United States

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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.

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INTERVIEW: Often a target narcotic for law enforcement, MDMA is among a number of psychedelic drugs increasingly being used to treat US police officers and other first responders suffering from PTSD; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to Lt Sarko Gergerian – a qualified psychotherapist and advocate of the approach – about his own experiences of receiving MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, which featured in a recent Netflix documentary.

ANALYSIS: The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programme developed in the US was originally a post-arrest initiative, but has evolved to incorporate referrals from “any concerned individual”; with more than 60 schemes now operating or under development in the US, as well as a South African programme and interest from the UK, the LEAD approach is gaining traction and delivering results, as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr-Munro reports.

INTERVIEW: A report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) has revealed significant growth in gun homicides and a proliferation of firearms, part-funded by Covid support fraud; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to MCCA Executive Director Laura Cooper about the findings of the report, the threats posed by ghost guns and irresponsible owners, and why police arresting their way out of the crisis is unsustainable.

OPINION: In the US, like other countries, identity theft is a burgeoning crime, but the nature of the offence and the difficulty in dealing with criminal activity that may traverse different national and international jurisdictions can mean that responses are inconsistent, and victims feel unsupported; David Smith, an independent consultant for the SmartCard Institute, looks at some of the steps policing and lawmakers can take to improve that response.

ANALYSIS: Long-established in America, the focused deterrence approach to tackling violent crime has in some instances reduced offences by a third, but has had limited trials in the UK; now a £6 million pilot project involving four English police forces as well as partner agencies and violence reduction units has been launched to evaluate the potential of the initiative, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ANALYSIS: A recent research report into the police use of body-worn video, published by the University of Stirling and commissioned by Police Scotland, highlights the opportunities for the service to develop best practice incorporating the experience of other forces, and implement governance and accountability measures that will help to ensure public trust and confidence, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: Having policed the city for more than 30 years, San Antonio Police Department Assistant Chief Karen Falks has seen huge changes to the community and the policing role; she talked to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about the importance of open data in gaining public trust, the challenges of the ever-changing criminal landscape, and the millennial view of policing careers.

INTERVIEW: The Capitol Building riots on 6 January 2021 were a dark day for US politics and an incredibly difficult one for policing, especially the officers of the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department; Department Chief Robert Contee spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about the continuing impact of the insurrection, his pride and passion for his role, and the ongoing challenges of policing America’s capital city.