Topical issues

FEATURE: A new review published by Clinks and researched by the Neurodivergence in Criminal Justice Network has highlighted a “pervasive lack of awareness and understanding of how neurodivergent people present” within the UK criminal justice system, and sets out a raft of measures to overcome the significant barriers they experience, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With a growing drive in Australia for a co-responder rather than police-first response to those in mental health crisis, University of Melbourne Research Officer Dr Panos Karanikolas, and La Trobe University’s Dr Chris Maylea and Hamilton Kennedy, explore what works better and where, with research suggesting people with lived experience of mental health issues want more than ambulances replacing the police as crisis responders.

INTERVIEW: Nauris Paulins, Innovation and Digital Transformation Adviser at the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Latvia, recently spoke to Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth about the work of the unit, its role within the European NOTIONES Project, and how the FIU’s involvement in this and other research and innovation projects benefits both policing in Latvia and forces further afield.

FEATURE: Association of Scottish Police Superintendents President Rob Hay has urged Police Scotland’s leadership not to take officers for granted as superintending ranks begin to “vote with their feet” and withdraw from volunteering for on-call, and called on the Scottish Government to invest in a service that is “stretched to breaking point”, warning that Chief Constable Jo Farrell faces the “stark choice” of cannibalising the service to provide a fair pay award, as Policing Insight’s Martin Gallagher reports.

INTERVIEW: Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass spoke to Metropolitan Police Service Director of Data Aimee Smith and Deputy Director of Data Samantha Laskey about how they overcame a traditional culture and delays to develop policing’s first open data strategy.

INTERVIEW: The Suicide Trauma Education Prevention (STEP) initiative initially launched in Hampshire Police is now looking to extend nationally and raise awareness among senior UK officers; STEP founder Spencer Wragg told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the call for mandatory Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) referrals for every officer or member of staff who attends a suicide, the need for a review of the impact of discipline investigations, and how his own experiences have shaped his approach to the issue.

ANALYSIS: After nearly two decades of focus, discussion and research, mental health and wellbeing among British police officers and staff shows little improvement; Professor Emma Williams and Associate Professor Sarah-Jane Lennie of the Centre of Excellence for Equities in Uniformed Public Services argue that, juxtaposed with the persistent and challenging issues related to police recruitment, retention, presenteeism and long-term sickness, the evidence suggests a growing mental health crisis within British policing.

OPINION: With the UK Government recently announcing that the Vagrancy Act will be repealed by spring next year, Generation Rent Chief Executive Ben Twomey looks at the background to a 200-year-old piece of “outdated” legislation that is still used to criminalise some aspects of homelessness, and considers what may take its place.

OPINION: As part of US President Donald Trump’s framework for large deportations of undocumented immigrants, there has been a huge increase in 287(g) agreements allowing police to function as federal immigration officers, interviewing and detaining people before handing them over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); St Edward’s University Professor W. Carsten Andresen argues that many police forces have found such actions significantly undermine trust and public safety.

INNOVATION: When public sentiment – including trust in police – can shift overnight following a viral clip or local incident, the need for policing to be able to engage with and have an up-to-date grasp of local sentiments has never been stronger; Michael Simon, Chief Strategy Officer at Zencity and a speaker at this weekend’s Cumberland Lodge Police Conference, argues that harnessing the latest technology – rather than door-knocking and telephone surveys – can provide policing with a real-time, in-depth understanding of the ‘voice of the customer’.

FEATURE: The first spotlight report from the Ontario Inspector General of Policing Ryan Teschner looking at the policing of protests and major events has highlighted the changing shapes, frequency and complexity of demonstrations, as well as a policing model that puts too much demand on specific services, leaving officers facing significant fatigue and adding to recruitment challenges for the specialised role, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: With police leaders facing traditional challenges alongside often unrelenting change and the development of new technology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice professors Dr Maria Haberfeld and Detective Corey Simpson outline the qualities and attributes that leaders of the future will need – including social intelligence, change intelligence, and artificial awareness intelligence.

