this, the first of a regular series of articles for Policing Insight, he provides an Australian perspective on the Home Affairs Select Committee's recent report, "Policing for the Future".

Opinion: CCTV of a mentally ill man being sprayed with capsicum spray, pinned to the ground by six police officers and hit with a baton in Melbourne quickly went viral, appalling many including Dr Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron of the Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies who works closely with the Australian police. She asks what can we learn from this.

OPINION: A form of predictive policing, the Suspect Targeting Management Plan, has been in operation in Australia for 17 years. Dr Vicki Sentas of the University of New South Wales warns that the programme is racialised, targeted overwhelmingly at young people, and damaging and disruptive to their lives.

Friska Wirya has been engaged for over 18 months at Western Australia Police, the single largest jurisdiction in the world, as a change management specialist supporting the replacement of a mission-critical application. She blogs about the ten key leadership lessons she's learned from working with Western Australia's senior officers.