Regulatory/inspection agencies

INTERVIEW: Proposals for an Animal Protection Disclosure Scheme, known as Holly’s Law and modelled on Clare’s Law (the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme), could soon be debated in the UK Parliament; former police officer Mark Randell, a campaign manager at the Naturewatch Foundation, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons why the link between animal abuse and coercive control and violence could be crucial in tackling domestic abuse, and how officers can play their part.

FEATURE: The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has been given six months to work with the Home Office to produce a long-term, costed IT strategy after the first agency-wide HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services inspection found that existing systems were “not fit for purpose”; the NCA has also been urged to address staff shortages that impact on analysis capabilities and act on workforce concerns over bullying, harassment and discrimination, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: Four months after the UK Government unveiled its proposals for the reform of policing in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett explores the challenges that the process is already facing, from concerns over accountability, governance and the uncertainty around police mergers, to questions over centralisation, the true of costs of reform, and whether the Government will have the political will or resilience to see the measures through to completion.

FEATURE: A lack of understanding around the management of sexual and violent offenders and child sexual abuse and exploitation teams, coupled with staff shortages and skills gaps, is damaging the wellbeing of officers and increasing the risk to the public, according to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which is urging forces to stop neglecting “these important areas of policing” by refocusing on safeguarding and support at both force and national level.

OPINION: The ongoing legal proceedings against Queensland Police Service by an Indian Uber driver is the latest case to highlight a culture of racism and lack of accountability in this and other Australian forces, says strategy and reform consultant Kavitha Vipulananda, who argues that for policing in the country to earn the trust of the communities it serves – including growing and diverse migrant and Indigenous communities – “the cycle of incident, apology and impunity must be broken”.

OPINION: With ethics frequently bound to professional standards in UK policing, the current reform proposals offer an opportunity to reset the issue of ethics as one of aspiration rather than compliance, says police officer and ethics specialist Dr Richard Cockbain – but failure to do so could leave policing risk building a future “with a ceiling that was only ever meant to be the foundations”.

OPINION: The ‘local to national’ UK police reform proposals offer a revolution of idealism, says former South Wales Police detective Steve Dodd, a subject matter expert on intelligence professionalisation, who argues that the community intelligence-led policing methodology approach – offering enhanced visibility across local police areas and promoting increased intelligence gathering – could create the profound change needed to deliver crime prevention through community-led intelligence.

FEATURE: A report by Canada’s Auditor General into recruitment for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) highlights that despite application numbers exceeding targets, delays in processing has seen many would-be recruits drop out, and a lack of accurate data around the staffing gaps that need to be filled, leaving the RCMP short of more than 3,000 officers, which could impact police officer morale and wellness while increasing risks to public safety and national security, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Emily Spurrell, APCC Chair and Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside, explores the developments in monitoring police performance already being introduced by the Home Office, highlighting that while performance frameworks and metrics are vital measures of service delivery to the public, getting the balance between national consistency and local flexibility is crucial.

ANALYSIS: Victim and witness statements can play a vital role in shaping an investigation, but new research from Dr Cody Porter of the University of the West of England and Dr Mircea Zloteanu of King’s College London suggest that the emotionality of witnesses can unintentionally mislead decision-makers including police officers, especially when filtered through unconscious gendered expectations.

OPINION: The recent Domestic Homicide Project report highlights that, for the third year running, suspected victim suicides following domestic abuse in England and Wales have overtaken the number of homicides involving current or previous partners; Policing Lecturer Lee Curran, of the Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies at Liverpool John Moores University, explores the vital role police officers have to play in recognising the links between domestic abuse and suicide, and the potential for early intervention.

OPINION: A Boston police officer has been charged with manslaughter following the recent fatal shooting of an unarmed man, and body camera footage is expected to be crucial in the case; however, the fact that despite widespread calls the footage has not been released highlights the challenges around claims that body-word cameras provide transparency and accountability, as well as the police and public’s different understanding of those concepts, says Brandon University’s Professor Christopher J. Schneider.

