Personnel

INTERVIEW: Humberside Police has become a story of turnaround success, from being the first UK force to be rated ‘inadequate’ to becoming graded in most areas as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’, and technology has played key part in the transformation; Police Insight’s James Sweetland spoke to the force’s Chief Digital and Innovation Officer Scot Dunn about the role artificial intelligence has played in that journey, the importance of focusing new tech on supporting victims, and the difference a national policing centre could make.

INTERVIEW: In this final instalment of Policing Insight’s series dedicated to chemically concealed cocaine, Chris Dalby spoke with Gary Goldberg, a veteran chemist who spent 36 years with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) specializing in chemically concealed narcotics; he offers critical insights into the evolving strategies of traffickers, practical frontline detection methods, and actionable recommendations to equip policing and customs personnel in their fight against this increasingly prevalent threat.

FEATURE: A new report from the Scottish Institute for Policing Research exploring efforts to implement anti-racist strategies in UK policing and the wider public sector highlights persistent institutional racism, resistance to organisational change, and defensive attitudes among officers as some of the key barriers to reform, with training and minority recruitment drives labelled as “shallow and tokenistic”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

King's Birthday Honours: We are pleased to publish and recognise New Zealand and Australian policing recipients of the 2025 King's Birthday Honours. The team at Policing Insight offer our congratulations and thank all the recipients for their service.

FEATURE: A new report from the Police Foundation and Virgin Media O2 is calling for a systemic overhaul of the police response to fraud – a crime which now accounts for 43% of all offence against over-16s in England and Wales – after highlighting “unsustainable” outdated structures, inadequate resources, and a lack of skills and prioritisation in the way law enforcement deals with the “fraud epidemic”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new report into barriers preventing An Garda Siochána officers from engaging with mental health support warns that a police culture that stigmatises mental health issues, fears over the impact on career progression, and other concerns about trust and confidentiality, are leading to officers “toughing it out” amid deteriorating conditions – despite the fact that support provision in the force is at the best level researchers have seen in more than 30 years, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: A wellbeing programme for investigators in Essex Police and Kent Police, which combines awareness and training with one-to-one meetings and online resources, has been highlighted as good practice by the College of Policing; Health and Wellbeing Delivery Manager Janine Jury spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the programme works, the buy-in from officers and senior leaders, and the potential benefits for victims as officers “pay forward” the compassion they’ve received.

INTERVIEW: RCMP Deputy Commissioner Jodie Boudreau, Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, believes its time “to get our swagger back” and restore pride in policing; she spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about restoring confidence in the profession, working closely with Indigenous communities and other under-represented groups to build relationships and increase recruitment, and the strengths that new young officers can bring into the job.

OPINION: Having played a key role in delivering the New Met for London cultural reform programme for the UK’s largest police force, Public Safety Tech Consultant Michael Calderaro-Tracey shares some insights into the importance of psychological safety, the dangers of trying to make a broken system work, and the need for continuous commitment to transformation in an environment where change is essential rather than optional.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Leadership, knowledge and application are the fundamentals to continuous education and training across all policing fields, essential to keep updated on best practices, legal changes and evolving community needs. The Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies (LCAPS) offers a comprehensive learning portfolio featuring academic policing programs designed to equip police professionals with the essential skills needed to apply to the everchanging complex challenges of modern policing.

OPINION: A lawsuit heard in the Supreme Court this month regarding “degrading and humiliating” unlawful strip searches carried out by New South Wales Police has again highlighted the issue of police sexism in Australia; Deakin University Associate Criminology Lecturer Dr Michael Cain argues that forces across the country are failing to learn from previous inquiries into sexism, and suggests that an independent police ombudsman to investigate complaints could be the best solution.

FEATURE: With evidence-based policing (EBP) now a strong focus for many law enforcement agencies, Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood looks at the 10 benchmarks for the approach set out by Dr Cynthia Lum, a former police officer and now Professor of Criminology at George Mason University – and one of the foremost authorities on EBP – during her presentation at the last Building Bridges at Blue Conference.

FEATURE: Queensland Police Service has published its response to the review carried out by the Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC), with the majority of the QHRC’s recommendations around addressing systemic discrimination being accepted and implemented by the Service, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: In the latest article in The Police Student series, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the development of restorative justice, including the aims and principles behind the approach, the expansion of its implementation, and the evidence around its use.

FEATURE: By combining a suite of national innovations with its own local solutions, Suffolk Constabulary has transformed its contact management and response functions; Assistant Chief Constable Eamonn Bridger tells Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass how the force moved out of an HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services ‘inadequate’ public contact rating to no longer being assessed as a ‘cause for concern’ - all within 10 months.

FEATURE: A new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Plan launched by the Peel Police Service Board, which includes measures around new recruitment approaches, cultural competency training, and strengthening community relationships, aims to make Peel Regional Police “the most progressive, innovative and inclusive police service in Canada”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: Police forces across England and Wales have been urged by Chief Constable Rob Carden, Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Digital, Data and Technology Co-ordination Committee, to “embrace technology in a way we’ve never done before”, to ensure they can play their part in delivering the Government’s “very ambitious” Safer Streets Mission, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ANALYSIS: Operation Soteria has been described as a ‘game changer’ for the police investigation of rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) in England and Wales, with the development of a new national operating model (NOM) for RASSO one of the key outcomes; in this article Professor Bernard Burnes, Dr Linda Cooper, and Dr Clare Rawdin – members of the change team for ‘Pillar 4’ (learning development and officer wellbeing) of Op Soteria – share some of the findings and insights from their work on the project.

ANALYSIS: A recent case at the Supreme Court in New Zealand saw the conviction of a man for aggravated burglary overturned because the photo used to identify him – taken by a police officer during a routine traffic stop – was improperly obtained; University of Auckland Senior Law Lecturer Dr Alexandra Allen-Franks explains the reasoning behind the judgment, and what it may mean for policing in the future.

ANALYSIS: Last week saw the publication of the landscape review on the police response to online and technology-enabled VAWG in England and Wales, undertaken by the Centre for Protecting Women Online; independent policing and technology expert Giles Herdale, one of the three co-authors of the review, explains the key questions the work addressed, its findings, and what they mean for policing and the Government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls over the next 10 years.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles and opinion pieces from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell, Chair of the APCC, explores the continuing efforts to improve trust and confidence in policing and the culture within forces by tightening vetting and misconduct procedures.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: AI is transforming the way police forces vet applicants by tackling the vast scale of social media data. In this Q&A, Fivecast’s Joseph Miller explains how open-source intelligence tools are reshaping vetting, making it faster, smarter, and more accurate than ever before.

ANALYSIS: Collaborative research by the University of Portsmouth and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) Portfolio has explored equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in SOC roles; the University’s Professor Sarah Charman, Dr Geoff Newiss, Dr Jemma Tyson and Dr Alejandra De La Fuente Vilar, and T/Det Chief Supt Paul Wells of the NPCC SOC portfolio, explain the findings and set out priorities to improve EDI.

Canadian Order of Merit: We are pleased to publish and recognise the recipients of the 2025 Canadian Order of Merit of the Police Forces. The team at Policing Insight offer our congratulations and thank all the recipients for their service and contribution to their communities.