Contact management/command and control

FEATURE: A report from the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency exploring the ‘megatrends’ facing policing over the next five years and beyond is warning that as demand for policing becomes increasingly fragmented and shaped by external forces, law enforcement agencies will need to limit the expansion of their roles for the benefit of both the public and the workforce, while also addressing skills gaps and improving community collaboration, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Bringing together governments, regulators, manufacturers, operators and end-users, Critical Communications World (CCW) is the premier free-to-attend international gathering where every stakeholder in the sector can connect, collaborate and shape the future of mission-critical technologies.

OPINION: With police and law enforcement agencies increasingly looking to artificial intelligence (AI) to leverage benefits for public safety, former Colorado State Patrol chief Jim Wolfinbarger, now Vice-President of Real-Time Intelligence at Motorola Solutions, explores how role-based AI can help to convert disparate information into focused, actionable streams of intelligence that strengthen decision-making and risk management.

INNOVATION: A collaborative white paper published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and contact management specialists Content Guru is encouraging UK forces to “think big” in grasping the “a generational opportunity to genuinely transform public contact” offered by the police reform white paper, with a move towards a ‘one standard, one platform, one contact’ approach offering greater consistency, improved service and significant efficiency savings, as Policing insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Retail crime in the UK is rising fast, but efforts to tackle it are being held back by a lack of trust. Many retailers no longer believe reporting incidents leads to action, weakening the system. Rebuilding trust through better communication between retailers and policing is essential to improve reporting, strengthen intelligence and deliver better outcomes.

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.

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.

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: Speaking at a recent webinar hosted by the Canadian Association of Police Governance, Police Research Lab Director Professor Craig Bennell highlighted the importance of an “informed public” if policing leaders and policymakers are to base practice and decision-making on data drawn from public surveys; he also reiterated the need for “positive public contact”, the value of factual clarity, and the benefits of a calmer police communications response to major incidents, as Policing Insights Christine Townsend reports.

OPINION: Despite growing momentum across society for the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI), policing – like many other sectors – is proving to be big on ambition but slow on adoption of the new technology; Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO of Content Guru, explores the reasons behind the slow adoption, the challenges around public trust and confidence, and how the successful introduction of AI into critical healthcare communications could provide lessons for policing.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already starting to transform policing and other emergency services. Jamie Wilson of NiCE explains how the true benefits of AI lie in extracting valuable insights from data. A notable example of this is in emergency communications centres.

ANALYSIS: Policing is looking to technology to establish new channels for public contact, but the impact on public-police encounters has until now been little studied; a three-year research project by SIPR Director Professor Liz Aston, Senior Criminology Lecturer Dr Helen Wells, Criminology Lecturer Dr Estelle Clayton, UCL Professor Ben Bradford, and Criminology Professor Megan O’Neill, has highlighted valuable learning on a range of issues including accessibility, the importance of human interaction, and confidence in policing.

OPINION: Police forces globally face continuing modernisation challenges – with technology a key element in driving change – but the employee experience is often neglected in the transformation process; Phillip Bland, Global Government Advisor at experience management specialists Qualtrics, sets out how forces can ensure the frontline employee voice is heard, measured and acted upon in the police modernisation process.

OPINION: The collapse over the past decade of construction firms Carillion and ISG and provider Robin Hood Energy highlighted the dangers to public services and the risks for government of major single suppliers going bust; but as Content Guru Co-Founder and Deputy CEO Martin Taylor warns, the collapse of key policing supplier could disrupt critical communication channels, damage public confidence and compromise public safety – so what can forces be doing to reduce those risks?

INNOVATION: As International Control Room Week gets underway, Essex Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Contact Operations Lead, outlines the development of AI Post-Call Analysis, which produces concise, easy-to-read summaries of all incoming control room contact and automatically categorises calls by topic to enable rapid retrieval and analysis – one of a tranche of technical innovations designed to help forces “move from overwhelmed to empowered”.

FEATURE: By combining a suite of national innovations with its own local solutions, Suffolk Constabulary has transformed its contact management and response functions; Assistant Chief Constable Eamonn Bridger tells Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass how the force moved out of an HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services ‘inadequate’ public contact rating to no longer being assessed as a ‘cause for concern’ - all within 10 months.

FEATURE: This year’s Cityforum Transforming Police Public Contact event, supported by Policing Insight as media partner, saw experts from across the sector discuss key issues around contact management; in this article – a shortened version of the full report from the event – Dr Rick Muir, Policing Advisor to the Home Secretary, looks at some of the debates from the day, including the strategic challenges, potential quick wins, and how the discussion has broadened to consider ways police-public interaction can improve trust and confidence.

INNOVATION: Following on from the Cityforum roundtable on transforming police public contact earlier this year, and with the Government’s policing priorities highlighting the issue as crucial to modern service delivery, Content Guru Co-Founder and Deputy CEO Martin Taylor looks at the strategic reform, innovation, and future of police public contact.

INNOVATION: The continuing development of multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the last in the recent series of Policing Tech Forum webinars produced by PolicingTV, Content Guru Business Development Director Shub Naha, Humberside Police Chief Digital and Innovation Officer Scot Dunn, and David Jackson from the NPCC’s Digital Public Contact Programme, explored the opportunities for AI to improve service delivery as well as staff and officer wellbeing, but not to replace humans in the process.

INNOVATION: In the remotest parts of Australia – as in many other countries – using a mobile phone to contact the emergency services via calls or text messages has not been an option; but ahead of this year’s election, the Australian Government has promised to mandate mobile carriers in the country to work with low Earth orbit satellites to provide access to mobile voice, SMS and the Triple Zero (000) service almost everywhere across Australia, as RMIT University Associate Professor Dr Mark A Gregory explains.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Domestic abuse specialists will be installed in 999 control rooms as part of the introduction of Raneem’s Law. This has already been rolled out across five forces in England and Wales, and further guidance will follow this year. It forms part of the Government's ongoing mission to combat abuse and violence against women and girls. As well as strengthening the police’s response to domestic abuse, it aims to offer enhanced, long-term protection for all victims.

INNOVATION: The continuing development of digital and multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the third in the Policing Tech Forum series of webinars produced by PolicingTV, Ch Supt Tony Josephs, NPCC Digital Public Contact Programme Director, Tony Jackson, Head of Digital Futures at Merseyside Police, and Martin Taylor, Deputy CEO of Content Guru, explored opportunities to enhance the public experience through the My Police Portal and other technology, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: The continuing development of digital and multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the second in a series of police technology webinars produced by PolicingTV, NPCC Digital Public Contact Programme Social Media lead Patrick Robins and Digital Youth Engagement lead Alex Finn, and TOEX and CSE Taskforce Communications lead Natalie Reed, explored the benefits and risks of policing’s social media participation, and the challenges around engaging young people.

FEATURE: The continuing development of digital and multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the first in a new series of police technology webinars produced by PolicingTV, Digital Public Contact Programme SRO DCC Simon Megicks, NPCC National Contact Management lead ACC Catherine Akehurst, and Simon Hall, Chair of techUK’s Justice and Emergency Service Interoperability Forum, shared their views on the importance of closer working between forces, budget challenges, and the potential for more effective data sharing.