Opinion: Following a two-year battle with the Ministry of Justice for the release of a report into digital courts, Director of Transform Justice Penelope Gibbs says not all the risks highlighted in that report have been mitigated.
Interview: Police users have been complaining for years about the fact that systems can’t talk to each other: it’s also been a recurring complaint in Policing Insight’s police ICT user survey. Now a group of suppliers have come forward to say that things don’t need to be this way and the solution is surprisingly simple. Here, Policing Insight talks to one of them, Clare Elford, Managing Director of Clue which supplies investigation case management software to many forces and other organisations.
News: Following delays due to the ‘meaningful vote’, the police funding settlement for 2019/20 has finally been announced (13 Dec) and will see the biggest investment in policing since 2010, but is it all it seems?
Opinion: Cuts to vital local community services have put the police service under increasing pressure as it attempts to plug the gaps. Firesouls CEO Dan Ebanks says the Social Value Act 2018 may provide the answer to getting more resources into local organisations that, in turn, would alleviate some of those pressures.
INSIGHT: The College of Policing states officers and staff reporting concerns about a colleague should be fully supported through the process, but for one individual who ‘blew the whistle’ the reality was very different. Here is their story.
Analysis: Devon and Cornwall Police Inspector John Shuttleworth shares the lessons learnt from Operation Fardel, the force's response to a national telephone scam, and recommends ways to help close the gap in the police service's response to this fraud.
Insight: According to the RSPB, there were 68 confirmed incidents of 'raptor persecution' in 2017, but only four prosecutions. Bedfordshire Police Superintendent Nick Lyall, who has recently taken over as chair of the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group, outlines his aims for the Group and the challenges of policing crimes relating to birds of prey.
Analysis: The police service has faced a prolonged period of unprecedented cuts. Visiting Professor in Criminology at the University of Glyndŵr Peter Joyce and Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University Dr Wendy Laverick argue that this level of austerity risks undermining police legitimacy.
Opinion: As the Police Foundation's latest research once again shines a light on policing's lacklustre response to fraud investigations, Policing Insight's Bernard Rix says sky-high statistics appear to have left the service too stunned to respond. Is the policing response to fraud the proverbial 'frog in boiling water'?
Opinion: Since 2013, Thames Valley Police has supported over 300 academic programmes of study by its staff. The force has now launched its first academic research journal. Its creator, Superintendent Katy Barrow-Grint, explains how the Journal came into being and the impact she is hoping it will have.
Analysis: Fraud accounts for a third of reported crime in England and Wales yet the number of cases investigated and prosecuted is tiny compared to the volume. As the Police Foundation publishes its latest research on improving the police response to fraud victims, Ian Dyson, Commissioner for the City of London Police which leads nationally on fraud, says things are changing.
ANALYSIS: The latest in our Report Watch series, summarises the findings of a report by HMICFRS’ Policing and Mental Health Report, Picking Up the Pieces, published last month (Nov 27). We look at the impact on policing, recommendations as well as stakeholder and media reactions.
Analysis: Amid the headlines that cash-strapped forces are 'sitting on' £1.4bn in reserves and calls from the Police Minister to dip into these reserves to plug the pensions' gap, former GMP ACC and CoPaCC Director Ian Wiggett explains the picture surrounding forces' use of reserves is far more complicated.
Analysis: As the Government's assessment of its future security partnership with the EU is published, Peter Joyce, Visiting Professor in Criminology at the University of Glyndŵr and Dr Wendy Laverick, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University, examine new crime trends, current EU crime-fighting tools and how Brexit impacts our ability to fight these new crime forms.
Analysis: Former police officer and Police Federation Secretary Tony Barton has seen first hand the devastating effects policing can have on mental health. Now a consultant and trainer in mental health first aid, Tony explores the stigma still surrounding mental ill-health and the role managers play in promoting an honest and open conversation.
NEWS: As Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) moves to a national system next year, National ANPR Lead Chief Constable Charlie Hall QPM tells this year’s ANPR conference that consistency is key to maintaining the integrity of the new National ANPR System (NAS) and to deflecting inevitable challenges.
ANALYSIS: The road to police fire governance is a bumpy one as the last few weeks has demonstrated. With one PCC restarting, two stopping and two others mired in controversy, what may have seemed like a good idea to some is not winning any new fans. In her latest update of the Policing Insight series looking at PCCs and fire governance, Catherine Levin reports on the ups and downs of the last few weeks.
Analysis: Reticence towards the Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF) is understandable, says Dr Dominic Wood, Head of the School of Law, Criminal Justice and Computing at Canterbury Christ Church University, but it is also an opportunity for the police service to 'reassert its professional voice and standing in society'. He explains why.
Live blog: As the police complaints system undergoes major reform, the 18th Professional Standards and Ethics National Conference 2018 meets today to consider what those changes mean for policing (26 November). We will be live blogging from the event.
OPINION: The latest crime figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) offer a grim outlook on the state of criminal justice in England and Wales. Almost as if to head off criticism, the bulletin starts: “Over recent decades, we’ve seen continued falls in overall levels of crime but in the last year the trend has […]
