OPINION: In his latest article in relation to the Strategic Review of Policing, Police Foundation Director Dr Rick Muir sets out the key steps needed for an effective crime prevention strategy – including a ‘duty to prevent crime’ on the private sector, a national agency working with big tech to tackle online crime, and Cabinet Office ownership and leadership.
FEATURE: In his recently published second review of UK anti-terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, has called for new police powers to tackle digital encryption; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explains why such powers are desperately needed to keep up with advances in technology.
ANALYSIS: Vulnerability is increasingly important to operational policing - but how can these complex narratives be best embedded in police education? Jennifer Norman and Dr Emma Williams of the Open University discuss the development of an interdisciplinary approach.
INNOVATION: Sniffer dogs are already used by police forces to detect everything from drugs and guns to cash and dead bodies; now police in Derbyshire are pioneering the work of a new breed of forensic dogs that can sniff out tiny traces of semen to support investigations into sexual offences, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.
FEATURE: The impact of COVID-19 has included changing crime volumes and trends, with forces having to adapt rapidly and implement new ways of working; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett spoke to Cheshire Constabulary’s DCS Gareth Lee and DCI Adam Ross about some of the challenges of tackling and investigating crime during the pandemic, and how the experience could drive lasting change.
INTERVIEW: Dame Sara Thornton, the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, has urged forces to invest in training for specialist teams, more financial investigations and closer cross-border working to tackle the huge but often hidden and complex crime of modern slavery and human trafficking.
OPINION: Jon Parry, Head of Research at Skills for Justice, was part of the conversation at the recent Police Foundation conference exploring the skills and capabilities required to build a workforce capable of meeting the challenges of the next 20 years; here he shares findings from his research, taking an evidence-based, workforce-centred approach to future proofing policing.
FEATURE: The National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) has launched the Trouble with the Law campaign, urging police and crime commissioner candidates to make an election commitment to protect and empower care-experienced children and young people; Joshua Williams, NYAS Public Affairs Officer and Jennifer Downie, NYAS Policy and Research Officer, explain why it’s important to keep care-experienced young people out of the criminal justice system.
ANALYSIS: Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr-Munro explores the growing efforts to understand and acknowledge the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on adult behaviour, and adopt a public health policing approach.
FEATURE: The work of modern slavery support charity Justice and Care with victims at home and abroad is helping those who have been trafficked to engage more easily with police, leading in turn to more targeted action against organised crime; now the charity is hoping to expand its Victim Navigator programme to more forces, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.
FEATURE: COVID-19 lockdowns around the world may have led to a fall in most domestic crime, but transnational drug-trafficking operations and other organised crime groups have been quick to adapt and overcome, leading to potentially bigger profits and a new criminal world order, warns Dr John Coyne of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
FEATURE: A series of international workshops focusing on policing in the pandemic have highlighted officer wellbeing, new crime threats and a deluge of lockdown legislation as key concerns emerging from the COVID-19 crisis; ahead of a London Policing College conference next week to discuss the issues, Policing Insight editor Keith Potter talks to College President Rod Jarman about the key themes, and lessons for the future.
LONG READ: Modern slavery and human trafficking are transnational crimes that could easily flourish in the COVID-19 pandemic conditions of economic uncertainty and isolation; in this long-read article, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons looks at efforts in the UK and US to tackle this illegal human trade which often targets society’s most vulnerable.
FEATURE: Online child sexual exploitation is a growing crime with horrific consequences around the world, but a global task force led by the FBI is making significant inroads, catching offenders and rescuing children; Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro reports from the UK’s Internet Intelligence and Investigations Conference on the success of the VCACITF.
FEATURE: The social and economic conditions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have fuelled a surge in human trafficking in many countries; Policing Insight contributor Andrew Staniforth reports on one US initiative which has brought together a range of covert intelligence and overt investigative agencies to tackle the issue – with impressive results.
ANALYSIS: The horrific murder of a teacher in a Paris terror attack has shone the spotlight again on radicalisation in schools and education; but as Policing Insight contributor Andrew Staniforth reports, inexcusable delays over the review of the UK’s Prevent strategy – and ongoing attempts to have the provision for review removed altogether – are failing the police and their partners engaged in tackling radicalisation.
ANALYSIS: In their second of two articles marking the centenary of the Baird Committee Report, which recommended that women should be employed as sworn police officers across England and Wales, Dr Wendy Laverick and Professor Peter Joyce look at the role of women of women in policing since the 1980s to today – including discrimination, the Gender Agenda and contemporary thinking.
FEATURE: The International Crime Coordination Centre was set up to lead UK policing’s fight against transnational crime, through Brexit and beyond; Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro talks to ICCC Head, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Martin, about the Centre’s work to date, the threat from globalised criminality, and the challenge of making the investigation of international crime ‘business as usual’.
OPINION: Adrian Timberlake, chief technical officer at 7Technologies, examines the potential uses of new technology in border control and missing person identification, and how intelligent technologies could help to combat modern slavery.
INTERVIEW: The COVID-19 pandemic should act as a catalyst for policing transformation, says Andrew Newsham, PwC National Lead for Policing – but greater collaboration, enhanced sharing of good practice and a clear, unified message on funding will be crucial to enable the service to meet the post-lockdown policing challenges.
ANALYSIS: The benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) for policing are increasingly recognised and discussed, but what about the criminal threats from such technology? Keith Potter looks at a new report from UCL’s Dawes Centre for Future Crime which highlights some of the main risks to the public from AI-related criminal activity.
FEATURE: Policing Insight's Sarah Gibbons looks at the latest UK police dog discipline – the canine digital device detection team – and explores their success in retrieving evidence in cases ranging from child abuse and county lines drugs to murder and terrorism, both at home and abroad.
OPINION: Technological innovation is crucial in enabling digital forensics teams to tackle the growth in devices and data; but the success of innovators relies on police engagement, explains Ian Stevenson, Chair of the Online Safety Technology Industry Association (OSTIA) and CEO of Cyan Forensics.
