Operational policing

OPINION: With Sadiq Khan re-elected as London Mayor, the focus now turns to one of the key issues of the campaign – tackling knife crime; Greg Berman, former Director of New York’s Center for Court Innovation, and Elizabeth Glazer, former Director of the Mayor of New York’s Office of Criminal Justice, believe there are lessons for London in the efforts of New York to tackle its own problem of criminal violence.

FEATURE: While COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns significantly impacted on criminal activity in many areas, the latest Europol report confirms that migrant smuggling and human trafficking quickly adapted to a new normal; Policing Insight’s Chris Allen looks at the scale of the problem, efforts to target smuggling and trafficking operations, and the trade-off between the right to privacy and the criminal exploitation of encrypted communications channels.

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.

INTERVIEW: Advances in technology and the growing demand for digital communication have led to significant changes to police contact management, but the arrival of COVID-19 presented a whole new challenge; Superintendent Aimee Ramm, the National Product Owner for policing’s digital platform Single Online Home, explains how the development team met that challenge, and the continuing evolution of online reporting and contact prompted by the pandemic.

FEATURE: The NPCC Digital Forensic Science Strategy, developed by the Transforming Forensics (TF) Programme and the Forensic Capability Network, is a blueprint for change to address pressing problems and put forward transformational but realistic solutions; TF Programme Director Richard Meffen explains the aims and issues addressed, as well as some of the key project work being undertaken – such as Legacy Data guidance and CSE Automate – to enable that transformation.

OPINION: As Kazakhstan prepares to celebrate 30 years of independence, Alexei Kalaychidi, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Major General of the Police, explains the efforts the country has made to transform policing through targeting corruption, building public trust and confidence, and enhancing the quality of public service delivery.

OPINION: Levels of violent crime across America saw an unprecedented increase in 2020, and remain worryingly high in 2021; in this latest essay from the Violence Reduction Project, Stephen Eide, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, calls for more effective treatment and supervision of those who are mentally ill as an important step towards reducing violence and creating safer communities.

ANALYSIS: Following on from a call in 2016 by UN Special Rapporteur Juan E. Mendez for a ‘universal protocol’ on standards for non-coercive interviewing methods, new Principles for Effective Interviewing have now been published; investigative interviewing specialist Professor Ray Bull, a member of the committee which drew up the new principles, explains the reasoning behind them, the standards they set, and the likely impact on good practice in policing.

OPINION: The appointment of a new Inspector General of Police in Nigeria has brought about some closure to calls for reform of the country’s security architecture; but as Dr Lanre Ikuteyijo of Obafemi Awolowo University explains, the new incumbent will face a long ‘to do’ list – from rebuilding community relations and improving the police image to rooting out corruption and improving the morale and welfare of officers.

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.

INTERVIEW: In 2019, Northamptonshire Police withdrew from the East Midlands Operational Support Service, bringing its specialist services back within force; and as Chief Constable Nick Adderley told Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons, the move has resulted in the increased capability of specialist teams, improved response times, and a better service to the public.

FEATURE: Plans to crackdown on an apparent surge in youth crime in Queensland and the Northern Territories aren’t supported by figures which suggest youth prosecutions are falling, but there is clearly a real problem with recidivism among young offenders: Analyst Dr Teagan Westendorf of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute argues that improving child protection will be more effective in tackling the issue than increasing incarceration.

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.

FEATURE: The recent Europol terrorism report confirmed that violent Jihadism remains a serious concern in the UK, and also redefines ‘Jihadist terrorism’; as Jihadist attacks on soft targets continue, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on why the definition and terminology used is a key issue for law enforcement.

Policing Friendship Tour: The impact of Covid on policing by consent, the fight against human trafficking and the future challenges of cross-border policing were just some of the issues discussed as Policing Insight’s Publisher Bernard Rix began his Policing Friendship Tour. Bernard was talking to Devon and Cornwall Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer, who joined him on the first leg of the walking tour, which began in Barnstaple.

ANALYSIS: DNA and other biometric samples are retained in the UK under clear regulations and an overarching legal framework; but as Post-Doctoral Researcher Karen Richmond of the University of Copenhagen explains, misaligned legislation between England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, means that more than one million samples are being illegally retained – leaving police personnel who enrol those subject onto databases open to litigation.

OPINION: Levels of violent crime across America saw an unprecedented increase in 2020, and remain worryingly high in 2021; in this latest essay from the Violence Reduction Project, Professor Michael Fortner of City University of New York explores the political limitations of the ‘causal story’ attached to #defund and why a blended reform approach rather than the moral clarity of police abolition will save more lives.

FEATURE: New research has highlighted the hugely profitable, ‘industrial scale’ wildlife crime taking place in West Africa, co-ordinated largely by organised crime groups, as well as the potential for financial investigators to target the criminals; Policing Insight’s Chris Allen looks at the options for tackling a severely damaging global trade, often undertaken at a local level by some of the world’s poorest people.

FEATURE: Wales has been a pioneering country in its public-health approach to policing, but now a multi-agency initiative is aiming to create a truly trauma-informed nation that understands and recognises the impact of adverse childhood experiences, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro reports.

OPINION: The death earlier this year of Mthokozisi Ntumba, shot by police as he walked past a student protest, has highlighted South Africa’s painful history of police using excessive force against protesters; Frans Viljoen, Professor of International Human Rights Law, believes a recently published report on public order policing, and a proposed amendment to the South African Police Act, could be a catalyst for change.

OPINION: The recent announcement that the Home Office is considering new police performance measures for forces in England and Wales drew a strong negative response from the service; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett, a former member of the NPCC Performance Management Committee and national lead for continuous improvement, outlines the key concerns around league tables and the inevitable targets that follow, and suggests an alternative approach.

UK PCC ELECTIONS 2021: As the dust slowly settles on the 2021 police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections, and those in post start to implement their manifestos, Professor Peter Joyce (Wrexham Glyndŵr University) and Dr Wendy Laverick (University of Hull) take a closer look at the election process – who fought on what issues, how the parties fared, the profiles of those now in office, and what the challenges will be for PCCs going forwards.

FEATURE: A six-month secondment to Police Scotland enabled two Vietnamese officers to support the force’s work targeting organised crime groups involved in trafficking people into the country from Vietnam; Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons spoke to Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi, Police Scotland’s lead for modern slavery and human trafficking, about the ‘lawfully audacious and exploratory approach’.