Police management

INNOVATION: With global digitalisation, an increasingly complex international security landscape and the rapid advances in technology, new intelligence gathering tools and techniques are developing at pace; now a new European collaboration of 15 intelligence and security agencies has been established to focus and share research and development, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

FEATURE: Ahead of this week’s London Policing College UK Preparedness workshop – the first in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Supt Hannah Wheeler, the National PPE Lead for Operation Talla, explains how her team secured and distributed more than 80 million items of PPE, the steps taken to protect police and public, and the ongoing impact of the pandemic on policing.

Announcement: Policing Insight has launched a new Events section to highlight forthcoming policing, criminal justice and security related conferences, exhibitions, seminars, webinars and roundtables from around the world.

OPINION: In the wake of the horrific murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer and the wider debates about misogyny and the need for cultural change in policing and society, West Midlands Chief Constable Dave Thompson sends out a powerful and poignant message to his fellow male officers – along with some simple ambitions that can instigate change.

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 Dr Susanne Knabe-Nicol, Lecturer in Criminology at Middlesex University and owner of PoliceScienceDr.com, about her research, efforts to turn academic findings into practical resources, and the potential of geographic profiling in tackling organised crime.

OPINION: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College Domestic Abuse workshop – the first in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Deisy Carrillo, Project Co-ordinator at Hillingdon Women’s Centre, explores the issues around gender and masculinity which can influence the police response to domestic violence.

FEATURE: With a Law Commission review of hate crime to be published shortly, and all forces in England and Wales now due to record misogyny as a hate crime, steps are well underway to tackle a key driver of violence against women and girls; Nottinghamshire was the first force in the UK to adopt such an approach, and Susannah Fish, the force’s Deputy Chief Constable at the time, explains what prompted the move, the success of the scheme, and her hopes that a national rollout will make life safer for women and girls.

ANALYSIS: Policing globally has been at the forefront of encouraging and in many cases enforcing compliance with pandemic lockdowns and legislation – a role which has often brought officers into direct confrontation with COVID-19 conspiracy theorists; Policing and Emergency Management Lecturer Dr Nick Evans of the University of Tasmania looks at the challenges presented by conspiracy theories, and what (if anything) policing could and should do to counteract them.

FREE SUBSCRIBER ACCESS: Policing Insight welcomes staff, students and researchers from the University of Manchester and the University of Worcester, who now have FREE access with the start of new organisation wide subscriptions. They join a community from many other UK and international institutions, police forces and other criminal justice organisations with an interest in progressive policing. Read on to find out how to use your FREE subscriber access.

FEATURE: Latest research on the wellbeing of frontline Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers found that more than three-quarters were experiencing high stress during the second round of the pandemic; but as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports, it was policing culture, the political atmosphere and the lack of resources – rather than the job itself – which were the most stressful factors, even during COVID-19.

FEATURE: One of the key recommendations from the recent report into the police response to violence against women and girls was the need for a ‘whole system approach’ to reduce and prevent harm; Greymalkin Consulting Director Mark Cooper, former head of the Government’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls programme, looks at what that means in practical terms, and the steps agencies can take to implement the approach.

INNOVATION: Advances in technology, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), could deliver real benefits for policing – but get it wrong and the impact can be hugely damaging; ahead of next week’s NPCC Conference on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, Sharon Moore, Public Sector Chief Technical Officer at IBM, looks at some of the initiatives already underway to ensure issues such as racial or gender bias in AI don’t become barriers to public trust and accountability.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Steve Turner believes officers were almost ashamed of admitting where they worked, after the force faced a series of challenges, controversies and critical inspections; now he’s determined to put pride back into the county’s policing, as he explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Tour.

OPINION: A recent College of Policing report on workplace adjustments enabling officers and staff with disability and neurodiversity issues to make the best possible contribution to policing has highlighted significant improvements over recent years; but as Detective Inspector Jamie Mills, Chair of Essex Police Disability and Carers network explains, the report also underlines that there is much more to be done – and chief officer commitment is crucial.

FEATURE: The Divert out-of-court disposal scheme has seen a significant drop in reoffending rates among criminals in Cleveland by addressing underlying needs such as drug and alcohol abuse and mental health issues, and its success is now attracting interest from a number of other forces and agencies, as Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With police legitimacy being challenged and examined more than ever, the law enforcement use of technology and data is also coming under close scrutiny; information and intelligence management expert Giles Herdale, and former NPCC ethics lead Dave Lewis, look at some of the key debates around these issues, which were up for discussion at the recent Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec) live event.

ANALYSIS: Police, politicians and the public have become accustomed to hearing and using the phrase ‘the war on drugs’, but it’s a battle based largely on punitive measures which is far from being won; Dr Matthew Bacon of the University of Sheffield interviewed a number of serving officers for his latest research on drugs policing, and found that for many, their experience in the job has changed their attitude towards criminalising drug users.

FEATURE: Continuing a new series of The Police Student, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly takes a closer look at the key debates concerning police culture and identity, and explores issues around police legitimacy, the problems of machismo and racial prejudice, whether officers are born or made, and the crucial role current students have to play in the evolution of modern policing culture.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Policing Insight has a wide range of fantastic resources to support your degree study – and many students will already have free subscriber access via their academic institution or police force subscription.

POLICE SUPERS CONFERENCE 2021: With mental health referrals increasing across the police service post-Covid, the need for a system that fully supports officers and staff mental wellbeing has never been more urgent. Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro reports from the Police Superintendents’ Association Conference on the impact of Covid, and what forces can do to improve their employees’ mental health.

ANALYSIS: Recent upward trends in the size of the police workforce are welcome, but bring potential issues to be addressed down the line; in the latest in his series examining workforce changes, Ian Wiggett flags up how new training needs will emerge, why development opportunities are unlikely to keep pace with demand and ambitions – and that it really is true, officers are, indeed, getting younger.

INTERVIEW: In the second in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen spoke to Professor Julian Richards, Director of the Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS) and interim Associate Dean for the University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences, on how his career has developed, his current research and plans for future projects, and the key challenges presented by organised crime moving forwards.

OPINION: There are conflicting views over whether proposed amendments to South African law, which would reduce the number of licensed firearms and rule out the acquisition of a firearm for self-defence, will have the desired effect on gun crime in the country; but criminologist and lecturer Dr Guy Lamb of Stellenbosch University argues that the legislation changes are an important element in the efforts of the Government and police to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

Insight: Multiple and conflicting factors shaped the ways police officers thought about their work during the height of the COVID-19 crisis. UK researchers concluded that organisational climate was at the heart of these processes and officers may be more likely to maintain appropriate standards of policing and feel less stress if they are well supported by employers. Dr Arabella Kyprianides reports on the research conducted with Professor Ben Bradford, Professor Clifford Stott and Dr Leanne Savigar-Shaw.