Regulatory/inspection agencies

FEATURE: A renewed focus on community scrutiny of the use of force – highlighted in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, and encouraged by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services – has prompted Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire Police Joint Protective Services command to set up a tri-county independent scrutiny panel on police use of force; panel chair Montell Neufville explains how the panel was established and will operate.

ANALYSIS: A fatal shooting by An Garda Síochána officers in 2000 prompted close scrutiny of the force’s critical incident command structure, but there has been little formal review since reports into the incident were published in 2006/7; as part of his dissertation for an MSc in Policing, Policy and Leadership, serving specialist firearms officer Colin Dowling has compared current critical incident structures available to the force, identifying the best practice option for the Garda.

ANALYSIS: Fraud has been one of the biggest crime growth areas in the UK and internationally over the past five year, yet successive reports have highlighted an ineffective police response and a lack of support for victims; Portsmouth University Lecturer Paul Gilmour, a former police detective, examines why financial crimes are often the ‘poor relation’ when it comes to police investigation, and what can be done to address the challenges.

INNOVATION: As delegates gather in Coventry for this week’s BAPCO public safety technology event, Simon Hall, CEO of police digital mobility platform PoliceBox, looks back at the predictions he was invited to make regarding police IT in 2006 – and the success stories, disappearing initiatives and surprise arrivals on the policing technology scene over the intervening 15 years.

ANALYSIS: The recent rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer has prompted a greater focus on police who use their position to commit sexual offences, an area that has been the subject of research by a team at Bournemouth University for a number of years; in this article Lecturer Fay Sweeting, Dr Terri Cole and Professor Peter Hills highlight some key measures that can be taken to address the abuse of position.

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.

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.

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.

Feature: Urgent changes need to be implemented to fraud investigations to improve the level of service to victims, according to HMICFRS. Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons looks at the recommendations to make this area of crime a higher priority.

POLICE SUPERS CONFERENCE 2021: Earlier this year, the Chair of the College of Policing Lord Nick Herbert launched a fundamental review of the College. At the recent Superintendents Association Conference, he revealed some early findings and the likely ‘direction of travel’ for the College.

ANALYSIS: The Covid pandemic and multiple lockdowns have not prompted a “significant increase” in domestic homicide deaths, according to a new police and government report published last month; but the research does raise several areas of concern, including domestic abuse risks associated with lifting lockdowns, and the “entrenched and enduring” nature of the problem, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro reports.

ANALYSIS: Recent media headlines suggesting young recruits may not be ready for the challenges of modern UK policing have also prompted questions over the average age of those joining the service; now new research by University of Sunderland Lecturer Adrian Smiles and Police Federation of England and Wales Professional Development Lead David Bamber has confirmed that new recruits have generally got younger over the past three years – and forces need to be aware of the issues that may raise.

FEATURE: A recent Independent Office for Police Conduct report made a raft of recommendations based on a review of 101 cases of the police use of Taser over a five-year period; but the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Police Federation have both criticised the report for being ‘vague’, ‘statistically insignificant’ and failing to engage with policing, as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Avon and Somerset PCC Mark Shelford is leading the force’s hunt to find a new chief constable following the departure of Andy Marsh; but while traditionally the top job has been filled by existing chiefs or deputies, the force is widening the recruitment pool to include assistant chief constables and overseas applicants who possess the right leadership and Peelian qualities, as Mr Shelford explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Tour.

OPINION: The Home Office recently put out a revised draft of the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice for public consultation in the UK; Tony Porter, the former Surveillance Camera Commissioner and now Chief Privacy Officer at Corsight AI, believes there is a need for more guidance and clearer governance of surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology, and that regulation of their use and deployment should be a role for the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office.

OPINION: The killing of five people in Plymouth by Jake Davison (pictured), a man whose online activity included regular interaction with the incel sub-culture, has raised questions in the UK around the need for such groups to be targeted under counter-terror and extremist legislation; former Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Bryon explores the growth in the incel movement and related attacks on women both in the UK and the US, and looks at what can be done to tackle the sub-culture.

OPINION: The requirement for UK police recruits to either be graduates or achieve a degree as part of their training is still a subject of much debate; but University of Sunderland lecturers Dr Jerry Pearson and Adrian Smiles – both former serving officers – believe one area of the PEQF that needs to be addressed is delivering a degree qualification which recognises the skills and experience of those serving officers who are currently non-graduates.

INTERVIEW: Professor Paul Taylor, who became the UK’s first Police Chief Scientific Adviser in May, believes policing leaders recognise that science and technology will be crucial to the service going forwards; he spoke to Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons about what his role will be, the importance of partnerships with education and industry, and how the National Crime Laboratory will drive evidence-based good practice in communities across the country.

OPINION: Last month Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the UK Government’s new ‘Beating Crime Plan’ – not in parliament or at a press launch, but in a Sunday newspaper column; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett examines the lack of consultation, paucity of new ideas and absence of additional funding in the plan, and considers whether tone and public perception have become much more important than evidence-based actions and initiatives.