Topical issues

INTERVIEW: The focus of New Zealand Police’s road policing approach has been widened to include impairment prevention relating to drug-driving and fatigue; Supt Steve Greally, Director of the National Road Policing Centre, spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the need for a holistic approach, the plans for roadside drug testing, and the impact on officers of dealing with the fatalities and serious injuries caused by poor driver decisions.

INTERVIEW: In the third in a month-long series of articles exploring the EU-funded PROTECTOR project, which aims to design, develop and deliver the next generation of measures to enhance the protection of places of worship and their congregations, Policing Insight’s Andy Staniforth spoke to Nina Tell and Daniel Jacobsson of the Swedish Police Authority about their organisation’s role in the initiative, and the benefits the project has brought to policing in Sweden.

INNOVATION: With the publication of Baroness Casey’s Review the most recent development to highlight the importance of integrity in policing, the need for more effective employee vetting and screening processes is once again under the spotlight; Dr Matt Bland, Associate Professor in Evidence-Based Policing at Cambridge University, outlines the work undertaken by Master’s student Nick Dale to develop a screening solution that could be a gamechanger for UK policing.

FEATURE: Australia is the latest country to give serious consideration to criminalising coercive control, a step taken in the UK in 2015; new research published by Melbourne’s Monash University suggests that while the majority of victim-survivors believe such a step would be beneficial, they also argue significant investment in police training and a ‘cultural shift’ in the policing of domestic abuse would be required to make any new offence effective, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

OPINION: With the recent Casey Review once against highlighting the need for changes to existing ‘police culture’ and the concept of ‘leadership’ in UK policing, former officer Tom Andrews, Policing Lecturer at the University of Derby, looks at previous examples of direct entry into policing, and considers whether this approach could offer solutions to some of the concerns raised by Baroness Casey and others.

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FEATURE: Facial recognition technology is often criticised for its purported disproportionality, with police use of this tool already banned in some parts of the world; but a new academic study – hailed by the Met and South Wales Police – challenges this narrative, arguing that British policing is deploying live facial recognition tech that is effective and avoids the problem of disproportionality, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

OPINION: The recent final report of the Baroness Casey Review into standards of behaviour and internal culture in the Metropolitan Police Service included findings of “institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia”, and of a force that is “losing its way”; ahead of a virtual panel exploring these issues later this month, former Met and West Midlands officer Ron Winch, now Senior Teaching Fellow in Policing at Birmingham City University, looks at what needs to be done to get the force and policing back on course.

INTERVIEW: As religious tensions once again threaten to boil over in Jerusalem – with places of worship at risk of becoming backdrops for violence – Policing Insight’s Andy Staniforth spoke to An Garda Síochána Sergeant Eugene O’Leary about his force’s involvement in the PROTECTOR project, which aims to design, develop and deliver the next generation of integrated measures to enhance the protection of all places of worship.

OPINION: Police are increasingly the first point of contact to respond to those in mental health crisis, but when restraint has been the focus of such a response, some cases have led to tragic consequences; Lynn Emslie, Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody, believes a partnership response from policing and health services could help to avoid future fatalities.

OPINION: While the debate continues around UK police education and the various entry routes for recruits into policing, former officer and now University of Central Lancashire Policing Lecturer Derek Flint argues that the ‘precious union’ between policing and academia needs to be maintained and strengthened to ensure the service has constables with a ‘professional curiosity’, and a desire and a determination to find out ‘why’ things are happening.

OPINION: With the police Uplift programme to recruit 20,000 ‘additional’ officers across England and Wales due to have hit its target at the end of March, change management consultant and former police officer Tom Wheelhouse looks at what the initiative has achieved – and the challenges that have arisen – around the issues of recruitment, retention and resettlement.

FEATURE: Last month saw more than 100 victims and families of those affected by terrorism, as well as support organisations, emergency services and European representatives, gather in Paris for the European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at continuing EU efforts to combat terrorism and support victims, including new regulations aimed at removing terrorist content online.

FEATURE: In the first of a new series of The Police Student focusing on Criminology in Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly looks at the definition of criminology, the wide range of areas that feed into the discipline, and how the various approaches to criminal justice – including retributive justice, deterrence, and rehabilitation – impact on the role of policing.

RESEARCH: For several years, successive UK governments have vowed to crack down on antisocial behaviour, and with an election likely next year, the current Conservative Government has pledged to take fresh action; but as Leeds Beckett Criminology Lecturer Kirsty-Louise Cameron points out, with vague and often differing definitions of what antisocial behaviour is, some people could find themselves facing eviction and even prosecution for actions many would consider acceptable.

FEATURE: While police agencies have increased their supportive responses to the trauma that can damage staff wellbeing, the role of leaders and managers in taking a preventative approach to organisational stressors has been largely overlooked; now a new paper from the Australian Institute of Police Management and Griffith University sets out a Leadership for Wellness Strategy that could address those gaps, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

LATEST RESEARCH: This summary curates the key policing-related research that's been published online in the last week, with links to the original journal articles, and selected abstracts.

OPINION: The relationship between the police and the media has always been complex, but recent coverage of high-profile crimes involving officers, along with a raft of inquiries and reviews, has prompted concerns that the current reporting of law enforcement is negatively biased and contributing to the fall in public confidence; in the first of two Policing Insight opinion articles on the issue, former officer and regular ‘police commentator’ Graeme Wettone looks at how the relationship has changed – and what can be done to improve it.

INTERVIEW: In the latest in a series of interviews with leading figures involved in the research and investigation of organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Allen spoke to former police officer and Interpol Director Michael O’Connell, now Managing Director of Critical Insights Consultancy, about biometric-based travel bans to stop criminals at national borders, the importance of following financial trails, and why the UK’s Baroness Casey Review has implications for all policing agencies.

RESEARCH: The wealth of CCTV footage recorded in a wide range of public and private settings regularly forms vital evidence in court cases; but a new study of British murder investigations by Professor Fiona Brookman and Research Fellow Helen Jones of the University of South Wales suggests that issues around interpretation, availability and quality of CCTV represent challenges and risks that can make such evidence unreliable and problematic.

ANALYSIS: Ten years after the pilot of the first Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) in England and Wales, this vital safeguarding tool is now on the statute books; while other countries around the world have introduced similar schemes, Dr Katerina Hadjimatheou of Essex University believes the approaches adopted both in England and Wales and South Australia  around who can be given information, and when and how disclosures can be made, set an example for other countries to follow.

ANALYSIS: In this fifth and final article in a month-long series celebrating International Women’s Day, Dr Emma Williams, Dr Linda Maguire, Dr Arun Sondhi and Richard Harding of the Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning share some important insights about the ground-breaking Operation Soteria Bluestone project currently underway to transform the police response to Rape and Serious Sexual Offences.

FEATURE: Religious beliefs remain a key component of the motivations of terrorist groups operating around the world, meaning that places of worship and faith congregation will continue to be potential terrorist targets; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports on the latest EU-funded initiative police initiative to design, develop and deliver enhanced protection to those religious sites.