Technology and equipment

ANALYSIS: With police forces in England and Wales already voicing fears over funding for the coming financial year, the autumn budget statement and additional £1 billion for policing announced just before Christmas eased some concerns, but still highlighted significant differences in financial resources; Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at what the budget and announcement means for forces, why some will benefit while others struggle, the vagaries of the police funding formula, and the challenges ahead.

OPINION: With the growing availability and accessibility of generative artificial intelligence leading to a huge increase in deepfaked non-consensual intimate image (NCII) abuse, independent policing and technology expert Giles Herdale sets out some of the key challenges around tackling NCII, and suggest four steps that could make a significant difference in reducing offences and improving outcomes for victims.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: As public services come under pressure and public expectations rise, volumes of contact are likely to increase across all channels. By operationalising digital contact, forces can avoid a contact crisis and take advantage of a more connected future.

FEATURE: A new report on future trends in online fraud, part of a research project carried out by Crest Advisory, the Police Foundation and the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London, warns that the growing use of artificial intelligence could trigger an “arms race” between criminals and law enforcement, and calls for a shift from reactive to anticipatory strategies to tackle online fraud, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: The use of wearable technology to monitor health and wellbeing continues to expand significantly; Dr Carol Cox, Head of the Liverpool Centre of Advanced Policing Studies at Liverpool John Moore’s University, is leading a research team from the Centre in its work on the police use of such technology, and explains the challenges and benefits identified to date, as well as early indications from the latest study due to be released in April.

OPINION: In the second of a two-part article on the police analyst profession, intelligence analysts specialists Dr Scott Keay, Keith Jackson and Steve French examine the findings from a survey by the Association of Crime and Intelligence Analysts (ACIA) about improving the analyst role and how such organisations can support the continuous professional development of analysts.

INNOVATION: New technology is being used to help police and local authorities improve road safety, with AI-enabled cameras identifying bad driving on roads in Devon and Cornwall, and extensive harsh-breaking data helping local authorities to predict potential collision blackspots, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Delegates at the recent Senior Women in Policing conference had the opportunity to identify challenges female officers are likely to face over the next 25 years, with discussions leading to the creation of a Gender Equality Futures Playbook that forces can use to include in their forward planning, as Sarah-Jayne Bray, Development Officer with the Thames Valley Women’s Network, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: In this first of a two-part article on the police analyst profession, intelligence analyst specialists Dr Scott Keay, Keith Jackson and Steve French explore the journey of the analyst role over the last 25 years, look at the barriers and challenges that have impacted on that role, and also consider the positive value that good analysis can have.

INNOVATION: In the latest in a series of articles exploring the opportunities and challenges presented to police by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), Chief Philip Lukens explores the potential of artificial general intelligence (AGI) to deliver significant benefits – and the measures that need to be taken to avoid the risks associated with autonomous decision-making.

FEATURE: As law enforcement around the world embarks on meeting the challenges of 2025, Editor Keith Potter looks back over the key issues Policing Insight covered in 2024 – from technological threats and opportunities, to workforce wellbeing, the role of leadership, and the increasing focus on reform – and how these may affect the next 12 months.

INTERVIEW: The Chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce – the organisation now consisting of 15 law enforcement agencies tackling online child sexual exploitation – passed from the UK’s National Crime Agency to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in November; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to AFP Commander Helen Schneider about the goals for the Taskforce over the next three years, and why identifying AI deepfakes and protecting the wellbeing of police investigators will be among the priorities.

OPINION: 3D-printed firearms – known as ‘ghost guns’ – have been used in a wide range of criminal incidents by organised crime groups as well as political and religious extremists, with growing numbers of arrests in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia; Professor Nir Kshetri of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro believes that the use of ghost guns in violent and criminal activity will continue to increase, with governments and police facing significant challenges in regulating the firearms.

FEATURE: Dyfed-Powys Police has become the latest force to implement an Evidence-Based Investigation Tool that uses algorithms to forecast which crimes are more likely to be solved as well as those for which further investigation is unlikely to yield a result – enabling forces to focus their resources more effectively, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: As the Data (Use and Access) Bill makes its way through the UK Parliament, Canterbury Christ Church University Senior Lecturer in Policing, Dr David Lydon, looks at the potential implications of the new legislation on the use of automated decision-making in policing, and the opportunities and challenges it could present for police forces as well as the need to ensure safeguards for the public.

INNOVATION: A portal developed in Humberside that allows victims to contact officers in charge of their case for updates rather than tie-up call handlers on force phone lines is also helping to provide a better service, according to those behind the plan; Ian Weinfass spoke to Humberside Police’s Scot Dunn and senior responsible officer for the NPCC’s digital public contact programme, DCC Simon Megicks, about the award-winning initiative.

ANALYSIS: This year’s high-profile National Crime Agency takedown of the LockBit ransomware group, and the subsequent Endgame global cybercrime operation, was hailed as an example of successful law enforcement international collaboration; but IÉSEG School of Management professors Christine Abdalla Mikhaeil, Carin Venter and Jennifer Ziegelmayer warn that with many new players stepping into the ransomware market – and LockBit’s revival – greater international collaboration will be needed in the future.

WEBINAR PROMOTION: The Policing Tech Forum, in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and techUK, are delighted to announce our inaugural series of webinars looking at the current and future direction of technology across the policing family.

FEATURE: A new CCTV system introduced by Cumbria Constabulary, which uses artificial intelligence analytics to search both stored and real-time footage to identify missing persons and suspect individuals and vehicles, is saving the force thousands of hours as well as improving outcomes, and could soon be accessible to officers out on patrol via mobile phones and laptops, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Police in England and Wales have, for the first time, collected and published detailed information gleaned from crime reports about child sex abuse and exploitation (CSAE) carried out by networks or groups, in a bid to put resources in the right areas and challenge assumptions with data along the way, as Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Debbie Kettle discusses how collaboration with the third sector, emergency services and victims helped to build a system that will help organisations take an impactful approach to maintaining public safety and better manage care and support for victims of crime.

OPINION: In response to the call for a new national Police Agency as set out in the recent ‘Fit for the Future’ paper published jointly by the Police Foundation and Leapwise Advisory, Canterbury Christ Church University Senior Lecturer in Policing, Dr David Lydon, suggests that, rather than pushing for greater centralisation, the cornerstone for effective police reform should be agility, inclusivity, and technological innovation.

ANALYSIS: Researchers at Europol have identified the challenges created by the enhanced privacy levels offered through home routing – a service established as part of the introduction and expansion of 5G – which could leave law enforcement agencies unable to undertake lawful interception of calls, messages and other data, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

OPINION: A new report from the five nations of the Five Eyes intelligence community highlights the increasing rates of online youth radicalisation, a threat borne out by the involvement of young people in every counter-terrorism case investigated this year by the Australian Federal Police; Greg Barton, Professor of Global Islamic Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute, argues that while Australia already has good systems in place, the report offers valuable advice for parents, teachers, and any other agencies working with children and young people.