Topical issues

INTERVIEW: Ahead of next month’s launch of the Police.AI initiative, which will develop and drive technological advances for forces in England and Wales, NCA Director of Threat Leadership Alex Murray, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for AI, spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the aims and ambitions for the new centre, the potential for leveraging technology in policing, and the role of police leadership – with current chiefs likely to be the last cohort to run a ‘human only’ workforce.

ANALYSIS: In the third in a trilogy of articles focusing on male officer mental health in policing, accredited psychological therapist Dr Rachel Rogers explores the aftermath of the challenges and barriers to help-seeking for male officers – workplace processes, changes, worsening of symptoms, and risk of Complex PTSD and/or Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder – and includes the comments and experiences of officers themselves.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Criminal scam operations are rapidly evolving, and SIM farms now power fraud at an industrial scale. These covert centers can house tens of thousands of SIM cards, cycling through them to evade detection while enabling mass scam calls and texts. SS8’s latest analysis reveals how advanced location intelligence helps law enforcement uncover these hidden operations and shut them down.

FEATURE: The latest report by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee into forensic science provision in England and Wales is warning that the neglect of the system is a “national scandal in the making”, with urgent steps needing to be taken including the creation of a National Institute for Forensic Science, an independent national storage capacity for long-term evidence retention, and a credible plan to preserve specialist forensic skills, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The latest report from digital investigations specialists Cellebrite highlights that while smartphones are now involved in 97% of criminal cases, many policing agencies still face a digital evidence backlog due to factors such as a lack of digital forensics resources, and a reliance on portable hard drives to share digital data; but there are steps that law enforcement can take to ease the bottleneck and speed up justice, as Jared Barnhart, Cellebrite’s Head of Global Engagement & Community, explains.

FEATURE: Research recently published by The Police Foundation on the health impact of fraud is calling for a national evidence-based ‘vulnerability framework’ to ensure a more consistent approach towards victims by police forces in England and Wales, along with a multi-agency, trauma-informed service model for victims, amid concerns over the life-threatening impact of the crime and the fear that police are being left to fill the gap in specialist support, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: This week saw the UK launch of a new Level 3 Award in Counter-Terrorism Protective Security and Preparedness, developed by Skills for Justice (SFJ) Awards in collaboration with the National Counter-Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), and endorsed by Counter Terrorism Policing; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to SFJ Awards Managing Director David Higham about the aims of the qualification, the involvement of NaCTSO, and how the award helps with the implementation of Martyn’s Law.

OPINION: One in six people live with a significant disability, and evidence shows they face higher exposure to violence, exploitation, and procedural injustice; Col Dana Humaid Al Marzouqi, Director General of the International Affairs Bureau in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Interior, highlights some of the ways disabled people are targeted, and the steps that can be taken by policing to ensure inclusive security, including examples from the US, UAE and Portugal.

OPINION: While traditional policing challenges around issues such as serious violence and community harm will remain, the greatest pressures on law enforcement over the coming decade will come from hybrid and cascading risk, warns Odette Meli, former Co-ordinator of the Australian Federal Police’s Strategic Insights Centre and a Fellow of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), who argues that policing will need to integrate strategic foresight and interoperability if it is to maintain legitimacy.

FEATURE: Ireland’s Policing and Community Safety Authority, the oversight body established in April last year, has set out new Policing Priorities for An Garda Síochána, focusing on working in partnership to meet community needs, providing a consistent, supportive and quality service, and enabling the frontline, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: A recent evaluation of the Serious Violence Duty – introduced in England and Wales under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 – has underlined the importance of data sharing and the key role of analysis in supporting inter-agency collaboration and the implementation of a ‘whole-system’ approach to tackling serious violence, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: In the latest in The Police Student series focusing on Community and Neighbourhood Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly focuses on the issue of policing and community engagement – the evolution of the approach, opportunities for and barriers to engagement (especially with hard-to-reach communities), and what officers can do to engage the communities they police.

