National security and policing agencies

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix’s Policing Friendship Tour recently arrived in Leamington Spa, where he was able to walk and talk with long-term police tech supplier Simon Hall about the challenges of police procurement, the launch of the new Police Digital Service, and the benefits of partnership working in reaching a global law enforcement market.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from Western Australia Police Force, who now have FREE access with the start of new organisation wide subscription. They join a community of officers and staff from many police forces from the UK and around the world with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.

ADVERTISEMENT INTERVIEW: With UK police preparing to handle rapidly growing volumes of digital, multichannel contact from the public, the benefits – both for citizens and forces – of installing integrated contact management and CRM platforms are increasingly obvious; Steve Norris, Police Market Director at Salesforce UK (a specified supplier under the recent framework) highlights the advantages of the latest contact technology in enabling forces to cope with demand and enhance the service to citizens.

OPINION: Consumer fraud is a high-volume and seemingly ever-growing area of crime, yet only 15% of frauds are reported to police each year; David Geere, Chris Oxborough and Esther Paterson of professional services firm PwC believe that better use of technology and increased co-operation and collaboration with the private sector are the key to tackling this complex and often international crime.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from Queensland and South Australia police services, who now have FREE access with the start of new organisation wide subscriptions. 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.

New report: With growing volumes of increasingly complex demand, police contact management was already facing significant challenges before the arrival of COVID-19; but a new report by CoPaCC highlights how forces have responded to more varied public channel choice, adopted and developed new technology, and adapted working practices and reporting structures to meet the challenges of both the increasing demand and the pandemic.

FEATURE: Justin Partridge, Postgraduate Researcher at Leeds University Business School and Visiting Fellow at the Open University Centre for Policing Research and Learning, considers the major issues facing the policing of cybercrime ahead of the second session of the N8 Policing Research Partnership’s Policing Innovation Forum 2021: Partnering Up Against Cybercrime.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from Dyfed Powys Police, 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.

FEATURES: As the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury three years ago and other chemical agent attacks have highlighted, the CBRN threat can have a real, traumatic and long-lasting impact; Policing Insight’s Andy Staniforth reports on a new joint European initiative to protect shopping malls – potentially a soft target for terrorists and state-sponsored actors – from CBRN attack.

OPINION: After a number of high-profile protests over the past year, a community’s successful efforts to prevent the arrest and possible deportation of two men in Glasgow last week may represent a turning point in the public’s willingness to support policing by consent, believes public order expert and former Chief Superintendent Owen West – and that change in approach may bring a significant challenge for UK policing.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from Australian Federal Police, 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.

FEATURE: A new Social Media Management & Engagement Framework has been launched by the Police Digital Service, to enable forces to meet nationally agreed strategy standards on consistency and engagement, with the potential for using digital channels for both emergency and non-emergency contact, as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes officers and staff from North Yorkshire Police, 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.

INNOVATION: With the first round of security projects funded by the S-TRIG programme now presented publicly, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the advantages of the early stage funding competition, and the success of Project Artifact, a screening and detection system that received a £30,000 grant through the process.

ANALYSIS: More than a year after Sir Craig Mackey submitted his review of UK serious organised crime, last month the Government published an ‘Executive Summary’ only, adding that plans to tackle SOC would now come under the Integrated Security Review; Policing Insight's Ian Wiggett reports on the challenges, concerns and lack of detail in the fight against organised crime.

Insight: A new multi-partner approach to sharing data has been adopted in Thames Valley to help tackle the scourge of violence; Governed by a principle of no 'misuse' of data, whilst ensuring there is no 'missed use' of data, the project aims to direct early intervention and prevention strategies, explains its head, DCI Lewis Prescott-Mayling.

OPINION: Both the Commission for Countering Extremism and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services have put forward new terminology to describe extremist organisations and activities in the UK; but Professor Chris Allen of the University of Leicester believes the new definitions could create more problems than they solve.

FEATURE: The recent riots in Northern Ireland have been blamed on the Brexit sea border controversy and the decision not to prosecute Republican mourners over a COVID-19 funeral breach; but a recent review of terrorism legislation warns that delays and failures in the country’s criminal justice system could exacerbate the issues, as Policing insight’s Andrew Staniforth explains.

ANALYSIS: Despite frequent large seizures and law enforcement agency successes, the supply of illicit drugs into Australia continues to grow; In their latest report, Dr John Coyne and Dr Teagan Westendorf of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute examine the expanding nature of the country’s international narcotics supply chain, and what steps can be taken to disrupt it.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of this week’s launch of the UK’s new Police Digital Service, Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons spoke to CEO Ian Bell about the transition from the Police ICT Company,the pace of technological change in policing, and the aims and ambitions of the new organisation.

Feature: As the Inquiry into the 2017 Manchester Arena terror attack continues, there is work behind the scenes to update the Joint Doctrine, the interoperability framework for UK emergency service responders; Carl Daniels of JESIP spoke to Policing Insight’s Catherine Levin about the consultation and how it has never been more important to work together.

ANALYSIS: While the UK, North America and Europe have taken steps to list violent far-right groups as terrorist organisations, Australia has been slower to make the same move; Analyst Dr Teagan Westendorf of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute believes it’s important to do so soon – and in a meaningful way – to enable police to tackle the threat.

FEATURE: Just two months after the NPCC launched a programme establishing a network of not-for-profit Cyber Resilience Centres, the UK went into lockdown: Joanna Godard of delivery partners BRIM explains how the project has continued to progress despite COVID-19, and highlights some of the benefits it is already delivering.

OPINION: Two years on from the horrific terrorist attack on a Christchurch mosque that left 51 people dead, Law Professor Alexander Gillespie looks at the advances in tackling racism, extremism and the terrorist threat in New Zealand, as well as the challenges that still need to be met.