Topical issues

LONG READ: The role of police officers in schools is an often-controversial topic, with some viewing their presence as essential to help divert young people from a criminal future or protect them from being victims of crime, while others argue that police involvement risks criminalising young people – especially those from ethnic minority backgrounds; Policing Insight’s James Sweetland explores all sides of this contentious debate.

OPINION: South Yorkshire Police Detective Chief Inspector Aneela Khalil-Khan is one of the country’s most senior female officers of colour, and recently completed a Fulbright Scholarship study looking at the recruitment, retention, and progression of minority female officers in the UK and the US; in this article she explains the findings from her research, and shares some of her own personal experiences.

FEATURE: The first five-year strategy to tackle fraud, economic and cyber crime was recently published by the City of London Police – the lead force on the issue for England and Wales – in an effort to redress a decade of ‘deprioritising’ fraud compared to other crimes; the strategy looks to improve the service to victims, prevent the continuing escalation of fraud, and secure more successful justice outcomes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Overdoses of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which kills twice as many US citizens and 10 times as many Canadian people than firearms each year, are starting to increase in the UK and Europe; Vernon White, former Chief of Ottawa Police Service, and Joe Carlebach, former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor, explore the efforts being made to stem the supply of the precursor ingredients from China, and manufactured, street-grade fentanyl from Mexico and Canada.

OPINION: The decision to implement a third, non-degree entry route into UK policing may already have been made, but University of Central Lancashire Policing Lecturer David Marshall believes the move to bypass the current degree entry routes will negatively impact on efforts to professionalise policing, create a two-tier service, and do little to address falling levels of trusts and confidence in the police.

OPINION: Levels of ‘honour-based’ abuse (HBA) have gone up in the UK by 10% over the last three years, an increase driven partly by a rise in reporting as communities emerged from pandemic lockdowns, and also by changes to police recording rules; Dr Sadiq Bhanbhro of Sheffield Hallam University believes the lack of a clear legal definition of HBA, together with political cultural sensitivities, maybe preventing the police and Crown Prosecution Service from tackling the crime more effectively.

INNOVATION: With the growing UK national focus on the benefits of robotic process automation (RPA) – including the appointment of a new National Police Chiefs’ Council lead – local innovation in this area is all the more interesting; Essex Police are among those trying to leverage the maximum potential from this and other new technology, and highlighted some of those developments at a recent one-day conference, as this first in a series of articles on the event by Policing Insight’s James Sweetland explains.

FEATURE: Drug-drivers convicted in the South Tees area (policed by officers in Cleveland) will become the first in the UK to be offered an educational course to reduce reoffending – similar to the drink-drive rehabilitation scheme – under a pilot programme which, if successful, could be rolled out nationwide, as Policing Insight’s Thomas James reports.

FEATURE: Former Sussex Detective Chief Inspector Alison Eaton, now an international sexual and gender-based violence expert and trainer, is playing a key role in setting up SARC-style services for refugee and local community victims in Jordan, in a project which could become international best practice, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: Although FBI statistics suggest that the vast majority of homicides in the United States are committed using firearms and knives, Professors Jack Levin and Julie B Wiest believe ‘covert violence’ – such as poisoning, falls and other ‘accidental’ deaths – are actually responsible for significant numbers of homicides that don’t feature in the figures, requiring better prevention strategies along with greater focus on the issue by law enforcement and other authorities to tackle the issue.

LONG READ: Having previously considered some of the wider issues around policing’s approach to the exponential growth in volume and complexity of data sources for investigations and intelligence gathering, in this latest in a series of features on the police data challenge, Policing Insight’s Keith Potter looks at the concerns around staffing – from skills gaps and accreditation to leadership literacy and implementation.

FEATURE: Remote sensing tech to spot knives, off-the-shelf drones, real-time fingerprint matching at crime scenes, and deepfake detection algorithms – the UK’s recent Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and National Police Chiefs’ Council Partnership Summit highlighted a wealth of potential new applications of science and tech, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

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 Dr Jordan Nunan, former police officer, Senior Lecturer in Criminal at the University of Northampton, and National Co-ordinator for the National Police Chief’s Council’s Intelligence Practice Research Consortium, about the value of police-academic partnerships, the Achilles heel tactic, and the crucial role of human intelligence sources in tackling organised crime.

ANALYSIS: The Forensic Science Regulator Code of Practice, which sets out the standards for forensic science activities in crime investigations across England and Wales, came into force in October; while the Code will deliver greater consistency and quality across forensics in law enforcement, the implementation will also create challenges around accreditation, capacity and training for forces working towards compliance, as Richard Cockerill, Digital Forensic Laboratory Operations Director with technologists CACI, explains.

FEATURE: A new survey published by London TravelWatch has found that one in five LGBTQ+ people have experienced hate crime while using the public transport network in London over the past year, but more than 80% felt unable to report the incident to police, prompting calls for the Met and British Transport Police to renew efforts to build confidence in policing among members of the LGBT+ community, as Policing Insight’s Thomas James reports.

INTERVIEW: A cold case review team led by Leeds Trinity University’s Dr Kirsty Bennett is calling on forces to be more open to sharing information and working in collaboration to meet the increasing demand from grieving families looking for justice for their lost loved ones, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: As security has deteriorated in Nigeria, one of the country’s main challenges has become ‘banditry’, with an eight-fold increase in the number of armed robberies, kidnaps and murders between 2018 and 2022; Dr Oluwole Ojewale of the Institute for Security Studies in Senegal believes that a decentralised police force, working in partnership with community activists and the military where required, would be the most effective solution to the problem.

FEATURE: At this month’s Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and National Police Chiefs’ Council Partnership Summit, politicians and police leaders presented an unambiguously positive view of the potential benefits of live facial recognition – with South Wales leading the way, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

OPINION: Body armour is essential kit for police officers, but ill-fitting vests that now carry additional equipment weight are causing significant health problems for those on the frontline; Zac Mader of the Police Federation of England and Wales argues that new lightweight, gender-specific body armour could address many of the lower back pain issues associated with existing equipment, a problem highlighted by physiotherapist Patrick Hoyte

INTERVIEW: As terrorist propaganda continues to promulgate the internet, new EU regulations have been introduced for tech companies to remove harmful content, with penalties for non-compliance; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to Sophia Rothut, researcher at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, about who will enforce these new provisions, and how a Tech Against Terrorism Europe initiative is providing guidance and training for companies on compliance.

FEATURE: For Professor Betsy Stanko, co-lead of Operation Soteria Bluestone, policing’s “corporate culture” needs to change; during an event hosted at New Scotland Yard, she called for a new mindset that sees forces learn the right lessons about how they handle rape and serious sexual offences, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

ANALYSIS: Robust performance measurement practices are instrumental in demonstrating police accountability, transparency and improvement, all key steps to strengthening public confidence in policing; but a new RAND Europe study of international approaches has highlighted both the dangers of disjointed police performance measurement, and innovative approaches from law enforcement around the world, as RAND analyst Emma Zürcher explains.

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ANALYSIS: While the Baroness Casey Review was underway – a review which highlighted “toxic cultures” of sexism and racism in the force’s firearms unit – the National Police Chiefs’ Council commissioned its own UK-wide review of the role; Adrian James, Reader in Police Studies at Liverpool John Moores University and one of the authors of the subsequent report, says that similar issues around macho, sexist cultures and elitism are evident in police firearms teams across the country.