Topical issues

FEATURE: A new rural and wildlife crime policing strategy for England and Wales incorporates the ‘4Ps’ approach of prevent, pursue, protect and prepare to tackle criminal activity, alongside increased police powers, greater co-operation and better use of technology, with a particular focus on the actions of organised crime groups that are blighting rural communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The public perception of policing is of a straightforward chain of command; but experienced officer Keith F. Lazaron II, who currently serves with the West Kittanning Police Department in Pennsylvania, warns that in US law enforcement the behind-the-scenes pressure exerted by the ‘stakeholder table’ of elected officials, administrators, insiders and connected community voices can lead to a shift in policing away from professional standards and toward political survival.

OPINION: In the wake of the recent controversy around West Midlands Police’s decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Aston Villa, a move which eventually led to the retirement of the force’s beleaguered Chief Constable Craig Guildford, former chief superintendent and policing lecturer Owen West, who specialised in crowd policing throughout his career, argues that the case highlights the paucity of good intelligence around football policing, and calls for a review of this major policing function.

FEATURE: A recent report drawn from a series of Canadian roundtables focusing on the governance and use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the country’s police highlights the importance of the public helping to shape the use of AI by law enforcement, and the need for a “coherent, democratic framework” enabling AI to play a “legitimate, constrained” role in policing – without drifting towards a surveillance state and also avoiding “paralysing bureaucracy”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: With the significant surge in the demand for cocaine over the past decade, drug traffickers have needed to find ways to launder huge sums of money; Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University Senior Lecturer Pierre-Charles Pradier explores the traditional processes for criminals to launder their cash, and how the development of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has prevented new challenges in the fight against organised crime.

FEATURE: Following the publication this week of the police reform proposals for England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at how community and neighbourhood policing can remain a key focus for law enforcement throughout restructuring processes, and how similar reforms in The Netherlands and the work of the European KOBAN project can provide insights for UK policing.

OPINION: Following the publication on Monday of the long-awaited white paper on reform for policing in England and Wales, Police Superintendents’ Association President, Supt Nick Smart, shares his initial response to the Government’s proposals – highlighting both the challenges and opportunities – and urges the Home Secretary to work more closely with officers in developing a service that is fit for the future.

INTERVIEW: A new study by researchers from the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre into when and why members of the public call the police has found that despite concerns over declining levels of trust, when people feel at risk or vulnerable they will still turn to the police for help – although improved availability of other agencies could help to reduce demand – as two of the report’s authors, Professor Ben Bradford and Dr David Rowlands, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: The UK Government’s long-awaited white paper on police reform in England and Wales, published today, sets out proposals for the creation of a new National Police Service with responsibility for serious and organised crime, counter-terrorism and setting national standards, a move away from the 43-force model to fewer regional forces, the introduction of a ‘licence to practise’ for officers, and powers for the Home Secretary to sack under-preforming chief constables, reports Policing Insight’s Keith Potter.

FEATURE: The 2025 mid-year performance assessment of Ireland’s An Garda Síochána, published by the Policing and Community Safety Authority, praises the force’s efforts on enhancing recruitment processes, building public confidence, and seizing drugs and weapons; but the report also raises concerns over the force’s ability to tackle cybercrime, and the ongoing lack of an effective performance management system, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With the UK Government’s police reform white paper finally emerging, police leadership is once again due to come under the spotlight; police ethics advisor Montell Neufville, and Kimberley C. Lamb, Director of Legitimacy and Public Service for Bedfordshire Police, set out why this opportunity to create a new leadership model for policing, widen the talent pool, and introduce diverse, standardised, independent selection panels, could strengthen leadership legitimacy and professionalism while building greater public and internal trust.

FEATURE: A new report into the impact of ‘Gen Z’ and ‘Gen Alpha’ on the criminal landscape is warning that, with the use of technology by digital natives of coming generations reshaping crime itself, the gap between younger people’s experience the world and how authorities try to police it will only widen, meaning law enforcement will need to evolve just as fast, or “risk irrelevance”, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: As UK policing continues to wait expectantly for a new white paper, in the second of two articles on police reform organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson takes a closer look at other elements of the ‘Performance Paradox’ – including the technology trap, and the case for national capability – and sets out 10 provocations to challenge conventional reform thinking, in the hope that policing achieve real and sustainable change for victims and officers.

