Investigation

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The British Retail Consortium’s (BRC’s) Annual Crime Survey, published earlier in the year, makes for grim reading. Retailers report a sharp increase in theft, and acts of violence and abuse are up a staggering 340 percent (since 2020) as well. These trends are occurring in spite of huge retail security investments, new policing initiatives, and legislative changes put in place by the UK government to bolster the prosecution of retail crime.

FEATURE: A report into the organised ritual abuse of children and adults in England and Wales is warning of the considerable barriers to reporting abuse involving multiple offenders acting in concert to terrorise victims, and that the limited number of detections and convictions for such offences is likely to be the “tip of the iceberg”, suggesting that policing and other agencies need to take seriously “the prospect of multiple undetected homicides”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: With online cross-border financial scams driving fraud to new levels – it now accounts for 40% of all crime against individuals in England and Wales – most police and government efforts remain focused on preventative and defensive measures; but new research from Professor Mark Button and Associate Professor Branislav Hock at the University of Portsmouth highlights several ways to take more offensive actions against fraudsters, including embracing the work of the private anti-scam community.

ANALYSIS: In the third in this series of articles exploring the links between sport and organised crime, Policing Insight’s Chris Dalby looks at the opaque ownership arrangements, shady sponsorship deals and over-inflated transfer and services fees that have created an opportunity for criminals to launder illicit funds through professional football in England and across Europe.

FEATURE: New research by Paris Graduate School PhD researcher David Graves, a former UK fraud squad detective, suggests that the creation of a National Crime Co-ordination Centre could enhance collaboration between police and private investigators, co-ordinate the multi-agency response to major and emerging threats including organised crime, and improve public confidence in policing, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Dr Chris Allen.

FEATURE: A new report from Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons into how the UK policing response to modern slavery has changed over the past 10 years warns that the Whitehall rhetoric and political focus on organised immigration crime has left forces under resourced and officers with ‘one hand tied behind their backs’ in the fight against modern slavery – despite the significant impact on victims and the economy – as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A recent joint inspection on case building across England and Wales, undertaken by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, has highlighted continuing challenges around communications between the police and CPS, a lack of ‘fit for purpose’ IT, and the need for a new over-arching national criminal justice system strategy, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Organised crime groups (OCGs) are driving a significant increase in UK vehicle thefts, with international and online market places and criminals stealing to order, against a backdrop of dwindling detective numbers and a lack of specialists, says a new study from the Royal United Services Institute, which calls for a new national co-ordination body to tackle the “complex, cross-jurisdictional and international threat”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has found that most countries have gaps in their understanding of terrorism financing trends, with terrorist organisations exploiting vulnerabilities both in traditional financial systems, and increasingly through online opportunities; the FATF is calling for greater international collaboration and the harmonisation of legal frameworks, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Given the abundance of digital data now circulating in society, open-source intelligence (OSINT) offers unparalleled value to investigators, but the volume of material available can be daunting for those new to OSINT, and even leave experienced investigators overwhelmed; Brett Redman, Head of Intelligence at Blackdot Solutions, provides a practical introduction for investigators on applying OSINT with clarity and purpose.

FEATURE: Despite many initiatives to tackle the high volume and harm of domestic abuse, victim-survivors are still being failed, says a new report, with a definition of domestic violence that is “too broad for effective operational policing”, a lack of resources to deal with growing and increasingly complex demand, and a risk assessment system that is “not fit for purpose” among the main barriers to improving service delivery, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new Professionalising Investigations Programme launched by the College of Policing (CoP) is now being trialled by 13 forces across England and Wales, with a view to improving outcomes for victims, introducing national first-line supervisor standards, and equipping sergeants and police staff with enhanced skills, as CoP Crime & Criminal Justice Delivery lead Chief Superintendent Jamie Daniels told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: Baroness Casey’s latest review was pounced upon as proof the authorities have suppressed uncomfortable truths around the ethnicity of grooming gangs, and while her findings don’t quite confirm that, she is critical of the lack of action to protect vulnerable girls during the past decade; the Government has committed to implement her recommendations – but Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett examines whether they will really make a difference.

ANALYSIS: In the first in a new series of articles exploring the links between sport and organised crime – from street level to international syndicates – Policing Insight’s Chris Dalby looks at the growing impact of match-fixing and spot-fixing, which are influencing the outcomes of sporting events from the lower leagues to the largest stage in the UK and globally, and driving an illegal betting industry worth more than a trillion US dollars.

INNOVATION: The College of Policing’s Chief Superintendent Jamie Daniels is calling on police forces across England and Wales to put forward investigations highlighting best practice and innovation as part of a College initiative to create a “national investigation bank” that will improve learning and outcomes while also recognising the stand-out work of officers, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: With the UK spotlight on tackling violence against women and girls and a strong focus on domestic violence and abuse, Noor Da Silva, a Sexual and Domestic Abuse Service Manager in the UK’s East Midlands and one of the country’s 15 specialist Harmful Cultural Practice IDVAs, argues that it’s also time to address the gaps in current domestic abuse risk assessment tools which disproportionately endanger minoritised women.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to two officers from the South Australian Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (SA JACET) – one of a number of JACET units across the country – about their successes in protecting children and arresting offenders involved in online child sexual exploitation, as annual referrals to the national Centre to Counter Child Exploitation soar, increasing more than five-fold over the past seven years.

ANALYSIS: Police forces have been urged to improve their data capture and analysis around non-fatal strangulation and suffocation after a new report from the Institute for Addressing Strangulation highlighted a 65% increase in the number of recorded cases in 2023-24, but 70% of cases failing to progress to court and little clear or consistent data about victims or suspects, as Policing Insight’s Keith Potter reports.

FEATURE: A new report from animal welfare charity the Naturewatch Foundation is calling for mandatory training for UK police officers to recognise how animals are used in domestic abuse cases involving coercive control, after highlighting a “postcode lottery” in the current approaches of forces across England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: An artificial intelligence (AI) model is currently being developed by Cheshire Constabulary in conjunction with two universities to spot stalking behaviour and identify offending patterns earlier in investigations; Detective Chief Inspector Danielle Knox explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons how the new technology will be used, the training process for the AI algorithm, and the potential opportunities to expand its use into other threatening behaviour offences related to violence against women and girls.

INTERVIEW: After a year as Temporary Commissioner of City of London Police, Pete O’Doherty formally took up his post as Commissioner of the ‘Square Mile’ – the smallest police force area in the UK, but the financial heart of the country – in October 2024; six months on, he spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the force’s new Policing Plan, why diversity is so important to policing, and the need for a “virtual stinger” capability that can stop cybercriminals in their tracks.

INNOVATION: A wellbeing programme for investigators in Essex Police and Kent Police, which combines awareness and training with one-to-one meetings and online resources, has been highlighted as good practice by the College of Policing; Health and Wellbeing Delivery Manager Janine Jury spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the programme works, the buy-in from officers and senior leaders, and the potential benefits for victims as officers “pay forward” the compassion they’ve received.

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INNOVATION: The use of an evidence storage and sharing app rolled out across Hertfordshire Constabulary has seen positive outcomes more than double compared to the force average, with investigation times reduced and demand on digital forensic unit and data storage also cut; now more forces across England and Wales are looking at adopting the technology, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.