Topical issues

FEATURE: An Inspectorate report into the UK National Crime Agency’s National Data Exploitation Capability (NDEC) is warning that the Agency risks missing vital intelligence due in part to a mounting “technical debt” that means it spends much of its annual IT budget updating hundreds of legacy systems rather than investing in long-term technology solutions, with NDEC staff using outdated and obsolete IT when trying to work on large volumes of data, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: As International Control Room Week gets underway, Essex Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Contact Operations Lead, outlines the development of AI Post-Call Analysis, which produces concise, easy-to-read summaries of all incoming control room contact and automatically categorises calls by topic to enable rapid retrieval and analysis – one of a tranche of technical innovations designed to help forces “move from overwhelmed to empowered”.

OPINION: With continuing UK protests fuelled by polarised views presenting ongoing problems for policing, former South Wales Police detective Steve Dodd, a subject matter expert on intelligence professionalisation and advocate of the community intelligence-led policing methodology (CILPM), explores how CILPM could enhance both the delivery and impact of the new neighbourhood policing focus, and feed into addressing the challenges of policing a fractured society.

FEATURE: An initiative placing police officers in classrooms to deliver a lesson to young people on sexual consent and the law has shown encouraging signs of improving trust and confidence in policing among pupils, as well as a better understanding of the law and an increased willingness to report breaches of consent to police, according to a College of Policing evaluation, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: California has become the second US state to bring in legislation requiring transparent notice that artificial intelligence (AI) has been used to draft a police report; George Washington University’s Professor Andrew Guthrie Ferguson believes that, with officers in some states using predictive text to write formal statements based on audio transcripts from body-worn cameras, transparency, the training of AI models, and understanding the risks of relying on AI are among the issues that need to be examined.

FEATURE: A recent report into serious and organised crime (SOC) sets out the need for a new international alliance to “match the speed, reach and ambition of the threat” from organised crime networks, which are currently taking advantage of law enforcement’s traditional geographical boundaries, siloed working, and legacy technology and structures more suited to a “bygone age”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: More than 1,600 people lost their lives on British roads last year, with distraction, poor driver behaviour and under-resourced roads policing all contributing to the stabilisation of previously declining casualty figures, says Drivetech Director Leo Taylor, who is calling for a government-led ‘coalition of the willing’– properly resourced and taking advantage of new technology – to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on the roads.

FEATURE: A recent paper published as part of collection of insights by the EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation highlights the role played by social media and digital networks and algorithms in creating a landscape of online extremist antisemitism; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the risks to both Jewish communities and wider democracy set out in the paper, as well as efforts to counter the digital dangers.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Fraud is rising fast in the UK, fuelled by scams and schemes that thrive on social media. In this article, Fivecast’s David Janson examines why investigators need AI-powered open-source intelligence to uncover hidden networks and stay ahead of increasingly organised criminals.

FEATURE: A College of Policing evaluation of the use of a video first response (VFR) approach to non-emergency domestic abuse calls has found that VFR can significantly reduce response times for victims, while also improving victim safeguarding and perceptions of being believed by officers – but there’s little evidence so far to suggest an increase in positive criminal justice outcomes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: Merging four separate police functions under one banner, the new National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Public Protection is part of a UK Government drive to start “treating the epidemic of violence against women and children with the seriousness it deserves”; Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass spoke to the Centre’s Deputy Director, Assistant Chief Constable Claire Bell, about how it is working so far and what the future holds.

OPINION: The Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA) recently published its revised Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Principles, designed to provide a framework for police “to address racism and strengthen collaborative partnerships”; Jacqueline Durand, ANZPAA’s Assistant Director of Policy and Projects, explains why the Principles have been updated, the important differences between anti-racism and cultural awareness, and the vital role leadership plays in delivering this proactive approach.

INTERVIEW: The UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) recently published new guidance for police forces and other uniformed services on collecting and analysing equality data; EHRC Wales Committee Interim Chair Martyn Jones spoke to Policing Insight’s Keith Potter about the drivers behind the new guidance, how good data could lead to necessary cultural change, and why police forces need to be aware of their statutory duties around collating and utilising equality data.

OPINION: The recent undercover BBC Panorama programme highlighting serious misconduct by some Met officers, and the resulting outcry, once again focused on the bad behaviour of individuals; but Graham Goulden, a former officer with a 30-year career and now a strong advocate for safe and supportive workplaces, argues that the real focus needs to be on the cultures, situations and systems that enable such behaviour.

FEATURE: A Home Office evaluation of the County Lines Programme targeting drug gangs using mobile phone networks to deal narcotics has found that the initiative has driven an overall decrease in serious violence in the four main ‘exporter’ forces – due mainly to a fall in knife attacks – as well as reductions in thefts from vehicles and drug overdoses, while recorded drug offences rise, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: SFJ Awards, an independent regulated awarding organisation born out of Skills for Justice and part of The Workforce Development Trust group, is one of the UK’s leading awarding bodies in police, public and private training provision for counter-terrorism; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to Kit Salt, SJF Awards Director of Partnerships and Innovation, about the qualifications offered including the new protective security advisers certificate, developed with the Home Office.

ANALYSIS: New figures from Childlight’s Into the Light index show that around five million children across western Europe report having been raped or sexually assaulted by the age of 18, with more than 50 million in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka experiencing the same sexual violence; Childlight’s Director of Data, Professor Deborah Fry, says the “deeply troubling” data is being driven by a surge in AI-generated child sexual abuse material, but believes that enforcement and prevention efforts can have a significant impact.

INTERVIEW: With law enforcement increasingly looking to artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency and enhance outcomes, forensic psychologist Dr Brandon May, Assistant Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, fears that policing is becoming over-reliant on AI – particularly generative AI in areas such as investigative interviewing, which he argues require skills such as intuition, emotional intelligence or judgement that AI doesn’t have, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: A new report on the police use of live facial recognition highlights the rapidly expanding deployment of the technology, and calls for the creation of a new national co-ordination capability to systematise its best practice use, as report author James Sweetland, Senior Consultant at policing, justice, and public safety consultancy Leapwise, explains.

FEATURE: This month’s Building Bridges Evidence-Based Policing Conference in Ontario saw the launch of 30Forward, Canada’s first national initiative dedicated to increasing the representation and improving the experiences of women in policing; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to Barrie Police Service’s Inspector Val Gates, Co-creator and Co-lead for 30Forward, about the aim of the initiative, it’s collaboration with the 30x30 initiative in the US, and the importance of a cultural shift in policing.

FEATURE: The UK’s National Black Police Association (NBPA) is working with academics to design a way to rate forces on issues including trust and representation; the NBPA announced the move at its annual conference this month, where police leaders discussed issues including the exposure of racism at Charing Cross Police Station by the BBC, the Police Race Action Plan, and calls to abolish non-crime hate incidents, as Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass reports.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Alison Lowe, the APCC’s Joint Lead on Transparency and Accountability, looks at the importance and implications of the recently published ‘Hillsborough Law’, and why accountability will continue to be at the heart of ongoing police reform.

INTERVIEW: Greater Manchester Police’s Chief Superintendent Phil Davies leads for the force on data strategy, as well as on data foundations for the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Data and Analytics Board; he spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the benefits of police borrowing the “digital twin” concept widely used in industry, the need for efficient data quality and management, and how realisation around the importance of data is finally hitting home in policing.

OPINION: Latest United Nations figures indicate that in 2023, only 8% of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) workforce were women, with the majority of those in junior clerical posts; Dr Usman A. Ojedokun, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Nigeria’s University of Ibadan, looks at the historical and cultural challenges behind the NPF’s gender gap, and what steps can be taken to address it