Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)

FEATURE: In the wake of a joint investigation into a super complaint over police-perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA), the Independent Office for Police Conduct has now published its review of the way forces in England and Wales handle such cases, with calls for improved training for frontline officers on the potentially complex nature of PPDA, the need for better recording and vetting, and greater consideration of the impartiality of investigations, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes students and staff from Abu Dhabi's Rabdan Academy, in the United Arab Emirates, who now have FREE subscriber access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of readers from many other UK and international academic, government, 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: As law enforcement around the world embarks on meeting the challenges of 2025, Editor Keith Potter looks back over the key issues Policing Insight covered in 2024 – from technological threats and opportunities, to workforce wellbeing, the role of leadership, and the increasing focus on reform – and how these may affect the next 12 months.

FEATURE: The latest Race Discrimination Report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct has highlighted continuing racial disparities in the use of police powers such as stop and search, and called on forces to address disproportionality in an effort to end the cycle of mistrust in minority ethnic communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: As the new Director General of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), ex-Home Office official Rachel Watson is heading up a body that’s constantly in the headlines; in an interview with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, she explained the IOPC’s aim to be “really radical in speeding up parts of its investigations”, why a funding boost’s needed to mitigate a 34% real-terms budget cut, and why it’s “healthy” that the watchdog “won’t always agree with policing”.

OPINION: With policing and public interactions increasingly filmed and shared online, and new force-led initiatives allowing the public to view video footage and critique the actions of officers in often testing circumstances, former Police Scotland Superintendent Martin Gallagher fears that policing is increasingly being drawn into a focus on how officers ‘perform’ rather than delivering outcomes for the public.

FEATURE: Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has warned that “unprecedented strain” on policing is leaving it “dangerously stretched”, and that systems for holding officers to account don’t always meet the “common-sense test”; delivering the Police Foundation’s 2024 John Harris Memorial Lecture, he also claimed that the Met’s budget is “heading off a cliff”, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

OPINION: As Thames Valley Police’s decision to expand its public scrutiny panels to include oversight of officers’ use of force video footage brings the issue of scrutiny back into the media, Montell Neufville, police ethics advisor and Chair of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Police Scrutiny Panel overseeing road police and armed police across the three counties, sets out five key reasons why he believes oversight and accountability are crucial to effective policing.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes staff from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) who now have FREE subscriber access with the start of a new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of readers from many other UK and international government, 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.

INTERVIEW: Former Met Assistant Commissioner and NPCC Lead for CT Policing Neil Basu QPM is one of the country’s most outspoken former senior cops; in the second part of an extended interview series with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, he gave his reflections on the Met today – how early access to the excoriating Casey Review left him “in tears”, a personal insight into Mark Rowley the “blue sky” thinker and “reformer”, and his perception of “poor leadership in policing, from top to bottom.”

FEATURE: In a speech at a recent Staffordshire University conference on police leadership, former West Midlands Police Chief Constable Sir Dave Thompson called for a “simplified” mission for local forces, with some functions and technologies taken out of local level to reduce “wasted money” and make policing fit for the future, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: In the wake of recent reports and inquiries, and his own experience as the former Regional Director for London at the Independent Office for Police Conduct, Sal Naseem recently called for “structural reform” of the Met, more investment in police leadership, and a new approach to the current “fragmented system of police accountability”, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INTERVIEW: In the second part of Policing Insight’s interview with Avon and Somerset Chief Constable Sarah Crew, she spoke to James Sweetland about the controversial incidents around issues of race explored in the TV series To Catch a Copper, and her own views expressed last year that the force is institutionally racist.

INTERVIEW: Channel 4’s To Catch a Copper series revealed shocking incidents of misconduct in Avon and Somerset Police; in a two-part interview with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, Chief Constable Sarah Crew talks about why she let the cameras in, footage of misconduct by officers that left her feeling “horrified” and “exhausted”, and her views about institutional racism.

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: A new report by a cross-party committee of UK MPs has described the need for policing to “repair its culture” in the face of increasingly complex demands and failures that have damaged confidence in the service as a “turning point for the police”, amid warnings that “marginal changes” will not be enough to improve services and rebuild public trust, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With UK policing facing a decline in public trust and confidence, officer morale hitting new lows, and a seemingly endless barrage of bad news and attacks from the media, Edge Hill University Senior Policing Lecturer Owen West, a former chief superintendent, believes the time is right for a unified staff association for the profession of policing to advocate on behalf of the service and reclaim the strategic narrative.

OPINION: As police forces across the UK begin to implement the Right Care, Right Person approach to those in mental health crisis, former Police Scotland Superintendent Martin Gallagher argues that it’s time policing re-examined other ‘partnerships’ with agencies that are clearly not working, and which see police treated as ‘third-class citizens’ in unequal relationships.

OPINION: Footage of the recent arrest of a mother in front of her young son for suspected fare evasion has once again ignited a debate about appropriate policing responses; Dr Meron Wondemaghen, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Hull, believes this and other cases have highlighted the issues of what constitutes social harm, what is a proportionate response, and why a ‘do no harm’ principle should precede any law and order aims.

FEATURE: Whenever a death or serious injury occurs following police contact in the UK, a post-incident management (PIM) process is instigated, but not all officers are aware of or understand what this entails; former Kent Police Sergeant Darren Moor, a PIM Manager during his own career, looks at the history of the approach, how PIM operates, and what officers need to know to be comfortable taking part in the process.

FEATURE: Coverage of the recent State of Policing in England and Wales report focused in large part on HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke’s warning that “public trust in the police is hanging by a thread”; but Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone believes other messages from the report around a “dysfunctional and defective” criminal justice system, a return to the “basics” of policing and the need for new policing priorities are equally important, but have been largely overlooked.

OPINION: The announcement by the Metropolitan Police that it plans to withdraw from attending mental health incidents unless they involve a threat to life has reignited the debate around policing’s role in responding to those in mental health crisis; Dr David Lydon, a former officer and now Senior Lecturer in Professional Policing, believes dropping what is a critical aspect of everyday policing is a mistake, and a betrayal of the service’s social responsibility.

ANALYSIS: A series of recent reviews and reports have highlighted issues around misogyny and gender inequality in UK policing; in this article Dr Wendy Laverick, Professor Peter Joyce and Dr Emma Cunningham explore the context of some of those issues, and consider the advances as well as the continuing challenges in relation to gender equity in British policing.

FEATURE: After a series of high-profile incidents and damaging reviews, levels of public trust in policing have fallen significantly; now a new briefing by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology highlights the current trends around public trust and confidence in policing, the barriers to building that trust, and what policing can do to reverse the decline, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.