Topical issues

OPINION: The recent review of the Australian Central Intelligence Commission has led to a change of role for the agency, with a focus on intelligence aimed at combating serious and organised crime, rather than traditional law enforcement and investigation; but Dr John Coyne and Liam Auliciems of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warn that for the reorientation to succeed, challenges around operational responsibilities, resources, and ensuring intelligence is actionable will need to be addressed.

FEATURE: A new report argues that ignoring the role of women in organised crime – whether as criminal actors, as vulnerable victims, or as policy makers and leaders in law enforcement – is creating a ‘blind spot’ in the response to such criminal activity, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Twelve years ago this month the planned suicide bombing of a US airport by an employee fuelled by online extremist content was successfully thwarted by the FBI, in what became a benchmark for covert insider threat operations; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks back at the Terry Lee Loewen case, and also at ongoing work to develop a strategy to help businesses detect and deter potential internal hostile actors.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: With over a decade of military and cyber intelligence experience, including training alongside NATO, Iulian Timischi introduces the urgent need for a new model of intelligence analysis that can keep pace with our modern data-driven age.

FEATURE: A new report from the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre highlights that police are failing to meet the public’s minimum standards of service across a number of key areas; Prof Adam Crawford, Co-director of the Centre, outlined some of the main implications of the research as well as what forces could do to address the challenge at the recent APCC-NPCC Partnership Summit, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

ANALYSIS: Research by criminal intelligence specialist Helen Glazebrook as part of a Churchill Fellowship award examines the collaboration between police and correctional facilities in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and the UK, highlighting the need for closer co-operation between agencies particularly in relation to monitoring the actions of those involved in serious organised crime, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: Four months on from violence and disorder across towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland, what caused them – and whether law enforcement is equipped to stop them taking place again in the future – is still a matter for debate; Ian Weinfass reports on discussions about these issues from the recent APCC-NPCC Partnership Summit.

ANALYSIS: New research exploring the challenge of distracted driving and police officers’ role in educating drivers about the dangers of mobile phone use highlights a lack of understanding about the impact of handsfree phone use, and missed opportunities to educate drivers; research authors Professor Gemma Briggs of the Open University, Dr Leanne Savigar-Shaw of the University of Staffordshire, and Keele University’s Dr Helen Wells explain the key findings from the research, and what can be done to address them.

ANALYSIS: An evaluation of a successful street outreach programme – pioneered by Leicestershire Police, but using community outreach staff rather than uniformed officers – has highlighted a significant drop in both the frequency and severity of offences in several city centre crime hotspot areas, as well as considerable financial savings, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With police officers encountering digital evidence in the vast majority of inquiries, a digital evidence strategy (DES) can ensure they are prepared to effectively deal with it; Dr Graeme Horsman, Senior Lecturer in Digital Forensics at Cranfield University, explains how the GAMEPLANS acrostic can help officers produce a robust DES to effectively identify, collect, examine, and evaluate any digital devices/data, and define the circumstances when it is appropriate to conduct such tasks.

FEATURE: A new report by the Garda Síochána Inspectorate has called for the force to carry out a strategic threat and risk assessment to identify and tackle transnational organised crime; a workforce plan to better allocate resources, prioritising data-informed processes, and adopting an “all-island” approach to organised crime were also among more than 60 recommendations, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: The under-reporting of disability hate crime (DHC) is widely acknowledged, and a DHC training package for police and the wider criminal justice sector has been developed by support organisation Dimensions, working with Nottingham Trent University (NTU); an evaluation of the training by NTU’s Associate Professor Dr Irene Zempi, Professor Loretta Trickett, and Professional Policing Course Leader Martin Tangen, highlights the positive impact of the package, as well as the importance of training being informed by lived experiences.

FEATURE: Police leaders, academics and stakeholders gathered in Ontario recently for Canada’s first in-person evidence-based policing (EBP) conference, exploring a range of topics including overcoming barriers and normalizing EBP within law enforcement, the importance of leadership in embedding the approach, and turning research into action; Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood looks at the main themes and debates emerging from the Building Bridges event.

FEATURE: A report by the Centre for Women’s Justice following up on its super-complaint about police-perpetrated domestic violence in UK forces has highlighted “entrenched cultures” across the service that “harbour misogyny and cover up wrongdoing”, and has called for improved data collection, more effective vetting, better misconduct procedures, and better decision-making around safeguarding measures when officers face repeat allegations, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With law enforcement playing a vital role in the planning, preparation and response to major disasters, the increasing number of catastrophic weather events – such as the recent devastating flooding in Spain – have highlighted the challenges authorities face in relation to vulnerable victims; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth takes a closer look at the UN’s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which identifies those vulnerable groups most at risk, and the steps that need to be taken to address that risk.

INNOVATION: A new police digital academy providing officers from five forces in north-west England with easily accessible short sessions on retrieving evidence and digital safeguarding in domestic abuse cases looks set to expand to cover other crimes and be made available to other forces, after feedback from the initial programme highlighted improvements around understanding and awareness among officers, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: The use of out-of-court resolutions (OoCRs) by police forces in England and Wales is inconsistent, but some forces have recorded significant reductions in investigation times and improvements in outcomes; with costs sometimes viewed as a problem, police and technology advisor Paul Kennedy, and Josh Hartlage, founder of tech company AdventFS, explore the ‘offender pays’ OoCR model which could offer a viable solution.

FEATURE: At this year’s APCC-NPCC Partnership Summit, where science and tech issues were once again high on the agenda, City of London Police Commissioner Pete O’Doherty argued for policing to become more offensive in its efforts to ensure cyber security; senior leaders also made the case for a stronger national approach to tech, and a survivor of deepfake abuse described how the police response to her crime left her “completely broken”, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

ANALYSIS: In the fourth in a series of five articles looking at the big debates in police use of facial recognition (FR), extracted from this year’s ‘Facing the future: The rise of facial recognition in policing’ report, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland explores the crucial issue of privacy and intrusion – which goes to the very heart of the FR debate – and looks at the absence of legislation around FR, with much of the early oversight coming from privacy regulators.

FEATURE: A report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland has praised Police Scotland’s “robust and effective” response to missing persons, with the national multi-agency framework driven by the force described as a “particular strength”; but inspectors have also called for more to be done “to ensure that clear leadership and strategic direction is in place”, raise awareness among officers and partners, and address technical and resource challenges, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: In her latest report the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, has highlighted concerns around delays caused by the strain on the justice system, the continuing plight of victims of antisocial behaviour, and the need for victims of all crimes to be listened to, rather than “talked at”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: There is much debate about the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in surveillance (both in policing and other sectors), and the public’s response to that deployment; researcher, lecturer, and Sheffield Hallam University PhD candidate Yasmine Ezzeddine argues that latest research suggests the public are already adapting to the growing use of AI – and rather than saying “no”, are urging for “not so fast”.

FEATURE: Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced the most ambitious wave of policing reform for a decade – a new ‘National Centre of Policing’ to run support services for local forces, a new Home Office Police Performance Unit and co-designed police performance framework, and over £500 million of extra funding for forces across England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

ANALYSIS: New research from the University of Calgary shows that three-quarters of men charged with domestic violence (DV) have already interacted with police at least once, with two thirds showing a clear trajectory of increasing police interactions in the lead up to their DV charge; Associate Professor Lana Wells believes this data around perpetrators offers an opportunity to intervene early and prevent the escalation of violence.