Operational policing

OPINION: Policing’s growing focus on equality, diversity and inclusion, and fears that officers will be increasingly dragged into adjudicating “abusive spats” online under Scotland’s new Hate Crime Act, are the latest example of a wider debate that needs to be had, argues former Police Scotland Superintendent Martin Gallagher – one which considers what the police are really for, and the danger that policing’s key purpose is being sidelined in favour of diversity.

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OPINION: Algorithms are used to predict the risk of criminal behaviour, drug use and reoffending in a number of countries (as well as being employed widely outside the criminal justice sector); but Associate Professor Tatiana Dancy of the University of Melbourne argues that decisions should only be taken – and penalties applied – on the basis of behaviour, not other physical, mental or social characteristics fed into predictive tools.

FEATURE: A recent joint report by inspectorates across the criminal justice system in England and Wales warns that police forces will need to recruit almost 20,000 more officers as increasing numbers of resignations – particularly among inexperienced and under pressure Uplift recruits – continue to drive the growing attrition rate, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: With heightened tensions over conflict in the Middle East, and significant increases in hate crime in the UK, new National Police Chaplain Matt Hopley believes police chaplains have a vital role to play not only in supporting officers, staff and volunteers, but in providing a valuable conduit between policing and communities, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INNOVATION: The use of DNA to solve crimes and identify offenders has been a key tool for policing for almost 40 years; now the growing use of forensic genetic genealogy – also known as investigative genetic genealogy – has the potential to be a similar game changer in investigating cold cases, as Policing Insight’s Vernon White reports.

FEATURE: GardaSAFE, the new computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system rolled out by An Garda Síochána, has been described by senior officers as “far and away better” than previous systems, and praised for delivering “continuous improvement”; but a recent report raised concerns that a review of the system was not able to monitor live calls because of data privacy fears, an approach which the review team described as “retrograde and risk averse”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With terrorists increasingly exploiting the vulnerabilities of public spaces in urban settings – such as event venues, shopping centres and other crowded places – Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the work of PRECRISIS, a European partnership of subject matter experts looking to improve protection of those spaces through the use of integrated and innovative technology.

INNOVATION: Smart devices have revolutionised the way many people interact, but they can also be used to facilitate a wide range of abuse; Andi Brown, criminologist and Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Lecturer at Monash University, argues that there are several steps that could be taken to design safety features that empower victim-survivors, instead of exposing them to risk.

INTERVIEW: In this second half of a two-part interview, City of London Police Temporary Commissioner Peter O’Doherty spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the challenges posed by fraud and cybercrime, the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and a national approach to new technology, and why the Police Service of Northern Ireland data breach has implications for all forces.

FEATURE: In the latest in the new series of The Police Student focusing on Criminology in Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the left realism crime perspective, including the 'square of crime', the need for greater understanding of the complexity of crime, and the ‘Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ approach pioneered by New Labour.

FEATURE: Among the less visible effects of a decade of UK police funding cuts is the loss of spaces where officers can rest, eat, and talk to each other, a loss that could increase the risks of personal and professional isolation, and damage officer wellbeing; a new study led by Dr Carina O’Reilly (University of Lincoln), Nick Kealey (Liverpool John Moores University) and Dr Sean Bell (Open University) will look at how the provision of rest spaces has changed, and the impact on police officers and their wellbeing – and you can get involved.

OPINION: The NPCC’s Children & Young Persons Policing Strategy will aim to create “a culture of child-centred policing”, but too often police and other agencies overlook the impact of homelessness on young people’s vulnerability; Met Police Chief Inspector Dr Andy Briers, who has devoted most of his career to working with at-risk young people, sets out some of the challenges and opportunities for policing to improve support for homeless youngsters and divert them away from the criminal justice system.

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FEATURE: A recent report by the UK’s cross-party Home Affairs Committee has warned that policing the continuing Israel-Gaza protest is pulling resources away from areas such as neighbourhood and response policing and is damaging officer wellbeing, with MPs urging the Government to take steps to address the issues of both police resourcing and hate crime, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: The ‘degree-entry’ debate can often be too focused on England and Wales, but research from former police officer turned academic Dr Andy Tatnell doesn’t have that problem; his thesis looks at the interesting differences in how Scotland, Sweden and Finland handle the complex work of training up their new frontline cops, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

OPINION: The recent budget announcement by the UK Government included £230 million set aside to fund new technology that can make policing more productive and efficient; but Professor John Coxhead of the University of East London argues that investing in drones over detectives and replacing bobbies with bots is not the right plan.

INNOVATION: Resource pressures, heavy workloads and improving service delivery are among drivers for policing to adopt machine learning algorithms to increase capacity and capability; but Research Fellow Hazel Sayer, machine learning specialist Dr Tamara Polajnar and Senior Research Fellow Dr Ruth Spence warn that key stakeholders need to be involved in determining the problem to be addressed, whether the algorithm is the right solution, and whether the force has the capacity to develop the technology and respond to its output.

INTERVIEW: In this first in a two-part interview, City of London Police Temporary Commissioner Peter O’Doherty spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the unique challenges of policing London’s Square Mile, efforts to rebuild trust and confidence with the public, and his personal reflections on taking over a major force for the first time.

FEATURE: A new report not only highlights the significant increases in wildlife trafficking – described as “off the scale” on some routes – but also the successes of a financial taskforce which is using traditional anti-money laundering and proceeds of crime techniques to target and disrupt offenders and supply chains, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With law enforcement approaches in various jurisdictions encountering both common and unique challenges, efforts to reform policing models have taken different forms and have had varying levels of success; Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood compares and contrasts the main reform efforts in Canada, the Republic of Ireland, the UK and the US over the past decade, exploring the successes and highlighting where more needs to be done.

OPINION: After more than 30 years in policing, David Marshall, now a criminology lecturer and author, argues that for policing to more effectively meet the challenges it currently faces, it must concentrate on the issues that are priorities to the public – such as detecting and preventing crime, and responding to emergencies – rather than on internally focused diversity, equity and inclusion campaigns.

ANALYSIS: Last week the UK Government unveiled its “narrower and more precise” definition of extremism; but Dr Chris Allen, Associate Professor and Extremism Hub Lead at the University of Leicester, warns that the definition’s non-statutory footing, the absence of any reference to the Prevent strategy, and the risk that labelling of extremists could be by ministerial decree are all adding to the confusion and concern around the new definition.

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