Crime statistics

FEATURE: The latest report from Statistics Canada shows that firearm-related violent crime in the country has reached a 14-year high, with shooting homicides reaching record levels, prompting calls for more resources to be put into frontline policing, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Last month’s Annual Youth Justice Statistics for 2022-23 showed fewer children sentenced or cautioned, improvements in disproportionality, and the lowest number of children in custody, but more children being stopped and searched and arrested, including those entering the criminal justice system for the first time; Keith Fraser, Youth Justice Board Chair and Board Champion for Over-Represented Children believes that while there are “rays of optimism” in the figures, much more need to be done to embed change.

INTERVIEW: In an exclusive interview with Policing Insight, Policing Minister Chris Philp told James Sweetland why he believes that dramatically increasing the use of facial recognition can transform policing and help forces across England and Wales catch wanted criminals.

LONG READ: Having explored the challenges and opportunities faced by policing in collating and analysing the huge growth in data sources – including the potential for technology to offer solutions, the skillsets required and the ethical concerns – what does law enforcement need to do to tackle these issues? In the last in the series of five features, Policing Insight’s Keith Potter spoke to police practitioners, stakeholders and specialists about the way forward.

FEATURE: The latest report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services into the police response to group-based child sexual exploitation in England and Wales has found that inconsistent definitions are fuelling a lack of understanding of the scale of the issue, with some officers still engaging in victim-blaming language, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: This year saw Cleveland Police emerge from the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services ‘Engaged’ status with some impressive performance figures; Tom Gash, Managing Director of strategy and decision-making consultancy Leapwise Advisory – which worked with the force on its improvement journey – sets out some of the key steps forces need to take to achieve a successful turnaround.

OPINION: The proposed closure of 29 police stations in Scotland is symptomatic of a wider problem in UK policing’s role and relationship with the community, believes former Police Scotland Superintendent Martin Gallagher – one which will require innovative thinking coupled with a refocusing on policing’s core functions if it is to be successfully addressed.

FEATURE: A recruitment programme launched by the Queensland Police Service (QPS) focusing on attracting indigenous recruits to the QPS-run Protective Services Group has led to stronger relationships between the police and the community, and seen a 50% fall in youth crime, theft and offences against property, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, and Israel’s subsequent ground invasion of Gaza, has led to significant rise in hate crime attacks on both Jews and pro-Palestinians in the US; but Professor Jeannine Bell of Chicago’s Loyola University believes complex legislation, inadequate police training and a lack of specialists officers and prosecutors means that hate crimes are rarely reported, well investigated, charged or brought to trial.

LONG READ: The investigative opportunities and challenges offered to policing by the huge growth in digital data bring with them a much wider debate around the ethical use of such data, the importance of transparency and governance, and the need to ensure that policing maintains legitimacy with the communities it serves – issues which Policing Insight’s Keith Potter explores in the latest in a series features looking at the police use of data.

INTERVIEW: In September HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services confirmed that Cleveland Police was out of special measures for the first time in more than four years; Cleveland Chief Constable Mark Webster spoke to Policing Insight’s Keith Potter about the turnaround process, the importance of engaging both staff and public, and what he hopes will be the long-term legacy for the force.

FEATURE: The first five-year strategy to tackle fraud, economic and cyber crime was recently published by the City of London Police – the lead force on the issue for England and Wales – in an effort to redress a decade of ‘deprioritising’ fraud compared to other crimes; the strategy looks to improve the service to victims, prevent the continuing escalation of fraud, and secure more successful justice outcomes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

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.

ANALYSIS: Robust performance measurement practices are instrumental in demonstrating police accountability, transparency and improvement, all key steps to strengthening public confidence in policing; but a new RAND Europe study of international approaches has highlighted both the dangers of disjointed police performance measurement, and innovative approaches from law enforcement around the world, as RAND analyst Emma Zürcher explains.

LONG READ: The difficulties policing faces around the scale and complexity of digital data are widely acknowledged, but what about the potential for new technology to overcome some of those challenges? In the second in a series of five features looking at the police use of data, Policing Insight’s Keith Potter looks at some of the ways new tech – including automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning – are being employed in both investigative and preventative approaches.

OPINION: The UK’s neighbourhood policing focus has dwindled significantly over the past decade, as forces enduring funding cuts redirected resources towards response policing and emerging complex threats; University of East London Policing Professor John Coxhead argues that although the Uplift recruitment programme has led to an increase in the workforce, pledges to recruit a new wave of neighbourhood officers will see forces facing fresh challenges around building teams from scratch, and gaining the trust and confidence of communities.

ANALYSIS: A new study from Crest Advisory on the impact of devolving justice approaches to local areas has highlighted the positive outcomes of initiatives aimed at reducing reoffending and supporting specific vulnerable groups in four case study areas, with particular success for “whole-system approaches” delivered under police and crime commissioner and mayoral protocols, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: In October the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) marked 10 years in operation, a decade that has seen significant international operations, substantial convictions and drug seizures, and major technological advances; but as Cathy Haenlein, Director of Organised Crime & Policing at the Royal United Services Institute explains, the threat to the UK from serious and organised crime is on the rise, and policing alone cannot overcome that threat.

ANALYSIS: Ahead of this week’s UK Society of Evidence-Based Policing (UK SEBP) Conference, National Crime Agency Temporary Director of Investigations John Denley, Keele University Academic Policing Collaboration Professor of Practice Marcus Beale, and Cambridge University Professor of Experimental Criminology Barak Ariel, highlight some of the key findings from their latest research drawing on police information and intelligence and the views of police professionals to explore new ways to prevent organised crime (the focus of an SEBP Conference session).

ANALYSIS: Ahead of next week’s UK Society of Evidenced-Based Policing (SEBP) Conference, Simon Rose, CEO of the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing, and Detective Inspector Mark Brennan of Leicestershire Police outline the background, delivery and interim results from a police and third sector outreach project targeting violence hot spots in Leicester city centre, which early findings suggest could cut crime and crime harm by more than a third.

ANALYSIS: The latest research from Monash University’s Australian Consumer and Retail Studies (ACRS) unit on the cost of living and consumer deviance has revealed that continuing financial pressures on households has not only changed spending habits but also attitudes towards retail crimes such as shoplifting, as ACRS Research and Strategy Director Stephanie Atto and Senior Research Consultant Paolo de Leon explain.

ANALYSIS: Despite repeated recommendations for forces in England and Wales to record ethnicity data of the people they deal with, two new reports from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services have highlighted continuing failures to gather data on ethnicity and gender that “presents a real risk to plans for improving the service provided by police”, and could lead to regulations being imposed by the Home Secretary, as Policing Insight's Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With gang membership on the rise in recent years in New Zealand, the country’s novel approach – prioritising deep engagement with gang communities through bodies such as the Gang Harm Insights Centre, alongside tough enforcement – is under more pressure than ever, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INTERVIEW: In the second part of our extended interview series with Metropolitan Police Chief Scientific Officer Professor Lawrence Sherman, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland spoke to him about VAWG 100, the force’s innovative new approach to tackling high-harm offences against women and girls.