United Kingdom

FEATURE: A recent report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services into activism and impartiality in policing has found that senior officers regularly face undue political pressure to influence operational issues, while a lack of guidance on impartiality, forces’ failures to respond to media inaccuracies, and inconsistencies around dealing with non-crime hate incidents are all damaging the perception of policing, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With the role of women in terrorist organisations and activities an increasingly debated subject, a new EU research funding stream will give organisations including police forces the opportunity to enhance the understanding and motivation of women and girls for supporting extremist ideologies, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

ANALYSIS: With two court cases now underway in relation to fatal attacks at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, and the Metropolitan Police’s public order lead highlighting that officers at the event are increasingly being drawn into stewarding rather than policing roles, Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone looks at continuing concerns around the location and increased crowd numbers attending the event, and warns of the growing risk of a public safety disaster unless changes are made.

FEATURE: Decisions around national policing currently require a national collaboration agreement to be signed by 103 signatories, including chief constables and police and crime commissioners; but with national and transnational threats increasing, National Police Chiefs’ Council Chair Gavin Stephen believes this 60-year model of policing is failing to keep pace, as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Join us 21-22 October for the Professional Standards and Ethics Conference 2024 supported by Policing Insight as media partner. This year’s eagerly anticipated conference will focus on a whole systems professional standards approach to creating a more inclusive culture, enhancing the vetting regime as a first line of defence, alongside further improving our ethical response to preventing and detecting misconduct in the service.

INTERVIEW: As the first National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for artificial intelligence (AI), National Crime Agency Director Alex Murray has a unique insight into how this tech is changing policing; he spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the “brilliant work” developing police facial recognition in England and Wales, the dangers of deepfake evidence undermining the criminal justice system, and challenged “doomsters” who criticise an “overhyped version” of genuine police AI.

OPINION: With much of the discussions around police recruitment and student officers focused on entry routes, early leavers and inexperience, University of South Wales Policing Lecturer Jack Moss argues that it’s time for a more meaningful and accurate measure of success or otherwise of the Policing Education Qualifications Framework, as well as greater recognition for the efforts and achievements of student officers themselves.

FEATURE: In the wake of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police Officer, Bedfordshire Police launched its Blue Bell network to support victims and witnesses of sexual misconduct within the force, and empower officers and staff to speak out; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Bedfordshire Detective Chief Superintendent Zara Brown about the success of the initiative, tackling the “epidemic” of violence against women and girls, and the interest in the scheme from other forces and agencies.

INTERVIEW: Andy Cooke QPM DL has served as HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary since April 2022, leading the body responsible for inspecting police forces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland; in the first of a two-part interview with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, Mr Cooke described the criminal justice system as “the most bureaucratic and the slowest that I’ve ever seen it”, explained why “just saying ‘institutional racism’ isn’t going to change anything”, and shared his concerns that the Police Race Action Plan is “taking an awfully long time to come to fruition”.

ANALYSIS: As forces tackled the recent serious disorder in England and Northern Ireland, ‘two-tier policing’ was put forward as a principal cause of the anger, a claim dismissed by senior police chiefs and the Government; but as some politicians and commentators – including former officers – continue to insist two-tier policing is a reality, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett explores the validity of the claim, and how the service should respond.

FEATURE: The murder of Wolverhampton teenager Ronan Kanda in 2022 highlighted a serious issue around illegal online knife sales in the UK; speaking at the recent Police Superintendents’ Association conference, Metropolitan Police Commander Stephen Clayman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead on knife crime, explored the threat posed by irresponsible retailers and third-party sellers – and how the police aim to tackle it, as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro reports.

OPINION: As Thames Valley Police’s decision to expand its public scrutiny panels to include oversight of officers’ use of force video footage brings the issue of scrutiny back into the media, Montell Neufville, police ethics advisor and Chair of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Police Scrutiny Panel overseeing road police and armed police across the three counties, sets out five key reasons why he believes oversight and accountability are crucial to effective policing.

ANALYSIS: In the last in a series of four articles, Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood explores the case for transformational leadership in policing, the differing approaches to leadership training in the UK and Canada, and offers his own practical tips for police leadership development.

INTERVIEW: This week West Midlands Police moved out of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services’ (HMICFRS) ‘Engage’ phase (commonly known as special measures) in record time, after response times improved dramatically, arrest rates doubled, and the force had the largest drop in crime across England and Wales; Chief Constable Guildford told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons the successes – which will now be used as an HMICFRS ‘masterclass’ – were the result of a huge team effort.

INNOVATION: A new independent report shows that retail crime reporting platform Auror saved New Zealand Police nearly 170,000 hours of officer time over a 12-month period – but direct-to-police retail crime reporting systems are becoming more common all over the world, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Managing large public events such as the Parklife Music Festival present police forces with significant challenges. To ensure safety at these events, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) turns to the Axon Ecosystem, and leverages body-worn cameras (BWCs) with live-streaming capabilities to improve situational awareness and attendee safety. This case study explores the impact of body-worn camera technology on agency communication, debrief efficiency, and subject behaviour.

FEATURE: The latest survey of victims of crime in England and Wales found that 70% lack confidence that reporting a crime will lead to justice, with 40% of those who reported a crime dissatisfied with police response, and almost half (46%) saying they were not kept regularly informed by police about their investigation – prompting warnings from Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove that “victims deserve better”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: We announce the 26 finalists crowned winners and highly commended across 13 award categories at the Inspire Justice Awards 2024 ceremony supported by Policing Insight as media partner.

ANALYSIS: The recent signing of an EU convention on artificial intelligence (AI) brought the full implementation of the EU AI Act a step closer; but as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports, exceptions to the regulations called for by European police chiefs have been agreed in principle by legislators, and should reflect the need to respect the confidentiality of sensitive operational data.

SERIES LAUNCH: We are pleased to announce the launch of the latest series of The Police Student, supporting degree-entry recruits to the police service. This new series looks at the way that our criminal justice system works, why it works the way that it does, and why that matters for student police officers.

FEATURE: In the first in a new chapter in The Police Student series, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O'Reilly sets out the key issues for this chapter – how our criminal justice system works, why it works the way that it does, is it fulfilling its purposes, and why that matters for student police officers.

FEATURE: The early release of 2,000 prisoners in England and Wales sparked a furore in the media which pointed to a criminal justice system on its knees, but many of those within the system know it has long been failing victims, witnesses and defendants; despite the challenges, Leicestershire Chief Constable Rob Nixon, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Criminal Justice, told delegates at the recent Police Superintendents’ Association conference that there is cause for optimism, as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro reports.

INTERVIEW: Former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner and National Police Chief’s Council Lead for Counter-Terrorism Policing Neil Basu QPM is one of the country’s most outspoken former senior cops; in the final part of a series of interviews with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, he discussed institutional racism – what chief constables really think about this contentious label, the “utterly ineffective and utterly ignored” Police Race Action Plan, and why taking on neo-Nazi group National Action was one of his “proudest moments” in policing.

ANALYSIS: A recent article in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography shared the personal experiences of a senior police officer (‘Phil Corkhill’, a pseudonym) rejoining their force from a College of Policing secondment during Covid-19, and highlighted how leaders often conform to authoritarian and potentially damaging leadership approaches; in this article, University of Portsmouth Criminology Professor Dr Sarah Charman (who co-authored the original piece) explores the issues around prevailing management cultures and the ‘appearance over substance’ concerns of ‘leadership theatre’.