Operational policing

OPINION: The continuing debate about institutional racism and policing remains under the spotlight following last month’s statement by Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Iain Livingstone that the force is institutionally racist; but former Police Scotland Superintendent Martin Gallagher, now an Associate of the London Policing College, believes that the real problem lies with individuals rather than institutions – including a number of senior leaders.

FEATURE: The City of London Police has become the first UK force to automatically screen custody detainees for ADHD, in a bid to improve understanding and diagnosis as well as identifying the required support; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons looks at the new initiative, and spoke to ADHD Alliance founder DC Daley Jones about the need for greater neurodivergence awareness across the criminal justice system.

KING'S BIRTHDAY HONOURS: We are pleased to publish and recognise the New Zealand Police recipients of the 2023 King's Birthday Honours. The team at Policing Insight offer our congratulations and thank all the recipients for their service.

ANALYSIS: The decision earlier this year by TVNZ to cancel Police Ten 7 – the channel’s longest running reality series – sparked claims of wokeness and cancel culture; but new research by Auckland University of Technology Associate Professor Antje Deckert, and Juan Marcellus Tauri, Adjunct Associate Professor at Macquarie University, found that the programme had over-represented Māori and Pasifika suspects in violent offences, and under-represented the proportion of Māori and Pasifika police officers.

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.

OPINION: With British policing facing ongoing challenges around trust and confidence, as well as seemingly endless media scrutiny and criticism couple with frequent political attacks, the service is struggling to reconnect with the communities it is there to serve; David Marshall, a serving officer with more than 30 years’ experience who is also a part-time policing lecturer and PhD researcher, sets out the steps he believes policing needs to take to reset those connections and address the challenges.

FEATURE: Research exploring the policing of BAME communities in Scotland – part of a series of studies on ‘seldom-heard groups’ published by Police Scotland, the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and the Scottish Police Authority – has called for more value to be placed on community policing, a trauma-informed approach to improve understanding of people’s previous experience, and greater cultural awareness training, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Continued exposure to horrific imagery and harrowing testimony is having a significant impact on the mental health of crime investigators across Europe; Dr Fazeelat Duran, a Postdoctoral researcher in occupational psychology at the University of Birmingham, outlines the findings of recent research that highlights the scale of the problem, and gives a voice to frontline officers who feel ignored by policymakers.

FEATURE: The findings of the Manchester Arena Inquiry, which examined in detail one of the UK’s worst terrorist attacks, highlights a range of failures leading up to the bombing attack, and in the emergency services’ response; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth argues that in the wake of the Inquiry, the counter-terrorism community must look to learn the key lessons of the past, while recognising and addressing the threats both of today and the future.

FEATURE: Grand Junction is a gateway city to the mountains and canyons of Colorado and Utah, but its rural isolation also contributes to a suicide rate more than double the national average; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to Grand Junction PD Detective Kristine Gregory about the launch of the department's Co-Responder Unit, which teams up officers with clinicians to improve the response to those in mental health crisis, and deliver better long-term outcomes.

FEATURE: The Casey Review highlighted issues of “institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia” in the Met, and sent a message to the service more widely about the need to address these and other issues; at a recent Birmingham City University online panel, current and former police officers joined academics to discuss the implications of the Review, with several emphasising the need to focus on the challenges rather than the terminology, as Keith Potter reports.

OPINION: With the recent announcement by the Met Police that they will only attend mental health 999 calls where there is an “immediate threat to life”, the issue of the emergency service response to those in mental health crisis in the UK is once again under the spotlight; former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher looks at the history of ‘care in the community’, and argues that it should be mental health professionals – not police – who take the lead role in that response.

FEATURE: A photographic approach to enabling young people to talk about their community – part of a series of studies on policing ‘seldom-heard groups’ published by Police Scotland, the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and the Scottish Police Authority – has offered a fresh perspective and greater insight into one of Scotland’s more deprived communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Recent high-profile disruptive protests by climate activists in Australia have led to rapid changes in legislation, with new laws and amendments to existing acts being introduced in some cases in as little as 24 hours; but University of South Australia Senior Law Lecturer Dr Sarah Moulds warns that such swift lawmaking can lead to poorly designed, unconstitutional and widely opposed legislation.

RESEARCH: A new landmark academic study presents a definitive assessment of the performance of multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA), measures that monitor around 88,000 offenders in England and Wales; Dr Natalie Mann, who led the study, spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the striking findings provided by the research, the professional messages it sends, and a personal motivation behind the work.

FEATURE: With environmental crime highlighted as a key organised crime threat in Europol’s Serious Organised Crime Threat Report (SOCTA), the new EU PERIVALLON project will use AI-based tools to tackle the crime; but as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports, any law enforcement use of such technology will need to abide by the risk criteria set out in the proposed European Artificial Intelligence Act – the first law of its kind by a major regulator.

FEATURE: With the new Forensic Science Code of Practice coming into force later this year, policing has a chance to boost standards across its forensics functions; but as a panel at the recent Digital Forensic Forum argued, meeting these stringent requirements is only possible if policing leaders are willing to step up their interest in forensics and push for cultural change, reports Policing Insight’s James Sweetland.

FEATURE: A report into the policing of care-experienced and LGBTQI+ young people in Scotland – part of a series of studies on policing ‘seldom-heard groups’ published by Police Scotland, the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and the Scottish Police Authority – has recommended changes to police training, declaring being care experienced as a ‘protected characteristic’, and adopting a ‘policing with empathy’ approach, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: New research from the Australian Institute of Criminology presents shocking findings on the level of domestic violence among members of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs); with higher rates of violence and lower conviction rates, it’s a complex challenge for police officers in New South Wales to solve, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

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INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen spoke to former police officer Damian Barrow, now Programme Delivery Manager at data aggregation and automation specialists Synalogik, about the 4Ps approach, the prospect of AI revolutionising organised crime, and the need for greater accessibility to a wider range of datasets.

ANALYSIS: Reports of ‘deaths following police contact’ often include instances of individuals being restrained, but for anyone suffering from Acute Behavioural Disturbance (ABD), such an approach can prove fatal; former Kent Police Sergeant Darren Moor outlines the key indicators of ABD, the steps officers can take to ensure medical support is available, and what to do if restraint is unavoidable.

OPINION: Advances in technology are emerging at incredible speed, but policing is not always keeping pace with the new tech available – or the potential that it offers forces; Mark Preston, Policing Vertical Lead at ICT specialists Tisski, a Node4 company, believes that if forces can overcome budget constraints and their inherent resistance to change, there are significant benefits to be realised from digital transformation in policing.

FEATURE: The final report of the Commission on Crime and Gambling-Related Harms has called for reforms and a stronger commitment at a political level to address crime and other harms, a message echoed by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, which argues that crime linked to problem gambling must be tackled with the “same urgency and focus as other addictions”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.