FEATURE: A new report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services into the UK police response to organised immigration crime (OIC) has called for greater collaboration between forces, better intelligence gathering and sharing, and for OIC to become a higher law enforcement priority in order to tackle the organised crime groups involved, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The Seventh International Conference on Law Enforcement & Public Health (LEPH 2025), supported by Policing Insight as media partner, convenes in Ottawa, Canada, July 13-16, 2025, at a crucial moment when communities worldwide seek innovative approaches to public safety and health equity.

ANALYSIS: A unique study in Queensland, Australia, followed more than 80,000 people born in 1983 and 1984 to understand who offended and how their offending patterns changed over time; Griffith University PhD candidate Ayda Kuluk explores the findings from the research, the gender differences in criminal offending, and how this knowledge can be used to improve the targeting of crime prevention programs and interventions.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell, Chair of the APCC, looks ahead to this week’s much-anticipated UK comprehensive spending review that will determine the funding available for large-scale police reform heralded by the Home Secretary, and underlines the crucial role that PCCs and deputy mayors will need to play in providing effective oversight of that reform.

INTERVIEW: Humberside Police has become a story of turnaround success, from being the first UK force to be rated ‘inadequate’ to becoming graded in most areas as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’, and technology has played key part in the transformation; Police Insight’s James Sweetland spoke to the force’s Chief Digital and Innovation Officer Scot Dunn about the role artificial intelligence has played in that journey, the importance of focusing new tech on supporting victims, and the difference a national policing centre could make.

INTERVIEW: In this final instalment of Policing Insight’s series dedicated to chemically concealed cocaine, Chris Dalby spoke with Gary Goldberg, a veteran chemist who spent 36 years with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) specializing in chemically concealed narcotics; he offers critical insights into the evolving strategies of traffickers, practical frontline detection methods, and actionable recommendations to equip policing and customs personnel in their fight against this increasingly prevalent threat.

FEATURE: A new report from the Scottish Institute for Policing Research exploring efforts to implement anti-racist strategies in UK policing and the wider public sector highlights persistent institutional racism, resistance to organisational change, and defensive attitudes among officers as some of the key barriers to reform, with training and minority recruitment drives labelled as “shallow and tokenistic”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new report from the Police Foundation and Virgin Media O2 is calling for a systemic overhaul of the police response to fraud – a crime which now accounts for 43% of all offence against over-16s in England and Wales – after highlighting “unsustainable” outdated structures, inadequate resources, and a lack of skills and prioritisation in the way law enforcement deals with the “fraud epidemic”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With the radicalisation of Muslim youth a continuing concern for governments, communities and counter-terrorism policing, Birmingham City University Senior Lecturer Dr Lily Hamourtziadou, University of Salford Lecturer Dr Anna Kruglova, and Detective Superintendent Matt Davison, national lead for the Identify strand of Prevent, explore three non-violent ways to counter radicalisation and terrorism that combine moral and practical approaches to security.

FEATURE: A new report into barriers preventing An Garda Siochána officers from engaging with mental health support warns that a police culture that stigmatises mental health issues, fears over the impact on career progression, and other concerns about trust and confidentiality, are leading to officers “toughing it out” amid deteriorating conditions – despite the fact that support provision in the force is at the best level researchers have seen in more than 30 years, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: In the wake of the trial and conviction of a Nazi ‘virtual’ terrorist cell in Sheffield for planning attacks on mosques and synagogues in England, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the lessons learned from the European PROTECTOR initiative, which highlighted the importance of collaboration and co-operation between law enforcement, faith communities, local authorities and other partners in improving the security of religious sites and places of worship.

INNOVATION: A wellbeing programme for investigators in Essex Police and Kent Police, which combines awareness and training with one-to-one meetings and online resources, has been highlighted as good practice by the College of Policing; Health and Wellbeing Delivery Manager Janine Jury spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the programme works, the buy-in from officers and senior leaders, and the potential benefits for victims as officers “pay forward” the compassion they’ve received.