United States

ANALYSIS: Although FBI statistics suggest that the vast majority of homicides in the United States are committed using firearms and knives, Professors Jack Levin and Julie B Wiest believe ‘covert violence’ – such as poisoning, falls and other ‘accidental’ deaths – are actually responsible for significant numbers of homicides that don’t feature in the figures, requiring better prevention strategies along with greater focus on the issue by law enforcement and other authorities to tackle the issue.

INTERVIEW: Despite widely acknowledged challenges facing policing in the UK, and the ongoing debate around entry routes into the profession, a career keeping communities safe from crime, disorder and terrorism remains an attractive proposition for many young people; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to final-year Professional Policing undergraduate Megan Collins-Dale about her choice of degree qualification, and how a recent internship in the US has helped her prepare for a future in policing and criminal justice in the UK.

ANALYSIS: A long-term approach to using technology, data analysis and information sharing to deliver significant reductions in gun violence in New Jersey has been hailed as the “tipping point in a new era of law enforcement” and is already being adopted and adapted by police and authorities in others states across the US, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With mass shootings an increasing concern in the US and Canada, and many European countries alert to the deadly potential of attacks by armed terrorists, the response to such events by both police and those targeted can be crucial in saving lives; Vernon White, former Chief of Police for Ottawa Police Service, and Joe Carlebach, former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor, explore the approaches used in the police response to active shooters, and what facilities and organisations can be doing to protect their communities.

FEATURE: As police forces in the UK collaborate with local authorities, government and community groups to promote National Hate Crime Awareness Week, new figures from the US and the UK highlight an increase in hate crime – particularly anti-Semitism – with incidents surging in the wake of the horrific attacks and continuing conflict between Israel and Gaza, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: The University of Tennessee’s Law Enforcement Innovation Center (LEIC) established a global reputation for forensics training, but more recently has become recognised for innovative approaches to issues including leadership, communications and culture; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to LEIC Training Specialist Jeff Hundley about the institution’s evolution, training challenges, and its student demographic.

OPINION: As the opioid crisis continues to grow in countries around the world, more police forces in the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere are looking to equip officers with overdose reversal medication naloxone to save lives; Vernon White, former Chief of Police for Ottawa Police Service, and Joe Carlebach, former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor, argue that with enforcement showing little signs of ending the opioid crisis in the near future, naloxone should become standard issue for officers.

OPINION: The police use of live facial recognition (LFR) regularly comes under scrutiny because of privacy, accuracy and surveillance concerns; but Dr Asress Gikay, Senior Lecturer in AI, Disruptive Innovation, and Law at Brunel University, argues that rather than banning LFR, more effective regulation of its use would address concerns while enhancing public safety.

OPINION: This year marks the 125th anniversary of the official recognition of police matrons in Australia, but women had undertaken this work for at least 50 years beforehand; University of Newcastle Criminology Lecturer Dr Alice Neikirk explores one of women’s earliest roles in policing – a role which shared many of the same characteristics as today’s problem-orientated policing model.

ANALYSIS: Various sectors of criminal justice systems around the world are increasing their use of artificial intelligence (AI), but AI has played a key part in offender assessment decisions in the UK, US, Australia, Canada and other countries for more than 20 years, with little or no transparency or independent inspection of the algorithms involved, as University of Surrey Professor Melissa Hamilton and Professor Pamela Ugwudike of the University of Southampton explain.

OPINION: Three years after the death of George Floyd, the latest report by the US Justice Department in to policing in Minneapolis features a raft of worrying findings, including discrimination against Black people and Native Americans, and routine use of excessive force; but Arizona State University Associate Professor Rashad Shabazz believes the report also demonstrates that rather than being an aberration, such misconduct is part of how policing was historically intended to be in the US.

ANALYSIS: A series of high-profile instances of police misconduct in recent years (including in the US, the UK, Germany and most recently France) are believed to have damaged trust in policing – but to what extent? Post-doctoral researcher Christof Nägel and Associate Professor Amy Nivette used the latest research techniques to examine how police misconduct impacted public trust, and whether the effect was the same across different communities.

