Technology and equipment

FEATURE: The importance of forensics in police investigations cannot be overstated, and their increasingly crucial role has been one of the driving forces behind the recent launch of the Forensic Science Regulator’s Code of Practice; the role of forensics, and the understanding and implications of the new Code, were the key topics for discussion in a recent @WeCops online chat, hosted by Thames Valley Police Head of Forensics Kay Hannam, and Head of Forensic Accreditation, Caroline Rust.

FEATURE: After a tumultuous week in UK policing – one which saw tensions between the Met and national politicians dominate the headlines, followed by the eventual departure of Home Secretary Suella Braverman – Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley joined the Institute for Government to set out his plans to keep reform of the country’s largest police force on track, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

WEBINAR PROMOTION: To save lives and better serve the public, police forces need to receive and share information with internal teams, partners, neighboring agencies and their communities as quickly and efficiently as possible. A global pandemic, social unrest and tightening budgets have exacerbated this need, making it vital for forces to adapt now. Join Hexagon’s Klaus Dalgaard on a webinar to learn how improving collaboration and real-time data sharing can help police forces.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen spoke to Ben Burr, a Borders, Immigration and Intelligence Specialist with Viable Data who has more than 20 years’ experience in the Home Office, about the challenges of ‘burglary tourism’, the need for real-life policing experience in academic research, and why a global database of wanted, suspected and missing person biometrics could be game changing.

LONG READ: The difficulties policing faces around the scale and complexity of digital data are widely acknowledged, but what about the potential for new technology to overcome some of those challenges? In the second in a series of five features looking at the police use of data, Policing Insight’s Keith Potter looks at some of the ways new tech – including automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning – are being employed in both investigative and preventative approaches.

ANALYSIS: A long-term approach to using technology, data analysis and information sharing to deliver significant reductions in gun violence in New Jersey has been hailed as the “tipping point in a new era of law enforcement” and is already being adopted and adapted by police and authorities in others states across the US, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: In 2020, as Leicestershire Police prepared to greatly increase its officer numbers as part of the Uplift recruitment programme, leaders within the force set about trying to change attitudes, consideration of and delivery of training through the creation of the Team Leicestershire Academy; Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass spoke to its head Sarah Taylor, and Chief Constable Rob Nixon, about the force’s new methods.

ANALYSIS: A new study from Crest Advisory on the impact of devolving justice approaches to local areas has highlighted the positive outcomes of initiatives aimed at reducing reoffending and supporting specific vulnerable groups in four case study areas, with particular success for “whole-system approaches” delivered under police and crime commissioner and mayoral protocols, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: To save lives and better serve the public, police forces need to receive and share information with internal teams, partners, neighboring agencies and their communities as quickly and efficiently as possible. A global pandemic, social unrest and tightening budgets have exacerbated this need, making it vital for forces to adapt now. Join Hexagon’s Klaus Dalgaard on a webinar to learn how improving collaboration and real-time data sharing can help police forces.

ANALYSIS: In October the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) marked 10 years in operation, a decade that has seen significant international operations, substantial convictions and drug seizures, and major technological advances; but as Cathy Haenlein, Director of Organised Crime & Policing at the Royal United Services Institute explains, the threat to the UK from serious and organised crime is on the rise, and policing alone cannot overcome that threat.

FEATURE: With the law enforcement use of artificial intelligence (AI) advancing quickly in the UK and internationally, the National Police Chiefs’ Council recently published a new Covenant for Using AI in Policing; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the main principles in the document, and the wider guidance around the ethical, proportionate and transparent use of AI across criminal justice sectors.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Embracing technological modernisation in the police force will not only enhance safety for both officers and those they serve, but deliver operational efficiencies which can greatly improve response management.

LONG READ: The exponential growth in data sources offers policing significant opportunities for investigating and intelligence gathering, but brings with it new obstacles around the scale, complexity and consistency of data; in the first in a series of five features looking at the police use of data, Policing Insight’s Keith Potter looks at some of those key challenges at a force and national level.

FEATURE: UK National Crime Agency Director General Graeme Biggar has warned that policing and the wider criminal justice system is not moving fast enough or far enough in its efforts to combat the shift online in serious and organised crime, and that the roll out of end-to-end encryption on sites such as Facebook would be “tantamount to consciously turning a blind eye” to child abuse, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The 5th International Police Education Conference on 10th November 2023, hosted by the London Policing College and supported by Policing Insight, explores the critical themes of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), digitalization, and public protest. We delve into key insights from five workshops that gathered experts, academics, and professionals from around the world to address the challenges and opportunities in modern policing.

ANALYSIS: With ongoing concerns around the drop in public trust and confidence in UK policing, forces face continuing pressure to ensure they are representative of the communities they serve; but a new report suggests that gender bias in the language used in police recruitment advertising may be deterring applicants at the first hurdle, as Richard Place, Managing Director of police recruitment website All Police Jobs, explains.

FEATURE: With the UK’s first artificial intelligence (AI) safety summit taking place this week, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at some of the risks posed by ‘frontier AI’, as well as efforts by the UK Government and counterparts in Europe to identify and minimise potentially harmful threats from the cutting-edge technology.

INTERVIEW: Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass spoke to HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, Craig Naylor, about how he approaches his role at the inspectorate, the challenges in Police Scotland as it turns 10 years old, and the similarities and differences with policing and the inspectorate in England and Wales.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: To address the challenges of increasing digital evidence and siloed data sources, South Wales Police and Gwent Police implemented Nice Investigate, a Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) that is part of the NICE Evidencentral suite from NICE which is currently used by more than 20 police forces and organisations in England and Wales.

ANALYSIS: Ahead of next week’s UK Society of Evidenced-Based Policing (SEBP) Conference, Simon Rose, CEO of the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing, and Detective Inspector Mark Brennan of Leicestershire Police outline the background, delivery and interim results from a police and third sector outreach project targeting violence hot spots in Leicester city centre, which early findings suggest could cut crime and crime harm by more than a third.

ANALYSIS: The latest research from Monash University’s Australian Consumer and Retail Studies (ACRS) unit on the cost of living and consumer deviance has revealed that continuing financial pressures on households has not only changed spending habits but also attitudes towards retail crimes such as shoplifting, as ACRS Research and Strategy Director Stephanie Atto and Senior Research Consultant Paolo de Leon explain.

OPINION: Shoplifting and retail theft have been subject to significant media and political focus over recent weeks, with the Government launching a new action plan while commentators call for tougher sentences to target organised gangs; but Transform Justice Director Penelope Gibbs argues that effectively tackling the problem will mean addressing the causes, improving diversion and rethinking the retail space, rather than simply increasing the sentence tariff.

ANALYSIS: New international research on the approach by policing and industry to rural crime has highlighted the multi-million-dollar impact on farms and countryside communities often overlooked by law enforcement; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Dr Kyle Mulrooney of the University of New England and Inspector Oliver Fisher of Sussex Police about the steps that can be taken to improve prevention and response for farmers and rural communities.

INNOVATION: Police have used traditional line-ups – whether static in person, or using photos and videos – for decades, and concerns have been regularly voiced over misidentification leading to wrongful arrest and in some cases imprisonment; but University of Birmingham research led by Prof Heather Flowe and PhD student Tia Bennett is pioneering new 3D interactive line-ups that have increased identification accuracy, with the team now looking to work closely with forces to further develop the technology.