26th February 2024
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Body cameras have been used in UK policing for nearly two decades, having developed from a small 2005 trial in Devon and Cornwall into a standard tool for officers in the UK and across the world; Stuart Boutell, Director of Evidence Product Management at Motorola Solutions, spoke to Policing Insight about why body cameras are increasingly important and what their new V500 camera can do to help frontline officers, as James Sweetland reports.
6th February 2024
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff at South Yorkshire Police who now have FREE subscriber access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of officers and staff from many other UK and international police, criminal justice and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
FEATURE: Following a string of scandals and tough inspection reports, there have been near-constant demands for policing in England and Wales to reform; at the recent Canterbury Centre for Policing Research annual conference, three academics presented their blueprints for making change a reality – from new powers to intervene in failing forces, to adopting UN standards, and creating a new ‘police reserve’ – as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.
29th January 2024
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes staff at the Inspectorate of Policing for Ontario, Canada who now have FREE access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of officers and staff from many other UK and international police, criminal justice and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
ANALYSIS: Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass reveals how many candidates have applied for each of the top jobs in policing in England and Wales over the past three years, and finds out what the likes of HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Chair Donna Jones and others believe this shows about the state of the process.
FEATURE: Ahead of next month’s UK Society of Evidence-Based Policing (UK SEBP) Conference, Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Ralph – who heads up the South West Police Collaboration and is South West Regional Lead for the UK SEBP – looks at the evolution of evidence-based policing, the value it brings both to law enforcement and communities, and the aims of the SEBP that will underpin this year’s event.
10th October 2023
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes Greater Manchester Police officers and staff who now have FREE access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of officers and staff from many other UK and international police, criminal justice and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
16th August 2023
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff of British Overseas Territories police forces who now have FREE access with the start of new organisation wide subscriptions purchased by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. They join a community of officers and staff from many other UK and international police, criminal justice and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
ANALYSIS: In the latest in our series of articles on the policing workforce in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett reviews the official data for the 2022/23 financial year, and explores some of the resulting challenges facing police forces – including the significant reduction in staff and PCSOs, the struggles for some around retention and resignations, and how to adapt to the ‘new normal’.
LONG READ: As policing globally faces significant challenges around effective responses to those in mental health crises, Western Australia Sgt Glen Blackwell, the force’s first Mental Health Co-Response Trainer, received a Churchill Fellowship award to establish diversionary practices for mentally and intellectually disabled persons engaging police; this long-read article, based on his final report to the Churchill Trust, explores international best practice, and makes recommendations for police in Australia that could also benefit other forces.
ANALYSIS: When the Government announced its intention to recruit an additional 20,000 officers in under four years, there were many who doubted it could be done, but the target has been surpassed by some way; with headcount grown by 20,951 from the November 2019 baseline, and only one force – the Metropolitan Police – failing to recruit its allocation, Ian Wiggett takes a deeper look at what all this means for the service.
ANALYSIS: It’s long been argued that the police funding formula in England and Wales, which relies mainly on a combination of central government grant and locally set precept, is in need of reform, and fails to recognise the areas of greatest need; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the increasing dependence on the precept, the challenges around deprivation, and whether politicians are really willing to tackle a funding conundrum that has no comfortable fix.
7th March 2023
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff at Northumbria Police and South Wales Police who now have FREE access with the start of new organisation wide subscriptions purchased by their forces. They join a community of officers and staff from many other UK and international police, criminal justice and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
13th February 2023
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff at Tasmania Police, Forensic Science Service Tasmania, Tasmania State Emergency Service and Tasmania Fire Service who now have FREE access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription purchased by the Tasmania Department of Police, Fire & Emergency Management. They join a community of officers and staff from many other UK and international police and emergency services organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
ANALYSIS: A new joint investigation into the police response to ethnic minority victims of sexual abuse who may be at risk of honour-based abuse has found that inadequate ethnicity recording of victims has become an “intolerable problem”, while a lack of cultural understanding and awareness among police officers and staff has left victims facing “unacceptable” further risks, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.
ANALYSIS: Three years ago, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the ambitious Uplift plan to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers by April 2023, and despite significant political upheaval since, the Government remains ‘determined’ to keep to its pledge; in the last of this current series on UK police workforce structure, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett assesses whether that target will be met, and what comes next.
ANALYSIS: In the fourth in our latest series focusing on police workforce development in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the unique opportunity offered by the Uplift recruitment programme to increase diversity, the relatively small change that has resulted, and the more noticeable shift in workforce profile to a service that has become younger and less experienced.
ANALYSIS: In this third article in our latest series focusing on police workforce development in England and Wales – and with the Government and current Home Secretary Suella Braverman remaining committed to the Uplift target of 20,000 new police officers by April 2023 – Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the ‘churn’ of officers joining and leaving the service, the increasing number of resignations, and the marketplace for inter-force transfers, and considers the implications of these factors for the service.
INTERVIEW: The Straits of Gibraltar are a potential gateway for drug traffickers between Europe and Morocco, with smugglers able to cross the 14km between Gibraltar and Africa by fast boat in just 15 minutes; narcotics and human trafficking are among the demanding and complex challenges faced every week by Royal Gibraltar Police’s Marine Unit, as Chief Inspector Sean Perera explained to Policing Insight’s Martin Buhagiar in this first of two articles.
13th September 2022
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes staff, students and researchers at both the University of Salford and Cardiff University who now have FREE access with the start of new organisation wide subscriptions. They join a community from many other UK and international institutions, police forces and other criminal justice organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
2nd September 2022
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff at Hampshire Constabulary, who now have FREE access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of officers and staff from many other UK and international police forces with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
OPINION: As successful private sector organisations look to develop customer service models built on a rapid and efficient response, UK policing is finding itself struggling with delays in service, lengthy backlogs, and in some cases no response at all; Devon and Cornwall Acting Superintendent Stephen Lenney argues that by changing to a ‘today’s policing today’ approach, forces could improve service, reduce costs and waste, and increase public confidence.
22nd August 2022
FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff at Hertfordshire Constabulary, who now have FREE access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of officers and staff from many other UK and international police forces with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.
