Operational policing

FEATURE: Alongside war crimes and the trafficking of vulnerable refugees, the criminal impact of the war in Ukraine includes the manipulation of information for both political and criminal gain; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the efforts underway to better understand and counteract such attempts, which will have implications for policing and community safety.

FEATURE: A collaborative project between Victoria Police and the state’s Youth Support and Advocacy Service has led to a reduction in offending, improved outcomes and services for young people, and stronger alliances between the two professions, as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports.

FEATURE: Latest figures show a significant increase in disability hate crime (DHC) recorded by police in England and Wales, but the number passed from police forces to the CPS continues to fall; Dr Irene Zempi, Dr Leah Burch, Dr David Wilkin, and Laura Nevay outline the ongoing work to raise awareness of DHC, and to provide resources for police, academics, practitioners and campaigners to help tackle this crime.

FEATURE: Hot-spot policing is widely regarded as a high-profile success of evidence-based policing; but recent trials in London suggest that cities which are already strongly policed see little impact on crime figures from adopting a hot-spot approach, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.

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 organised crime consultant Tony Lock about the IT-induced reconfiguration of organised crime, the need to tackle organised crime at source, and the role of the ‘grey enablers and kleptocrats’.

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.

OPINION: The creation of a new Australian cybercrime taskforce following the huge Optus and Medibank data breaches is an encouraging step by government; but Magnet Forensics founder and Chief Technology Officer Jad Saliba, and Vice-President Neil Desai, argue that without a co-ordinated strategy, increased police training and investment in tools and techniques to support it, Australians will still be left vulnerable to further cyber attacks.

OPINION: Despite increased awareness of and action to tackle domestic violence, support and intervention services for male victims are still largely lacking; Criminology professor Dr Alexandra Lysova believes that, with the most common pattern of abuse, bidirectional violence, helping male victims could save lives and help to break the intergenerational cycle of violence.

ANALYSIS: Cybersecurity is a critical part of the delivery of public services, with increasingly sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals using bait attacks and other new techniques to target organisations; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at some of the main cybersecurity threats over the coming year, and what organisations can do to counteract them.

FEATURE: Data obtained from digital devices is now as essential to modern police investigations as DNA evidence or fingerprints; but a recent a report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services presents a damning assessment of how forces in England and Wales are handling digital forensics, and calls for new governance structures and more funding, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: Another new report into stop and search has called for major reform and the launch of a taskforce on the topic; Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone looks at the findings of the report, the context and application of existing powers, and how – in the absence of any viable alternative – police and communities could help to ensure that stop and search is used effectively to detect and prevent crime and increase community safety.

END OF YEAR REVIEW: As 2022 draws to a close, Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter looks back over some of the key law enforcement themes covered over the past 12 months, the challenges met and opportunities offered, and our continuing commitment to provide a platform for sharing expertise, understanding and best practice throughout 2023.

ANALYSIS: The pandemic presented new challenges for policing across the world, along with valuable lessons around the response; latest research by Dr Manja Nikolovska and Professor Shane D Johnson of the Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL reveals what law enforcement stakeholders thought worked well in relation to Covid-19 (and what didn’t), and how these might shape the response to future threats such as climate change and the technological advances of crime.

FEATURE: Vulnerable members of the community experiencing mental health challenges account for a significant proportion of repeat callers to the police and other services; but Occupational Therapy Degree student Bridget Townsend believes a pilot project in which occupational therapists accompany police officers in response to those repeat callers could improve the service to individuals while reducing the resource burden on policing.

ANALYSIS: New research by Dr Jens Binder of Nottingham Trent University and Dr Chris Baker-Beall of Bournemouth University has found that terrorism radicalisation now takes place predominantly online, and that those recruited without face-to-face interaction are less likely to carry out violent attacks – but there is still a thin line between online only activity and mixed radicalisation processes, so internet extremism must still be taken seriously.

INNOVATION: Recent commercial research in the US has highlighted the key role that technology could play in increasing public trust in policing; Kinana Hussain, Vice President of Product Management at Digi International, explains how connectivity solutions can keep law enforcement and first responders safe while increasing trust in the communities they serve.

ANALYSIS: With inspectorate reports highlighting concerns over the use of anti-rip clothing in police custody, the Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) recently undertook a pilot project with Dyfed Powys Police to improve the monitoring, recording and risk assessments around the use of such clothing, with a long-term aim of ending the measure altogether, as ICVA Interim Chief Executive Sherry Ralph explains.

FEATURE: Despite several examples of terrorist attacks being livestreamed and online games being used to spread extreme propaganda and groom young fanatics, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth warns that the full extent of the terrorist use of the internet remains poorly understood by many frontline practitioners, and a multi-faceted, holistic approach is essential to tackle the threat.

OPINION: Law enforcement agencies around the world often rely heavily on eyewitness testimony, but unreliable eyewitness evidence is often a contributing factor in miscarriages of justice; Dr Michel Funicelli a Lecturer in Police Studies at Teesside University and a 33-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, believes new technology analysing brainwaves could be a significant asset for policing in assessing the credibility of witnesses.

OPINION: New research by Dr Kate Puddister, an associate professor at the University of Guelph, and Queen’s University doctoral candidate Danielle McNabb, suggest that not only is sexual violence by police officers in Canada more common than expected, but that allegations of sexual assault against officers are less likely to be fully investigated, or lead to charges or convictions, than other such assaults reported to police.

INTERVIEW: Metropolitan Police Commander Dr Alison Heydari is the UK’s most senior black female officer, leading for the force on neighbourhood policing and nationally on out-of-court disposals; in the first in a two-part interview, she spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the importance for leaders of listening to staff, the need to recognise and praise work done well, and the vital role of resilience in coping with change.

INTERVIEW: Policing Insight’s Chris Allen regularly speaks to leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, as part of our ‘Spotlight on Organised Crime’ series; this week the spotlight turns on Chris, who answers the same questions he poses to others, this time in his role as Senior Police Practice Tutor at Bucks New University and Director of Criminis Training and Consultancy Services.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Ensuring a safe community and supporting victims of crimes are core missions of Merseyside Police. But as digital evidence continued to grow, Merseyside Police’s investigative resources were stretched to the limit. The force found a solution to all of these challenges in NICE Investigate. NICE Investigate collapses Merseyside’s digital evidence silos into a single login, so investigators can do all of their work in one place, and it eliminates long wait times for evidence. Now, cases can be resolved successfully and sooner.

FEATURE: A Northamptonshire initiative has seen growing numbers of community carers trained to recognise the dangers of doorstep scams and prevent their elderly clients from becoming victims of fraud, burglaries and other opportunist crimes, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.