FEATURE: The latest report from Europol’s European Migrant Smuggling Centre is warning that criminal networks involved in migrant smuggling and people trafficking are now more agile than ever and operate in scalable, structured, global networks, with the exploitation of digital tools and social media alongside a growing willingness to use violence all increasingly parts of the criminals’ armoury, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Wildlife and environmental crime is surging, but with Australia’s unique wildlife species, high extinction rates, and policing challenges relating to its size and remote areas, understanding of its impact is limited; a new study by Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Isabelle Onley, Research Program Manager Katie Smith, Law Lecturer Dr Kellie Toole, and Director Professor Phill Cassey, of Adelaide University’s Wildlife Crime Research Hub, has led to the creation of the country’s first national database of wildlife and environmental crime, as well as four reforms that could help to tackle the problem.

FEATURE: With someone reported missing every 90 seconds in the UK, missing persons enquiries are a significant demand on police forces and other support organisations, and can include complex concerns around vulnerability, abduction, and transnational investigations; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the work of Interpol in supporting international searches, and new European research funding streams to help develop tools and methods to improve those cross-border investigations.

OPINION: The recently published Metropolitan Police report into vetting failures highlights a wider potential “perfect storm” for good officers, warns former police superintendent Martin Gallagher, now an author and terrorism expert, as the dangers of working alongside colleagues who should not be in the service, the risks of corruption, and a lack of strong leadership leave them doing an increasingly difficult job in the face of growing hostility from the public.

FEATURE: The Government’s recently announced new strategy for tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) calls for the issue to become a “defining measure of policing standards and trust”, with plans to use tactics already deployed in the fight against organised crime and terrorism to address VAWG, alongside new technology and laws; but campaign groups and service providers have already voiced fears over the funding to implement the strategy, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Research from Operation Soteria has found that police officers believe that victims of rape and serious sexual offences may be subject to secondary victimisation by their experiences with the police, with such revictimisation occurring at the initial reporting phase, during evidence gathering, and if investigations are victim rather than suspect focused; in this article, Dr Anna Gekoski, Professor Miranda Horvath and Dr Kari Davies, who conducted the research, explore these issues further.

FEATURE: A recent report into police performance by the Social Market Foundation thinktank has highlighted that “subpar leadership and management” across police forces in England and Wales is one of the driving factors behind deteriorating assessments in areas such as criminal investigation and outcomes which, alongside the continuing mismatch between police demand and capacity, are damaging public trust and confidence, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Policing in the UK is currently waiting expectantly for the soon-to-be-published police reform white paper; in the first of a two-part article on reform – and why bigger isn’t better, culture trumps structure, and technology won’t save us without transformation – organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson explores the performance myths that need to be dispelled, the real story from the PEEL assessment data, and why Positive Deviance methodology could be crucial for police reform.

FEATURE: The UK Government’s new Road Safety Strategy includes tougher enforcement measures, better use of data to address root causes of collisions, deaths and injuries, and the launch of a new Roads Policing Innovation Programme; but it stops short of introducing the progressive licences and tighter restrictions on new and young drivers that many campaigners had called for, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

LONG READ: With policing facing both growing demand and increasingly complex challenges, the role of leadership has never been more crucial; in this long-read article that draws on his own PhD thesis, Dr Aksar Bashir of the Force Contact Training Academy at West Midlands Police explores the concept of IDEA leadership – which fuses inspirational, distributed, ethical, and authentic leadership – as the ideal approach to equip the next generation of police leaders.

OPINION: The controversial killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis has prompted widespread criticism after it was confirmed the 37-year-old mother was shot in her car; Penn State University Assistant Professor Ben Jones highlights that the tactic of shooting at suspects in moving vehicles has been prohibited in use-of-force policies adopted by many US police forces – both to prioritize the protection of human life, and for the safety of officers themselves.