United Kingdom

INSIGHT: Assaults against staff at Ashworth High Security Hospital cost the NHS nearly £400,000 in 2011. In her presentation to this year's Mental Health and Policing Conference, Merseyside Detective Constable and Mental Health Investigator Samantha Keaton explained the importance of prosecuting offenders detained in a mental health facility. Syreeta Lund reports.

LONG READ: With the contraction of police budgets, neighbourhood policing has come under pressure in many areas. However, new College of Policing guidelines suggest it may yet stage a recovery. Andy Higgins of the Police Foundation describes a day with one of South Yorkshire's neighbourhood policing teams, and what it signals about the future of neighbourhood policing.

ANALYSIS: A new organised crime strategy was launched by the government in early November. However, Anna Sergi, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Essex, warns that seeing organised crime as a national security threat is a poor way of understanding its social and economic roots.

INSIGHT: Small and medium size businesses struggle to get a foothold in supplying ICT to the police service. Police leaders joined this year's Govtech summit in Paris to examine ways for smaller businesses to make themselves heard in this sector.

INSIGHT: Fifteen European Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) have built a unique platform to create and share innovative solutions. Policing Insight contributor and Senior Research Fellow at CENTRIC Andrew Staniforth explains the importance of developing new ways to tackle technology-driven transnational crime.

Analysis: The Draft EU Withdrawal Agreement has finally been published and agreed by the Cabinet, but, while the political fall out continues, what does it mean for UK policing?

ANALYSIS: The latest in our Report Watch series, which summarises the findings of reports that impact policing and includes responses from the main stakeholders as well as media reaction, takes a look at the Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) Ninth Report Session 2017-19 on Domestic Abuse published on October 22.

New Report: In the latest report from the CoPaCC National Police ICT User Survey 2018, officers and staff share the challenges they face in managing digital evidence. A story of unreliable and incompatible systems, insufficient data bandwidth forcing the use of physical media plus a shortage of skills and resources, all against a backdrop of ever increasing volumes of evidence required for disclosure. Read the results and analyses here in the CoPaCC Digital Evidence Management: User Perspectives Report.

Project Galileo: Project Galileo represents a fundamental rethink of how we can make a difference to tackling harm on our roads. The fourth instalment in the Galileo series sees Conrad Evans, a partner at The Digital Quarter, talk about how we must harness the power of digital technology to reduce risk on the road and bring communities together to create the changes they want to see on our roads.

ANALYSIS: In some communities in Scotland, serious and organised crime is seen as a route to easy money and expensive cars. Associate Director of the Scottish Criminal Justice Research Centre Dr Alistair Fraser argues this is far from the reality and it's time to take a fresh approach to tackling organised crime.

ANALYSIS: So-called super recognisers are said to possess exceptional face recognition abilities, but are they really as super as they are made out to be? Emma Portch of Bournemouth University explores the evidence.

OPINION: "Policing is in crisis" has often been said this year. But, in his recent budget, the Chancellor chose not to act. In his latest article, Policing Insight's regular columnist, former GMP ACC and CoPaCC Director Ian Wiggett, looks at the latest evidence of "crisis", and sets out his thoughts on what options policing might now pursue.

Comment: Whilst Times columnist Matthew Parris' attack on the police may have been mean-spirited, was there some truth in his comments? Writing exclusively for Policing Insight, a former chief constable says the service must end its 'defensive, anti-intellectual prejudice' and persuade the best and brightest to join.

INTERVIEW: University of East London (UEL) journalism students and Samosa Media have produced a film exploring Prevent, the Government’s anti-radicalisation strategy. Anwar Akhtar, the film’s producer and founder of Samosa Media tells Policing Insight why the film was made and the impact he is hoping it will have.

ANALYSIS: Why is it that some people thrive in conditions of uncertainty, but and others become extremely stressed? Dr Ian Hesketh, Wellbeing Lead for the College of Policing, and Chief Constable Andy Rhodes, NPCC Lead for Wellbeing and Engagement, put forward a short 'resilience prescription', suggesting the key characteristics of a mindset that can improve the ability to cope with a policing environment

NEWS: The Government's firm belief that a deal on policing and security will happen before the UK leaves the EU is at odds with the APCC's Brexit Working Group who told this year's APCC/NPCC summit there is absolutely 'no chance' of a deal. So, what plans are in place to manage a no deal Brexit?  

OPINION: In the recent CoPaCC Police ICT: User Perspectives 2018 report officers and staff express dissatisfaction with equipment, training and support that is preventing them from policing to the best of their ability. Simon Kempton, Deputy National Treasurer and National Board Member of the Police Federation of England & Wales, gives his view on the report findings.

ANALYSIS: 'County lines' drug dealing is a growing problem in the UK's small towns. However, it's also creating a hierarchy of exploitation - with its teenage drug dealers themselves near the bottom. Grace Robinson of Edge Hill University; James Densley of Metropolitan State University, and Robert McLean of Northumbria University explain the 'indentured labour' of the drugs trade.

Opinion: Last month, former Deputy PCC for West Mercia Barrie Sheldon called the shock ending of the alliance between West Mercia and Warwickshire Police a 'crazy decision'. Since then, both Police and Crime Panels have met to discussed what happened. Mr Sheldon examines what took place in those meetings and why West Mercia called time on the alliance.

ANALYSIS: In the final part of his series on mental health street triage, Daniel Moloney of the Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice at the University of Northampton explains why collecting good data is so vital to understanding outcomes.

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: Think Tank PUBLIC have today, with the support of the former Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, published their "Police Tech Pioneers" report. In this EXCLUSIVE article for Policing Insight, PUBLIC Policy Fellow and former policing advisor to the Mayor of London Blair Gibbs provides his perspective on the report.

NEWS: A new report, backed by former senior police leaders, warns policing in the UK is locked into a 'technology time warp' giving tech savvy criminals the upper hand while police forces overseas are exploiting the boom in tech start ups to their advantage.

ANALYSIS: The latest in our Report Watch series, which summarises the findings of reports that impact policing and includes responses from the main stakeholders as well as media reaction, takes a look at the Scottish Police Authority’s report, Police Scotland Digital, Data & ICT (DDICT) Outline Business Case (OBC) published on September 27.