Topical issues

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.

FEATURE: Measuring something as complex and disparate as organised crime has always been a challenge, but a new initiative should drastically improve the ability to gauge the influence and impact of global levels of crime, and resilience to it; Policing Insight’s Chris Allen takes a look at the Global Organised Crime Index.

FEATURE: Within weeks of the introduction of a new agreement ensuring Victoria Police officers in Australia can disengage from work when off duty, the pandemic arrived, and with it one of the few exceptions to the deal; but as The Police Association Victoria Secretary Wayne Gatt explains, officers understand the distinction between “what’s trite and what’s important”, and the spirit of the policy remains in place.

FEATURE: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College UK Preparedness workshop – the second in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Stuart Hyde, the former Chief Constable of Cumbria, highlights the importance of the third sector response (including police charities) to COVID-19, and how that will shape the role of the voluntary sector in responding to future emergencies.

OPINION: With employees having more rights to take a claim to a tribunal, and policing teams often working under constant pressure, situations where a thoughtless comment or well-intentioned joke could be used as grounds for legal action are becoming increasingly common; the answer, according to workplace relationships expert Arran Heal, is to promote conversational integrity and a ‘clear air’ culture.

OPINION: Despite more than 12 months of negotiations to agree a bipartisan route for police reform in the US, talks between the Republicans and Democrats formally broke down last month, with no end result in sight; but Professor Thaddeus Johnson and Dr Natasha Johnson of Georgia State University believe that while congressional reform may have been doomed to failure, the federal government could still have a vital role to play in supporting change at a local level.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Marc Jones, Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), is keen for PCCs to play a greater role in improving the criminal justice system for the public; but he’s also concerned that some election candidates may have fuelled public confusion over the role of a PCC and overpromised on what they could deliver, as he explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

INNOVATION: With global digitalisation, an increasingly complex international security landscape and the rapid advances in technology, new intelligence gathering tools and techniques are developing at pace; now a new European collaboration of 15 intelligence and security agencies has been established to focus and share research and development, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

FEATURE: Ahead of this week’s London Policing College UK Preparedness workshop – the first in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Supt Hannah Wheeler, the National PPE Lead for Operation Talla, explains how her team secured and distributed more than 80 million items of PPE, the steps taken to protect police and public, and the ongoing impact of the pandemic on policing.

Announcement: Policing Insight has launched a new Events section to highlight forthcoming policing, criminal justice and security related conferences, exhibitions, seminars, webinars and roundtables from around the world.

FEATURE: Although there are early signs that COVID-19 is entering a more manageable stage which could ease the burden on frontline officers, new research suggests the long-term impact of the pandemic on the wellbeing and morale of police officers could far outlast the restrictions themselves, as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports.

OPINION: In the wake of the horrific murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer and the wider debates about misogyny and the need for cultural change in policing and society, West Midlands Chief Constable Dave Thompson sends out a powerful and poignant message to his fellow male officers – along with some simple ambitions that can instigate change.

OPINION: A proposed pilot scheme to allow football fans to drink alcohol in view of the pitch during some lower league games has been branded “irresponsible” by some senior police officers; but former Chief Superintendent and crowd policing specialist Owen West, now a Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University, believes the “unevidenced” policing narrative lacks coherency, and could leave the service marginalised as reform of the sport moves forward.

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 murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of a serving Met Police officer has shocked and angered a nation, and prompted a much wider debate about violence against women and girls, misogyny, and the role of policing; author and former Met Police Chief Superintendent John Sutherland shares his thoughts on what this horrific crime means for police officers and society, and where we go from here.

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 Dr Susanne Knabe-Nicol, Lecturer in Criminology at Middlesex University and owner of PoliceScienceDr.com, about her research, efforts to turn academic findings into practical resources, and the potential of geographic profiling in tackling organised crime.

FEATURE: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College Domestic Abuse workshop – the first in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Vicky Lechuga, Manager of Hillingdon Women’s Centre, highlights the pressures created by the pandemic on domestic abuse services and survivors, as well as the opportunities for change during COVID-19 recovery.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Former Lancashire Chief Constable Andy Rhodes, now Service Director of Oscar Kilo, is “passionate” about providing support for officers and staff, and believes the new Police Covenant will improve welfare for those in policing from the moment they join the job until retirement and beyond, as he explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Tour.

OPINION: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College Domestic Abuse workshop – the first in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Deisy Carrillo, Project Co-ordinator at Hillingdon Women’s Centre, explores the issues around gender and masculinity which can influence the police response to domestic violence.

INNOVATION: A recent high-profile European police operation successfully dismantled a multi-million pound organised crime group (OCG), with Europol taking a lead role in the cyber skills needed to gather and share vital information and evidence; but as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports, new tools and techniques are urgently required if lawful interception methods are to continue to play a part in combatting the encrypted communications of OCGs.

FEATURE: With a Law Commission review of hate crime to be published shortly, and all forces in England and Wales now due to record misogyny as a hate crime, steps are well underway to tackle a key driver of violence against women and girls; Nottinghamshire was the first force in the UK to adopt such an approach, and Susannah Fish, the force’s Deputy Chief Constable at the time, explains what prompted the move, the success of the scheme, and her hopes that a national rollout will make life safer for women and girls.

OPINION: Growing use of nitrous oxide among young people in the UK has led to the Home Secretary ordering a review of the harm it causes; but Associate Professor Ian Hamilton of the University of York, and Professor Harry Sumnall of Liverpool John Moores University, argue that with no evidence that additional control is needed, an over-stretched drug treatment system and worrying signs of increased use of more harmful substances, efforts to look ‘tough on drugs’ by targeting laughing gas may be counter-productive.

ANALYSIS: Policing globally has been at the forefront of encouraging and in many cases enforcing compliance with pandemic lockdowns and legislation – a role which has often brought officers into direct confrontation with COVID-19 conspiracy theorists; Policing and Emergency Management Lecturer Dr Nick Evans of the University of Tasmania looks at the challenges presented by conspiracy theories, and what (if anything) policing could and should do to counteract them.

FEATURE: Latest research on the wellbeing of frontline Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers found that more than three-quarters were experiencing high stress during the second round of the pandemic; but as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports, it was policing culture, the political atmosphere and the lack of resources – rather than the job itself – which were the most stressful factors, even during COVID-19.