Criminal justice

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The Inspire Justice Awards, supported by Policing Insight, take place at the QEII Centre in London on Thursday 26th October. We are pleased to announce the twenty-two finalists across eleven award categories.

FEATURE: As legislation that will create a new oversight body to replace the current Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) works its way through the Irish parliamentary process, the current GSOC Chairperson has warned that unless adequate resources and specialists are allocated to the new body it will be unable to effectively deliver its expanded role, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Terrorism researchers, policy makers and industry stakeholders will gather in Brussels later this month for the 2023 Security Research Event; ahead of the conference, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at some of the key projects that will feature at the event, focusing particularly on continuing efforts to tackle terrorist content online.

INTERVIEW: In a few days’ time the annual Inspire Justice Awards take place at the QEII Centre in London, celebrating the essential contribution and achievements of the wider justice workforce, and the unsung heroes often hidden from public view; ahead of this year’s ceremony, Policing Insight spoke to Mike and Danny – founders of Lads Like Us and speakers at the event – about their own journeys through the criminal justice system, and the importance of encouraging young men to talk about childhood trauma.

OPINION: This Friday (20 October) marks a year since the final report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was published; to mark this, Ian Critchley, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Child Protection and Abuse Investigation and former Deputy Chief Constable of Merseyside, has written about the journey policing has been on in the approach to investigating child sexual abuse and exploitation, and how victims and survivors are supported.

OPINION: Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used by New Zealand Police to identify, analyse and investigate criminals and criminal activity; but University of Auckland Associate Professor Alexandra Sims believes that new legislation and independent monitoring is needed to protect against the dangers of the erosion of privacy and algorithmic bias, and ensure compliance with existing frameworks and principles.

INTERVIEW: As campaign group Stamp Out Spiking continues with calls for new legislation to tackle the offence as well as more support for support for victims, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to CEO Dawn Dines about their work with police and other organisations to improve training and awareness around the crime.

ANALYSIS: While the term ‘shoplifting’ suggest images of someone pocketing a chocolate bar, current retail thefts by organised crime groups in the UK are often more akin to systematic looting, yet the vast majority of offences still go un reported; City, University of London Criminology Professor Dr Emmeline Taylor argues that although an under-funded police service and criminal justice system has exacerbated the problem, retailers themselves could take more steps to safeguard stock and staff.

FEATURE: The rapid expansion in the use of digital devices has presented new opportunities and challenges for police in the UK and internationally in leveraging information from digital data in criminal investigations; ahead of next week’s London Policing College workshop focusing on these issues, lecturer and consultant Dr Stuart Hyde, an experienced chief police officer and previous national police lead for data compliance, explores some the key concerns around skillsets, the regulatory framework, and the dangers of over-reliance on specialists.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to Bill Wood, former Head of the UNODC Programme Office in North Macedonia and previously National Crime Agency Liaison Officer based in Belgrade, about international collaborative approaches to tackling drugs, the crime dangers of ‘post-conflict’ fallout in Ukraine and Russia, and the frustration of governments’ corruption and support of organised crime.

LONG READ: Once regarded as among Europe’s safest and most peaceful countries, Sweden has faced a significant increase in shootings and violence over recent years, due in large part to the rapid expansion of gang conflict and organised crime; Policing Insight’s James Sweetland spoke to officers and academics working to tackle the problem, and explored how the country’s interpretation of the group violence intervention (GVI) approach pioneered in Boston is having a big impact on Scandinavian streets.

OPINION: The UK’s Online Safety Bill recently passed the final stages of Parliamentary debate, and is now set to become law, but the legislation alone will not address all the challenges around online child sexual abuse; Simon Bailey, Chair of the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region and former National Police Chiefs’ Council Child Protection Lead, warns that big tech must take greater responsibility in keeping children safe online – and that we all have a part to play.

ANALYSIS: Last month the cross-party UK Home Affairs Committee published its latest report on drugs, which included calls for a reform of legislation, greater cross-departmental collaboration in combating drugs, and more emphasis on protecting children and adopting a trauma-informed approach to the problem; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons explores some of the key recommendation from the Committee.

ANALYSIS: Historically low reporting and conviction rates for rape and sexual assault in the UK and elsewhere remain a significant cause for concern; Pragya Agarwal, Visiting Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice at Loughborough University, believes that proper training in rape myths – and greater awareness for officers and juries around unconscious biases against sexual assault survivors – are essential if women are to trust the system enough to report more offences.

FEATURE: A habitual knife-carrier index pioneered by Sussex Police, which uses a multi-source database to identify at-risk young people and develops intervention and support to tackle reoffending and victimisation, is securing significant reductions and is now being considered by a number of other forces across England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

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.

INNOVATION: A new partnership between Merseyside Police and Childline is providing children in custody with an anonymous call to counsellors in an attempt to provide support without direct law enforcement intervention and break the potential cycle of offending, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: The policing of public demonstrations puts police officers under considerable scrutiny, particularly in light of recent tactics by demonstrators; ahead of two public order policing workshops to be hosted by the London Policing College in October, former Metropolitan Police Commander and workshop chair Roger Gomm looks at the main issues surrounding public order policing, with a particular focus on the importance of communications in ensuring peaceful and successful outcomes.

ANALYSIS: The rapid expansion of the metaverse will leave police facing a whole new raft of challenges and potential criminality; in the second in a series of articles highlighting key topics and debates from last week’s UK Police Digital Summit, Policing Insight’s Graham Jarvis spoke to technology expert Dr David Nugent about policing the metaverse, the balance between free speech and accountability, and how verified digital identities could help to reduce and detect crime while freeing up police resources.

OPINION: CANADA: As calls for ‘defund the police’ switch to ‘refund the police’ in priority areas, Dr N Zoe Hilton, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and Dr Sandy Jung, Professor of Psychology at MacEwan University, argue that police-researcher partnerships are needed now more than ever, and could be particularly beneficial in developing and implementing the assessment tools to tackle intimate partner violence and coercive control.

INTERVIEW: In an exclusive interview in Stockholm, Swedish National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the country’s approach to law enforcement, the importance of international collaboration, rising gang crime, new tech, and the need to balance economic goals with public safety.

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: Recent reviews of the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade have described both organisations as ‘institutionally misogynist’; Professor Catherine Durose of the University of Liverpool, and University of Birmingham Professor Emerita Vivien Lowndes, explain how new research on proposals for forces to classify misogyny as a hate crime has highlighted that officers struggle to identify or empathise with female victims of crime, and with the emotional complexities of misogynistic offending.

POLICE SUPERS' CONFERENCE: As superintending ranks from across England and Wales gathered this week for the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) Annual Conference, PSA President Paul Fotheringham defended operational officers’ engagement with community groups and their efforts to promote diversity, and warned that language used by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and others was positioning the service as “political rather than inclusive”, reports Policing Insight's Keith Potter.