United Kingdom

OPINION: With Canadian homicide rates increasing by 50% over the past 10 years, Carleton University PhD candidate Jeffrey Bradley and Professor Irvin Waller of the University of Ottawa argue that to reverse the trend, newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney will need to follow successful examples from the UK and US and invest significantly in crime prevention and youth outreach programmes.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Law enforcement is taking advantage of the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs.) When combined with intelligence data in the knowledge graphs, the police can query the data using natural language and get accurate, reliable answers due to the nature of graph technology.

INTERVIEW: Merseyside Police’s two-pronged approach of piloting serious violence reduction orders and increasing high-profile uniformed foot patrols as part of a hotspot project has led to a drop in overall crime, and a 50% cut in violent crime in some areas; the force’s Supt Phil Mullally spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the two initiatives work together, the opportunities to improve community relations, and why “excellence in the basics” is better than “reinventing the wheel”.

OPINION: With the training schedule for the new Neighbourhood Policing Pathway (NPP) beginning next month, and first measures under the new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee due to be in place across England and Wales in July, former South Wales Police detective Steve Dodd, a subject matter expert on intelligence professionalisation, looks at the opportunities and challenges for the NPP, and the role of community intelligence-led policing methodology within it.

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.

FEATURE: Following last month’s Royal Assent of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 – known as Martyn’s Law – Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the background to the new legislation and the key measures it will include, as well as highlighting the long delays in bringing the much-needed new powers into play.

FEATURE: New research exploring the impact of a police-sent, low-cost text message ‘nudge’ reminding Class A drugs offenders to attend a mandatory drug assessment has highlighted the increased chances of helping offenders to “make it through the door” towards treatment, improving compliance and potentially reducing recidivism and offending, reports Policing Insight’s Keith Potter.

OPINION: Having spent more than 20 years advising and supporting police forces and stakeholders in the UK on how to bring meaningful change to police-community relations, Montell Neufville, Chair of the Joint Protective Services (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Hertfordshire Police) Scrutiny Panel and a National Advisory Group member of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, shares his top tips on the steps police and crime commissioners and mayors can take to improve trust between forces and the communities they serve.

ANALYSIS: New research investigating healthcare provision inside police custody suites has highlighted long delays in people receiving vital treatments, with some denied their medication altogether – even when they have serious health conditions – as Newcastle University Senior Lecturer in Sociology Dr Gethin Rees explains.

INNOVATION: Following on from the Cityforum roundtable on transforming police public contact earlier this year, and with the Government’s policing priorities highlighting the issue as crucial to modern service delivery, Content Guru Co-Founder and Deputy CEO Martin Taylor looks at the strategic reform, innovation, and future of police public contact.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The Institute of Criminology will host the annual Cambridge University Evidence-Based Policing Conference at the Cambridge Corn Exchange from July 21 to 22, 2025. This year’s conference promises to be the largest one yet, with at least 500 delegates in attendance and 20 top keynote speakers.

OPINION: By the end of 2026 all Police Scotland frontline officers will wear body-worn video (BWV) cameras while on duty – one of the last UK forces to deploy the technology nationally; but the University of Stirling’s Professor William Webster and Dr Diana Miranda argue that despite the widespread use of BWV, there is little robust evidence about its effectiveness, and warn that without consistent training, scrutiny and accountability, the technology could damage community relations and encroach on citizens’ rights.

FEATURE: In the latest article in The Police Student series, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the development and role of the probation service in England and Wales, including the challenges around balancing encouraging desistance with managing the risk to the public; responsibilities ranging from pre-sentence reports to supervising offenders on licence and statutory duties under the Victims’ Code; and the importance of partnership working.

FEATURE: Adopting and implementing a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to those likely to be drawn into organised crime groups (OCGs) – by coupling increased surveillance and police action with the opportunity for rehabilitation and pathways out of crime – can prevent young people from entering OCGs, reduce recidivism, disrupt gang activity, and increase arrests of established members, according to the results of a pilot scheme by West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: The latest figures released by Action Fraud, the UK fraud reporting agency run by City of London Police, show that overall reports of investment fraud have fallen but the amount of money stolen by fraudsters has increased, with cryptocurrency scams, ‘pig butchering’ schemes, and pension and recovery fraud all cause for concern, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With police officers in the UK and Ireland operating under immense pressures, University of the West of England Senior Lecturers Dr Cody Porter and Dr Paul Gavin share findings from their recent research projects into specific sources of stress and its profound impacts on officers’ mental health in both jurisdictions, and call for a shift in the way mental health is treated – “not as an afterthought, but as an operational priority”.

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: Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the continuing growth in pharmaceutical crime, highlighted by a recent Europol report which suggests that the proliferation in fake and sub-standard medicines prompted by Covid-19 has continued and expanded since the end of the pandemic, with co-operation and intelligence sharing among police and the private sector one of the key steps to tackling the crime.

ANALYSIS: Recent arrests and seizures suggest drug traffickers are increasingly switching to chemically concealed cocaine (CCC) to move tonnes of shipments around the world, largely undetected; in the third in a series of articles on CCC and organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Dalby looks at growth of extraction labs across Europe and into the UK, the wealth of evidence, information and intelligence that the discovery of such labs can provide, and the vital role of forensic investigations.

FEATURE: A new report into the “effectiveness and efficiency” of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), published by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, warns that budgetary constraints have led to the lowest number of officers in the PSNI’s history, hampering the best efforts of the chief constable, his officers and staff to provide a high-quality service and build trust with communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A report on police investigations into crime in England and Wales, published recently by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, warns that overstretched officers, increased time pressures and a lack of experience are inhibiting the ability of officers and staff to develop an “investigative mindset” and hampering the quality and effectiveness of investigations, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

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.

OPINION: Professor Alison Sullivan’s recent Independent Review of Data, Statistics and Research on Sex and Gender includes a number of examples of the ongoing confusion around data on sex, as well as recommendations on how UK policing should approach these issues; Dr Kath Murray, co-director of MurrayBlackburnMackenzie policy analysis which provided research and analytical support to the review, highlights some of the key points it raises and how policing should move forward.