OPINION: With UK police forces witnessing a significant churn of experienced officers for new recruits, concerns over confidence, and a continuing challenge to maintain the policing by consent model, Acting Supt Stephen Lenney fears the service could be facing a perfect storm, one which could leave policing all at sea unless there is clarity of purpose and a shared consciousness of the challenges facing officers.

OPINION: A significant proportion of the 800,000 people detained in police custody in 2019 were children and young people, but Transform Justice Research and Policy Lead Fionnuala Ratcliffe believes that such detentions often lead to unreliable evidence and long-term damage to police legitimacy, and suggests alternatives such as voluntary attendance and out-of-court disposals could prove more effective.

OPINION: Police forces both in the UK and internationally are increasingly equipping officers with overdose reversal medication such as naloxone, in an effort to cut the catastrophic numbers of drug-related deaths; drugs policing expert Ben Twomey, who wrote the policy for the first force in the UK to carry the medication, writes about what it means for the war on drugs.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Every day, developments unfold in security, whether at local, regional or global levels, that provide vibrant subjects for debate. The act of considering complex security challenges and thinking how best to formulate and communicate sensible policy alternatives in a comfortable space away from the pressures of the office proves challenging.  Despite these challenges The University of Buckingham has made it possible to do both and is one of the key strengths their academic programmes.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Registration has opened for the 2022 BAPCO Conference & Exhibition, taking place at the Coventry Building Society Arena, 8-9 March of this year.

FEATURE: The latest report on the policing of the pandemic in the UK has suggested expanding the ‘4Es’ approach to other law enforcement activities, investing the additional capability from Operation Uplift into neighbourhood policing, and improving national co-ordination and workforce planning, as some of the key lessons from Covid policing; Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons takes a closer look at the report.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Former Cambridgeshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Alan Baldwin (centre-right in picture) believes clearing the vetting backlogs and attracting the right people into policing – including increased recruitment of under-represented groups – are essential steps for the future of the service in the UK, as he explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

CPD SERIES: The use of learning analytics to measure, collect and analyse data from police learners – with a view to optimising programmes and improving the development environment – could revolutionise policing learning, as Dr Matthew Jones and Prof Bart Rienties of the Open University explain in this latest in a series of articles on police CPD.

The Police Student: Continuing a new series of The Police Student, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the challenges around policing a diverse society, including the issue of institutional racism, the police use of stop and search, and the implications of the latest rulings in relation to hate crimes and free speech.

ANALYSIS: With online communication – and social media in particular – highlighting society’s growing prevalence of abuse and the incitement to hatred and violence, the UK’s proposed Online Safety Bill has been welcomed by many as a step towards tackling big tech’s ‘land of the lawless’; Policing Insight contributor Gareth Bryon looks at the background to the Bill, and some of the measures set to be introduced in 2022.

SPOTLIGHT ON ORGANISED CRIME: 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 Dr Amber Phillips, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, about the mafia, asset confiscation, and the importance of grassroots initiatives when tackling organised crime.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: While UK policing has faced major challenges as a result of COVID-19, the innovative ICT responses to the pandemic from police forces, government and the private sector have driven change that will deliver benefits for years to come, as VMware Chief Technology Officer Joseph Langford explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

ANALYSIS: Politically motivated crime has been recognised as an issue needing specific attention for more than a century, but with multiple agencies now active in the sector, co-ordinating that response can be difficult; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the challenges presented by politically motivated crimes, and the importance of differentiating between extremism and terrorism.

FEATURE: Police Now’s first Frontline Leadership Programme (FLP) launched in September, and – with applications already now open for the third cohort – in December the organisation ran an online Women in Leadership event to support the application process; Policing Insight spoke to the three officers on the event panel about the challenges facing women in policing, the work of Police Now, and how the FLP could help to change the culture of policing.

New Year Honours: We are pleased to publish and recognise the policing recipients of the UK and overseas New Year Honours as well as the New Zealand Order of Merit. The team at Policing Insight offer our congratulations and thank all the recipients for their service in another challenging year.

FEATURE: The British Government’s National Cyber Strategy, published at the end of 2021, sets out a vision for the UK’s role in global cyberspace over the next decade; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the expectations of the new Strategy, the challenges presented by the ever-changing cyberspace, and the course of action policing and national security will need to take for the UK to fill that role.

FEATURE: This month a trial began in Belgium of 23 people accused of involvement in the human smuggling ring that led to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a lorry in the UK in 2019; with such high-profile cases making modern slavery an ever-more visible crime – and the subject of significant government funding – Policing Insight’s Chris Allen takes a closer look at how law enforcement is tackling the issue.

FEATURE: December’s London Rape Review highlighted that just 1% of rape cases in the capital are reaching the courts, with significant increases in the number of victims withdrawing within the first 30 days of an investigation; Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons explores the findings of the Review, the concerns highlighted by London Victims’ Commissioner Claire Waxman, and the recommendations made to improve the service to victims.

ANALYSIS: Despite increasingly sophisticated security measures, vehicle theft in the UK is back on the rise – much of it involving cars stolen by international organised crime groups; West Midlands PC Andrew Lavanchy looks at the scale and changing nature of vehicle theft, and what steps policing could take to combat the car thieves.

Top Articles 2021: Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter leads the team in selecting their favourite articles published in 2021. The editorial team have each selected their ‘Top 3’ picks and we have made them freely available during the Christmas period for all users with at least a free registered account. We hope you enjoy our selections!

SPOTLIGHT ON ORGANISED CRIME: 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 Josh Torrance, Lecturer and PhD Researcher at the University of Bristol, about heroin-assisted treatment, NCA technology, and £50bn of missing cash.

ANALYSIS: As the Police Foundation prepares to report next month on Phase Two of the Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales, Research Director Andy Higgins looks back at the turbulent events of 2021 – from Covid to Clapham Common and accusations of institutional corruption – and considers what impact they may have on policing legitimacy moving forwards.

OPINION: The UK Government’s recently published consultation on ‘Delivering justice to victims’ focuses on criminal justice as the gold standard, an attitude reflected in the media emphasis on punishment and retribution; but Transform Justice Director Penelope Gibbs argues that for many victims a ‘day in court’ is not the key component of a successful resolution or increased satisfaction.

OPINION: The Government’s recent public consultation on a new National Resilience Strategy sought views and submissions from a wide range of agencies and organisations, with leading international blue-light computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems provider Hexagon among those contributing to the process; Ian Holmes of the company’s Public Safety team picks out some of the key themes from their submission.