Police management

FEATURE: As latest figures confirm that Scotland has the highest rate of drug-related fatalities in Europe, the country’s Minister for Drugs Policy has urged the UK Government to back a public health approach to substance misuse as set out recently by the Scottish Drugs Death Taskforce – rather than the punishment-focused white paper on recreational drug users – as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of this week’s workshop on the use and abuse of technology in relation to human trafficking, Temporary Chief Inspector Mark O’Donoghue, who helped to create and deliver human trafficking training to police in Vietnam, spoke to Policing Insight’s Keith Potter about the importance of international collaboration, tackling upstream crime to prevent downstream harm, and the UK’s role in sharing tech investigation expertise.

OPINION: Video footage from police body-worn cameras is increasingly being used in investigations and as evidence in court, but law enforcement officers are not the only people now wearing body-cams; Fergus Mayne, UK and Ireland Country Manager for Motorola Solutions, believes the widespread wearing of cameras by other public-facing staff can significantly increase the pool of video evidence, but also requires greater transparency from those businesses and organisations using the technology.

FEATURE: This week sees a unique workshop focusing on cyber policing challenges hosted by India’s National Forensic Sciences University, with input, expertise and best practice shared by the UK’s London Policing College and the Royal Thai Police Cadet Academy, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

OPINION: While the Covid lockdown prompted a significant drop in traffic and road casualties, the post-pandemic figures reveal a sharp increase in both; Charlie Norman, Managing Director of DriveTech, believes now is the time for a reset on road safety, and for the recommendations in the Police Foundation’s recent roads policing report – including road safety to be a Strategic Policing Requirement, and the creation of roads policing secretariat – to be put into practice.

FEATURE: With an increasing array of contact channels and growing complexity of calls, emergency service control rooms are facing a “data tsunami”; the solution, says David Jackson, Director of Business Engagement at the Police Digital Service, is the increased use of technology to identify relevant and useful data, and to monitor the impact of potentially traumatic contact on call handlers, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr-Munro reports.

ANALYSIS: The ground-breaking Operation Soteria-Bluestone initiative seeks to improve the investigation of rape and serious sexual offences, and has highlighted the impact on those investigating such cases; Research Fellows Richard Harding and Dr Arun Sondhi, and Dr Emma Williams (Director of Research and Strategic Partnerships), of the Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning, look at the early findings in relation to learning, wellbeing and officer burnout, and the important role of the organisational environment.

INTERVIEW: With a career combining operational policing and complex investigation with academia, Dr Tracey Green recently took up her post as CEO of the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency with greater insight than most into the demands facing law enforcement; she spoke to Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter about the Agency’s work on immediate and long-term policing challenges, the importance of sharing good practice, and the benefits of collaboration between police and academics.

ANALYSIS: Australia’s National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program offers a unique insight into drug use across the country; Dr John Coyne, head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Northern Australia Strategic Policy Centre, believes results from the program in the wake of one of the country’s biggest enforcement operations highlight the difficulties of trying to measure the success of drug strategies in terms of seizures and arrests.

OPINION: The use of discriminatory or derogatory language about people with disabilities can cause significant damage to an individual’s confidence, and undermine any team ethic; Disabled Police Association President Simon Nelson explores the importance of addressing the use of such language (whether deliberate or innocuous), and the need for a proportionate response to mistakes that encourages progress.

ANALYSIS: New Zealand Police’s Understanding Policing Delivery programme represents a new approach to delivering on fairness and equity; Deputy Chief Executive Mark Evans, chair of the Governance Group guiding this work, explains more about the programme and how working with senior community representatives, experienced academics and local researchers aims to deliver evidence-based insights and opportunities with wide-ranging support – including from frontline Police staff.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College workshop on policing public order, workshop chair Roger Gomm QPM (a former Metropolitan Police operational commander) talked to Policing Insight about the challenges officers face when policing protests, and the dilemma of balancing the rights of protestors and the wider public.

INTERVIEW: Restorative justice (RJ) has been long been recognised as a potentially effective alternative to traditional criminal justice processes in many countries, but adoption of the approach has been much slower in the US; one keen advocate is Durham PD Chief Patrice Andrews, who spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about the benefits of RJ, its role in reducing crime, and the support among officers for this and other diversionary tools.

OPINION: Policing is well aware of the performance and procedural justice scrutiny it faces in its external relationships; but Detective Chief Inspector Alisa Wilson of Lancashire Constabulary, who retires from policing this week after 21 years in the service, believes that a stronger leadership commitment to wellbeing and internal procedural justice, reinforced by the new Police Covenant, could truly change policing culture.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Today, digital transformation is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in policing and this includes transforming how police forces collect, analyze and share evidence. One digital evidence management trailblazer is North Wales Police. Using NICE Investigate, North Wales Police was able to digitally transform work processes around evidence collection and sharing, to help minimize risk of contact during the recent pandemic, while still continuing to provide the utmost service to the community and justice partners.

INNOVATION: The Government is currently piloting an algorithmic transparency standard across the public sector, with the aim of improving openness and public trust in the use of technology; a new research study has highlighted the potential benefits for policing of adhering to the standard, including greater public confidence, the sharing of best practice and reduced costs, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

OPINION: With the UK Government’s levelling-up plans and goals to reduce homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime by 2030, police and crime commissioners and policy makers will be looking to evidence-based solutions to tackle crime; Jon Yates, Executive Director of the Youth Endowment Fund, believes the Fund’s toolkit could provide valuable resources for successfully targeting youth violence.

INTERVIEW: Trauma-informed leadership (TIL) builds on a foundation of recognizing and understanding the mental and emotional scars and challenges that officers may be experiencing; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to law enforcement psychologist Dr David Black about the potential benefits of TIL, the risks of generational trauma, and how giving leaders the opportunity to share stories can have a positive impact on them and their staff.

FEATURE: As the ‘big four’ social media companies continue to successfully tighten up the identification and removal of harmful terrorist content, delegates at the recent Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) discussed how extremist organisations and those intent on violence are looking for alternative ‘low-tech’ online routes to broadcast their message, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College workshop on cybercrime and fraud, workshop chair Dr Stuart Hyde (the former Chief Constable of Cumbria and a cybercrime specialist) talked to Policing Insight about the need for an improved government response to the challenge, the importance of collaboration between industry and policing, and why Action Fraud is currently not fit for purpose.

OPINION: The wellbeing of police officers and staff has been a growing cause for concern in the wake of a series of challenges, including austerity cuts putting pressure on police numbers, and the impact of Covid on workloads, welfare, and the relationship with the public; James Scott, CEO & Co-Founder of the Thrive app, believes technology could and should play a greater role in the wellbeing and engagement of officers and staff.

ANALYSIS: Over the past five years a series of drug deaths in Australia has highlighted the arrival of an increasing range of synthetic drugs, many originating from factories in China and India and ordered online; this article from the Lens, the research publication of Monash University, explores the forensic medicine efforts of ‘toxico-surveillance’ specialists to identify and track the influx of new illicit drugs, and the dangers they represent.

FEATURE: Police officers in the US are at higher risk of suicide than any other profession, but despite an increase in wellbeing programs across policing, evidence-based, data-driven approaches to tackle the issue and provide support are in short supply; the launch of the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection could be about to change that, as Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend reports.

FEATURE: The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) recently launched its new Police Encounter Panels (PEPs) to provide feedback on the use of force by officers and build closer relationships with the community; MPS Inspector Zed Asghar spoke to Policing Insight’s Keith Potter about the aim of the PEPs, and how virtual reality technology was offering Panel members greater insight into the difficult decisions officers face.