ANALYSIS: With responsibility for the Police Race Action Plan (PRAP) for England and Wales now shifting from a central team to individual forces, Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass examines the impact and legacy of the work done over the past five years, and speaks to stakeholders about the role of leadership and how the PRAP should be shaping policing in the future.

OPINION: In the final part of the series of articles exploring UK policing’s software landscape, organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson looks at the challenges and opportunities offered by policing’s largest technology supplier – Microsoft – and questions whether policing’s relationship with the US tech giant needs to be significantly restructured as part of modernisation and reform process.

FEATURE: In the latest in The Police Student series focusing on Community and Neighbourhood Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly focuses on problem-solving – including the evolution of problem-oriented policing and its relationship with neighbourhood policing, the importance of community engagement, and the impact of under-resourcing

OPINION: In the second in his series on UK policing’s software and IT archipelago, organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson explores what modernising actually looks like when the islands of the archipelago cannot simply be rebuilt from scratch, including the constraints to modernisation, how they can be navigated, the police reform process as leverage, and what an effective and realistic modernisation sequence should look like.

LONG READ: With UK police forces facing a range of challenges including complex demand, declining trust and confidence, and widescale reform, the importance of leadership in policing has never been greater; in his second long-read article for Policing Insight, Dr Aksar Bashir of the West Midlands Police Force Contact Training Academy explores the SHIELD (support, health, inspiration, ethics, listening, development) leadership concept and how it could be a step towards “a more engaged workforce, an ethical service, and renewed public confidence”.

FEATURE: A new report by Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland into how the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the wider criminal justice system recognises, assesses and responds to child criminal exploitation highlights the “inconsistent and, in many respects, inadequate” responses, and urges the PSNI to improve its delivery model as well as recoding and monitoring systems to better protect children targeted by paramilitary groups and criminals, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Police forces and other agencies in Australia are increasing their efforts to tackle ‘crimefluencers’, members of decentralised online crime networks who build their own status through ‘posting and boasting’ about criminal activities, and encourage and coerce others to do the same; Dr Xanthe Weston and Dr Raquel Peel of Central Queensland University, and Dr Joel Robert McGregor of Swinburne University, explore the issue of crimefluencers, and suggest steps that can be taken to tackle the problem.

OPINION: Victoria Police is making more arrests than at any point in its recorded history; but strategy and reform consultant Kavitha Vipulananda argues that, as the force is also experiencing record rates of officer burnout, a documented accountability deficit at command level, and a systematic misidentification problem in family violence proceedings, all the evidence points toward the need for a comprehensive reform agenda spanning all three of these interconnected issues.

OPINION: In the first of three articles exploring UK policing’s ‘software archipelago’ – the interlocking landscape of platforms, systems, tools and infrastructure – organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson looks at the growing focus on organisations developing their own software using AI prompts, and why issues such as the regulatory complexity of policing systems means that in most (but not) all cases, buying rather than building is still the best option.

FEATURE: This month sees the launch of a £30m Online Crime Centre combining police, intelligence services, banking, mobile networks and major tech firms in the fight against fraud – a key element in the UK Government’s recently launched Fraud Strategy 2026-2029, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: A recent report based on interviews with officers in England and Wales in 2021-22 highlights a number of ‘institutional challenges’ around investigating rape and serious sexual offences; however, Prof Betsy Stanko, Senior Strategic Academic Advisor for Operation Soteria, Chief Constable Sarah Crew, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Adult Sexual Offences, and Detective Chief Superintendent Melissa Laremore, Operation Soteria Delivery Lead, set out the significant progress in addressing these and many other issues over the past five years.

INTERVIEW: Departing HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Andy Cooke spoke to Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass about his time in charge of scrutinising police forces, the “national disgrace” of court delays faced by victims, and why he believes the Government’s planned major reforms – including significant new powers for the inspectorate – are a once in a generation opportunity to make communities safer.