INTERVIEW: With a policing career spanning more than three decades, Deborah Friedl is now bringing all her experience to bear as President of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP); she spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about the work of the IAWP, the challenges facing women in policing today, and why she would willingly do it all again.

LONG READ: As policing globally faces significant challenges around effective responses to those in mental health crises, Western Australia Sgt Glen Blackwell, the force’s first Mental Health Co-Response Trainer, received a Churchill Fellowship award to establish diversionary practices for mentally and intellectually disabled persons engaging police; this long-read article, based on his final report to the Churchill Trust, explores international best practice, and makes recommendations for police in Australia that could also benefit other forces.

OPINION: Heroin supplies in the US are now commonly adulterated with animal tranquillizer xylazine, a drug which when injected can lead to widespread lesions that cause tissue death – hence the name ‘zombie drug’: with the first reported case of xylazine in a UK drug-user’s death now recorded, King’s College London Pharmaceutical Lecturer Dr Caroline Copeland believes heroin users must be made aware of the additional risks – especially as opioid overdose reversal agent naloxone is not effective against the sedative effects of xylazine.

FEATURE: Grand Junction is a gateway city to the mountains and canyons of Colorado and Utah, but its rural isolation also contributes to a suicide rate more than double the national average; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to Grand Junction PD Detective Kristine Gregory about the launch of the department's Co-Responder Unit, which teams up officers with clinicians to improve the response to those in mental health crisis, and deliver better long-term outcomes.

INTERVIEW: Having taken up a role in the private sector after a lengthy and successful career in the United States Secret Service, Kim Cheatle returned to the agency as its Director last summer, with a glowing endorsement from President Joe Biden; she recently spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about her passion for the job, her admiration for her colleagues, and the partnerships being built by the Secret Service to tackle new and emerging crimes and threats.

INTERVIEW: As the debate continues in many countries about police training and qualifications, a pioneering US programme in Massachusetts is offering recruits the opportunity to achieve both an undergraduate and master’s degree alongside their qualification to serve as a full-time officer; Programme Director Lisa Lane McCarty spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about the degree debate, professionalizing police training, and the challenges of making “better human beings”.

INTERVIEW: A traumatic experience early in Vernon Herron’s policing career gave him a personal insight into the services officers need to maintain their mental health and wellbeing; now he uses that experience, and many others gained during more than 30 years in policing, to ensure Baltimore PD officers have the right safety and wellness support, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend.

OPINION: Recent high-profile sentencing hearings involving individuals responsible for the shooting murders of multiple victims in the US have brought the term ‘lone wolf’ back into the media focus; but Rutgers University Professor Alexander Hinton believes the term is misleading – with violent extremists almost always part of a pack – and its use could impede efforts to combat far-right extremist violence.

OPINION: The use of police body camera footage and surveillance video has proved crucial in prosecuting many court cases and highlighting criminal activity – including the recent death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis – but video evidence expert, Assistant Professor Sandra Ristovska, believes the way such videos are presented can have a significant impact on a jury’s perception of a case.

OPINION: Five US police officers charged with the murder of Tyre Nichols were part of an elite Memphis PD crime suppression unit; University of South Carolina Professors Ian T. Adams and Seth Stoughton believe that such specialist units set up to aggressively target crime fighting have a problematic history, often becoming another source of violence in already victimized communities.

LONG READ: Despite four decades of recognition of the challenges a policing career poses to officers’ mental health and wellbeing, police organisations still seem to struggle to deliver an effective response for their workforce; new research by Policing Insight’s Dr Alan Beckley and colleagues at the University of Technology Sydney highlights the nature and scale of those challenges, and will explore what interventions work best.

ANALYSIS: Predictive hotspot policing has been heralded by some as the way to do more with less and secure better outcomes, but others have questioned its effectiveness and the dangers of reinforcing bias; Criminology Lecturer Dr Daniel Marciniak, a key speaker at the recent Policing in the Age of the Machine conference, looks at the learning from existing research into predictive policing, and where the approach goes from here.