ANALYSIS: Following several reviews and inquiries examining the way policing in England and Wales communicates with the public, the College of Policing has published updated authorised professional practice (APP) for media and communications, with the aim of bring greater clarity; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend, a subject matter expert in communication and community engagement, explores the key measures highlighted in the guidance, and shares College CEO Sir Andy Marsh’s views on what the APP is intended to achieve.

OPINION: Victims of domestic abuse are encouraged to speak up, report abuse and ask for help, but all too often – and even when they do everything asked of them – the system fails to act, says Marco Fiorentino, former probation officer and Executive Director at NEC Digital Studio, who describes how safeguarding systems can work together to keep women and children safe.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: As forces work towards Policing Vision 2030, questions remain about the pace of meaningful change. This article explores how predictive policing is enabling forces to move from reactive response to earlier intervention, using existing data and governed AI to build prevention and public trust.

ANALYSIS: A report from the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre is calling for a more consistent police use of out-of-court resolutions (OoCRs) in the UK, after researchers found that the approach was much more likely to be used with young and first-time offenders rather than low-risk repeat offenders, for whom an OoCR could break the cycle of offending; the research also highlights the importance of including those with lived experience in the design of schemes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: Wildlife and environmental crime is now estimated to be the fourth largest organised transnational crime sector, with significant overlaps into other forms of organised crime; Professor Phill Cassey, Director of the Wildlife Crime Research Hub at Adelaide University, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the need for dedicated policing units to tackle the crime, alongside new legislation and tougher penalties for offenders.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The BAPCO Annual Event returns to Coventry on 25–26 March 2026, bringing together the UK and international public safety communications community for two days of innovation and insight.

INNOVATION: The recent UK police reform white paper outlined Police.AI as a crucial part of the modernisation process; but Vsevolod Shabad, an independent researcher and governance adviser specialising in AI accountability and public sector decision-making, warns that operational gains do not follow automatically from the deployment of AI, and governance models that don’t have the organisational capacity or understanding to accurately scrutinise system outputs and performance offer governance in name only.

FEATURE: A recent report on Best Value in Policing, published jointly by Audit Scotland and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, has warned that more than 10 years after it was formed – and in the face of increasingly complex challenges – workforce planning in Police Scotland “remains underdeveloped”, with the optimum workforce size, capacity and skillset still to be identified, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Australia, like many other countries, has a long history of organised crime, much of which has flourished by exploiting illicit markets; Deakin University Associate Professor Dr James Martin, and University of Sydney Senior Lecturer Dr Edward Jegasothy, argue that the current government reliance on restrictions, penalties and police powers to disrupt supply and “crush” organised crime is actually more likely to drive it, and suggest a better route would be to bring better regulated markets into the open.

FEATURE: With fraud remaining a constant and growing threat to individuals, businesses and national economies, and with the rapidly developing digital tools available to organised crime groups, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the latest assessment from Europol of the need for financial services organisations to prioritise post-quantum cryptography – particularly for point-of-sale systems – to protect both consumers and businesses.

ANALYSIS: As UK policing starts to embrace machine-learning solutions and interest in algorithmic risk assessments grows, Tamara Polajnar, CEO of herEthical AI, explores the existing domestic abuse assessment tools, the importance of understanding how automated risk assessment is used and should be applied, and what steps need to be taken to ensure automation and algorithms can extract vital domestic abuse details and context lost in traditional tick-box methodologies.

PRIZE DRAW WINNER: Results from the UK Police Digital Experience Survey 2025, carried out by Policing Insight and backed by the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council, Police Federation of England & Wales, and the Police Digital Service, will shortly be published, providing a full picture of the digital technology experiences of officers and staff; and for Victim Care Officer Aimee Edwards, the prize draw winner picked from more than 6,600 survey respondents, it also led to a new hi-tech fitness watch.