Crime

INNOVATION: A youth-focused custody suite introduced by Cleveland Police provides separate facilities for young offenders away from potentially damaging influences of adult suspects, and the opportunity to talk to Youth Justice Service ‘custody navigators’ offering engagement and immediate support, in an initiative which is already attracting interest from other forces, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: An artificial intelligence-powered knife database, created through a collaboration between the Metropolitan Police and Surrey University, is enabling officers to match dangerous weapons using images taken in often dark and difficult conditions; a dashboard explaining how the knife recognition system works could soon be rolled out nationwide, as the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser reports.

INTERVIEW: Despite new legal provisions and the best effort of law enforcement agencies, the online terror threat persists, with increasingly sophisticated propaganda campaigns recruiting and radicalising teenagers to terrorist causes; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to international expert Laurence Bindner, co-founder of the JOS Project, about the challenges of tackling online terrorism and the current threat landscape.

FEATURE: Multi-agency scrutiny panels which examine domestic abuse cases that have been deemed ‘no further action’ in Avon and Somerset have helped to identify mistakes, highlight learning opportunities for police and partner agencies, and increase transparency for victim/survivors, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With the number of victims of human trafficking and modern slavery continuing to increase, Professor Darren K. Stocker of Cape Cod Community College argues that law enforcement could benefit from applying a sociological-based model towards tackling human trafficking.

OPINION: Although Australia is taking a prominent role in protecting those under the age of 16 from the dangers of social media, the debate around the criminal age of responsibility has seen some states push for those 10 and over to be punished for their crimes; Australian Strategic Policy Institute Fellow Anna Alexander argues this inconsistency around age and vulnerability highlights contradictions in the country’s policies, and that a whole-of-government approach is essential to protect at-risk youth.

ANALYSIS: The increase in drug-related extreme violence and the scale of drug seizures across Europe suggest Mexican and South American cartels already view the EU as the ideal location for expansion; former DEA Special Agent Michael Brown, Global Director of Counter-Narcotics Technology at Rigaku Analytical Devices, believes steps can be taken by European governments and law enforcement to thwart that expansion – but will require political will, increased co-operation, and better use of technology.

FEATURE: With the rapid increase in the number of teenage terror suspects detained in the UK, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores the work of the EU’s INDEED project, which uses evidence-based approaches to evaluate initiatives to prevent and counter violent extremism, including a new definition of evidence-based policing that incorporates community values and perspectives into decision-making processes.

FEATURE: With the role of women in terrorist organisations and activities an increasingly debated subject, a new EU research funding stream will give organisations including police forces the opportunity to enhance the understanding and motivation of women and girls for supporting extremist ideologies, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

ANALYSIS: Gun homicides in Philadelphia surged during the covid years, but so far in 2024 fatal shootings are down by almost 40%; Carla Lewandowski and John A. Shjarback, Associate Professors of Criminal Justice at Rowan University, argue that while there is no single explanation for the drop, new police crime fighting strategies and leadership, a return to post-covid ‘near normalcy’ for policing and criminal justice, and wider national crime trends have all played a part.

ANALYSIS: With two court cases now underway in relation to fatal attacks at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, and the Metropolitan Police’s public order lead highlighting that officers at the event are increasingly being drawn into stewarding rather than policing roles, Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone looks at continuing concerns around the location and increased crowd numbers attending the event, and warns of the growing risk of a public safety disaster unless changes are made.

ANALYSIS: While the potential benefits of perpetrator programmes in reducing domestic and sexual violence have been recognised for some time, a new report by researchers at Australia’s Monash University highlights the need for better measurement of why some programmes prove more effective than others, and the factors that can influence male offender engagement, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: In the wake of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police Officer, Bedfordshire Police launched its Blue Bell network to support victims and witnesses of sexual misconduct within the force, and empower officers and staff to speak out; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Bedfordshire Detective Chief Superintendent Zara Brown about the success of the initiative, tackling the “epidemic” of violence against women and girls, and the interest in the scheme from other forces and agencies.

FEATURE: The murder of Wolverhampton teenager Ronan Kanda in 2022 highlighted a serious issue around illegal online knife sales in the UK; speaking at the recent Police Superintendents’ Association conference, Metropolitan Police Commander Stephen Clayman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead on knife crime, explored the threat posed by irresponsible retailers and third-party sellers – and how the police aim to tackle it, as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro reports.

INNOVATION: A new independent report shows that retail crime reporting platform Auror saved New Zealand Police nearly 170,000 hours of officer time over a 12-month period – but direct-to-police retail crime reporting systems are becoming more common all over the world, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INTERVIEW: Former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner and National Police Chief’s Council Lead for Counter-Terrorism Policing Neil Basu QPM is one of the country’s most outspoken former senior cops; in the final part of a series of interviews with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, he discussed institutional racism – what chief constables really think about this contentious label, the “utterly ineffective and utterly ignored” Police Race Action Plan, and why taking on neo-Nazi group National Action was one of his “proudest moments” in policing.

ANALYSIS: New research from the University of Liverpool working with three English police forces has highlighted that officers’ unmanageable workloads, insufficient training and lack of understanding of digitally enabled coercive control are leading to missed opportunities in investigating potential perpetrators and protecting victim-survivors, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Every seven minutes a child is faced with harmful online content but as the threat grows, law enforcement is still playing catch up in its awareness of the risk the Metaverse poses to child safety. Policing Insight's Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons reports on new research led by Professors Julia Davidson of the University of East London and Elena Martellozzo of Middlesex University that is seeking to redress the balance.

ANALYSIS: While a recent raise in the terror threat level has increased awareness among Australians about the domestic terror threat, John Coyne and Justin Bassi of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warn that Australia’s diminishing role in international counter-terrorism (CT), coupled with uncertainty over CT responsibility and resources at government level, is exposing Australian citizens to greater risk.

INTERVIEW: Former Met Assistant Commissioner and NPCC Lead for CT Policing Neil Basu QPM is one of the country’s most outspoken former senior cops; in the second part of an extended interview series with Policing Insight’s James Sweetland, he gave his reflections on the Met today – how early access to the excoriating Casey Review left him “in tears”, a personal insight into Mark Rowley the “blue sky” thinker and “reformer”, and his perception of “poor leadership in policing, from top to bottom.”

ANALYSIS: Football and other public order events inevitability lead to officers being drafted in from other units but research undertaken by Keele University's Dr Mike Hope, Project Leader for ENABLE UK, and Professor Clifford Stott as part of the ENABLE project reveals how greater use of Operational Football Officers reduces abstraction rates as well as disorder and anti-social behaviour.

FEATURE: Terrorist organisations are turning to small hosting service providers (HSPs) with less capacity and capability to prevent the spread of extremism on their platforms. Policing Insight's Andy Staniforth reports on TATE, an initiative specifically designed to help HSPs remove terrorist content quickly.

INTERVIEW: Human trafficking and exploitation stretches far beyond borders. Former MPS Superintendent Bernie Gravett who led the first joint trafficking investigation in Europe and who now specialises in counter-trafficking training tells Policing Insight’s Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons that training overseas officers is key to helping tackle serious and organised crime in the UK.

ANALYSIS: Animal cruelty is recognised in the US as both a potential predictor of intimate partner violence, and as a way to perpetrate that violence; research by Professor Lynn Addington of the American University found that intimate partner violence incidents involving animal cruelty are more likely to end with an arrest, reiterating the importance of expanding intimate partner violence protection laws to include pets, and the need for strong partnerships between police and humane law enforcement departments.