United States

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.

INNOVATION: With terrorism moving increasingly online, the use of steganography – embedding potentially dangerous data inside seemingly innocent files – is becoming a growing concern for law enforcement; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at this new technology being adopted by terrorist organisations, and the efforts being made to counter their activity.

ANALYSIS: From their earliest implementation by the US in the 1990s to tackle Colombian drug cartels, the potential use of sanctions to target organised crime is attracting growing attention beyond the States; Policing Insight contributor Cathy Haenlein explores some of the key issues highlighted by recent research to assess the wider practical application of the approach.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Amid growing demand and tighter budgetary constraints, police and other bluelight services are under increased pressure to do more with less, particularly by making more effective use of technology; Hexagon Director Nick Chorley spoke to Policing Insight about the potential benefits – for service delivery, citizens and staff – of digital transformation, as well as some of the challenges that journey presents.

INTERVIEW: The US Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has long been a pioneer of promoting community engagement and partnerships for law enforcement across America; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to COPS’ Nazmia Comrie about investing in long-term initiatives, how community policing can improve violence reduction, and why digging into the data is crucial.

INTERVIEW: After a 30-year career which saw her rise to the top of the Aurora Illinois Police Department, former chief Kristen Ziman retired in 2021 and found herself facing a difficult transition; 18 months on, with her first book published, and putting her specialist interests in counter-terrorism and gun violence to good use, she’s not ready to give up making a positive difference just yet, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Front-line police deserve to be protected by equipment that not only protects them, but the public too. TASER technology is one of the most studied, safe and effective means of quickly stopping a threat. In this article, we’ll dig into the research around TASER energy devices and address misconceptions and myths.

ANALYSIS: A key element of many of the 2020 policing protests was the call to defund police and reinvest more heavily in community spending and solutions, but two years on, policing budgets have continued to increase across Canada; Concordia University Associate Professor Ted Rutland looks at how and why spending has increased, and what progress has been made on investing in non-police responses.

OPINION: Despite increased awareness of and action to tackle domestic violence, support and intervention services for male victims are still largely lacking; Criminology professor Dr Alexandra Lysova believes that, with the most common pattern of abuse, bidirectional violence, helping male victims could save lives and help to break the intergenerational cycle of violence.

END OF YEAR REVIEW: As 2022 draws to a close, Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter looks back over some of the key law enforcement themes covered over the past 12 months, the challenges met and opportunities offered, and our continuing commitment to provide a platform for sharing expertise, understanding and best practice throughout 2023.

INNOVATION: Recent commercial research in the US has highlighted the key role that technology could play in increasing public trust in policing; Kinana Hussain, Vice President of Product Management at Digi International, explains how connectivity solutions can keep law enforcement and first responders safe while increasing trust in the communities they serve.

FEATURE: Despite several examples of terrorist attacks being livestreamed and online games being used to spread extreme propaganda and groom young fanatics, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth warns that the full extent of the terrorist use of the internet remains poorly understood by many frontline practitioners, and a multi-faceted, holistic approach is essential to tackle the threat.

OPINION: Non-profit organisation Innocence Canada has highlighted nine main causes of wrongful convictions, with eyewitness misidentification contributing to around 70% of such miscarriages of justice later overturned by DNA testing; Carleton University Professor Joanna Pozzulo and Emily Pica, Associate Professor at Austin Peay State University, explore the impact of such cases, and call for policy reform to address the risks of eyewitness misidentification.

INTERVIEW: Policing in the US and elsewhere is facing new and complex challenges around issues such as community trust, leadership, and recruitment and retention; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to former police chief Kathleen O’Toole and policing consultant Bob Peirce about their new book, which draws in part on their experiences of working on Northern Ireland’s Patten Commission to suggest solutions for the crises facing policing in today’s divided communities.

INTERVIEW: As police forces around the world struggle to meet the growing demand of emergency calls related to people’s mental health problems, Austin Police Department in Texas has introduced a clinician-based ‘mental health crisis’ option for 911 callers which has improved the service to the public, cut use of force and arrest rates, and enabled officers to prioritise the response to crime, as Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend reports.

ANALYSIS: This month’s ANZPAA Conference offered another opportunity to learn more about brain fingerprinting, and the potential for its use in law enforcement investigations and deception detection; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the background to this cutting-edge technology, research on its operational performance to date, and how it could benefit policing and criminal justice systems moving forwards.

INTERVIEW: As Cambridge PD’s first female Commissioner, Christine Elow is determined to achieve her career-long ambition to “really make a difference”; and as a woman of colour and a parent to twin African-American 17-year-old sons, she’s also well aware that there are historical scars in the relationship between policing and some communities that are yet to heal, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend.

OPINION: While law enforcement has increasingly acknowledged that improving trust and building relationships with communities are key to successful policing, the skills necessary to establish those relationships are often overlooked in police training or dismissed as ‘common sense’; former Arlington County Master Police Officer Dimitrios Mastoras argues that structured training for officers in building relationships with stakeholders could deliver significant benefits for both policing and the public.

INTERVIEW: With the continuing global focus on improving public trust and confidence in policing, the issue of ethics in law enforcement has been central to many discussions; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to Michael Josephson and Jim Dugan of the Josephson Institute of Ethics about their work with policing, the changing perceptions of ethical behaviour, and the challenges created by an exodus of senior leaders.

ANALYSIS: Eye-witness testimony can be crucial in many investigations and subsequent court cases, but how reliable are child witnesses, and how accurate are their recollections? Psychology Lecturer Ben Cotterill believes that if investigators use the right questioning techniques, the testimony of children can be as accurate as that of adults – and in some situations even more reliable.

FEATURE: When Wisconsin police officer Adam Meyers was involved in the fatal shooting of an armed suspect, the resulting mental health challenges he faced – and the associated stigma – led him into a downward spiral of poor coping mechanisms and suicidal thoughts; now he’s using his own experiences to inspire other struggling officers to speak out and seek help, and urging leaders and law enforcement agencies to address the mental health stigma.