Neighbourhood/community policing

SERIES LAUNCH: We are pleased to announce the launch of the latest series of The Police Student, supporting degree-entry recruits to the police service. This new series looks at community and neighbourhood policing both as a philosophy and a practice.

FEATURE: In the first in a new series of The Police Student focusing on Community and Neighbourhood Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the development and definition of neighbourhood policing, and considers its importance in building relationships with the community, as well as its role in tackling public concerns about crime and strengthening confidence in policing.

OPINION: With continuing UK protests fuelled by polarised views presenting ongoing problems for policing, former South Wales Police detective Steve Dodd, a subject matter expert on intelligence professionalisation and advocate of the community intelligence-led policing methodology (CILPM), explores how CILPM could enhance both the delivery and impact of the new neighbourhood policing focus, and feed into addressing the challenges of policing a fractured society.

FEATURE: An initiative placing police officers in classrooms to deliver a lesson to young people on sexual consent and the law has shown encouraging signs of improving trust and confidence in policing among pupils, as well as a better understanding of the law and an increased willingness to report breaches of consent to police, according to a College of Policing evaluation, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A report into neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour is urging the Government to rebrand neighbourhood policing as a “a specialist discipline” while also exploring how to “strengthen collective efficacy, trust and social cohesion at the neighbourhood level”, amid warnings that a policing-only response to the challenges is not a long-term solution, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: Waterloo Regional Police Service has become the first police force in Canada to adopt the stratified policing model, encouraging officers to change their focus to targeted crime suppression and prevention while increasing accountability at all levels and improving community engagement and multi-agency partnerships, as Deputy Chief Jen Davis told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: In the second in a short series of interviews sharing the views and achievements of recent winners of International Association of Women Police awards, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to former Vancouver PD Detective Constable Maire Kenny about her role in developing a pilot programme supporting indigenous victims of intimate partner violence – against a backdrop of decades of distrust of policing – which saw a surge in reporting and a strengthening of community relationships.

OPINION: The growing Chinese policing influence and presence in Solomon Islands, including a law enforcement approach that focuses more on controlling communities than serving them, should raise concerns for Australia and its partners about what kind of policing model will define the Pacific’s future, warn Dr John Coyne and Raelene Lockhorst of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

ANALYSIS: Despite the Uplift recruitment programme, research suggests the public feel police are still less visible and less responsive, and the Government has now pledged a further 13,000 neighbourhood police officers by 2029; in the last in this current series of articles on workforce development, Ian Wiggett looks at the availability of the workforce, the way it is deployed, and why ultimately what will matter is whether the public notices the difference.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Chris Nelson, the APCC joint lead on local policing, sets out what PCCs are now doing to drive action against anti-social behaviour, a crime experienced by more than one in 10 people at least weekly – often with a significant and long-lasting impact – as well as being a gateway to other criminality.

INNOVATION: Northumbria Police has become the first force in England and Wales to recruit officers from all entry routes directly onto the neighbourhood policing pathway in an effort to widen workforce skillsets, support the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, and get “the right people in the right roles”, as Northumbria’s Assistant Chief Officer Joscelin Lawson explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

ANALYSIS: A new report into the performance of An Garda Síochána has highlighted the roll out of a new operating model as the “most significant change” to the structure of the force in its history, and has praised achievements in roads policing, tackling drugs and community engagement; but the report warns that persistent recruitment and retention difficulties, a lack of resources and inadequate IT remain key challenges to the performance of An Garda Síochána, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Reflecting on a turbulent 12 months for UK policing, Steve Dodd, a former South Wales Police detective and College of Policing subject matter expert on intelligence professionalisation, examines some of the key challenges and how the community intelligence-led policing methodology could help forces and officers to address those issues.

FEATURE: As daily life for many people moves increasingly online, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the recent Europol report exploring how law enforcement can deliver community policing in the digital age, the “capability and relevance gap” that police urgently need to address, and how the work of the EU’s Koban project could help to build the future capabilities of community policing in both the physical and virtual domains.

INNOVATION: New Zealand’s Resilience to Organised Crime in Communities (ROCC) initiative – a community-based, multi-agency initiative in which NZ Police are taking a lead role – is combining enforcement against drugs and gangs while also working to provide pathways for youths to avoid being drawn into gang culture, building trust with the public, and supporting communities to make their own decisions, as NZ Police ROCC Manager John O’Keeffe explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INTERVIEW: Ahead of this month’s Global Societies of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Policing Insight’s Keith Potter talked to conference speaker Prof Ben Bradford, Director of UCL’s Centre for Global City Policing, about the findings from recent research into the UK public’s trust and confidence in policing, why the decline shouldn’t be seen as catastrophic – yet – and what forces and policing more widely can do to reverse some of that decline.

FEATURE: The first survey to focus specifically on the use of section 136 detentions under the Mental Health Act by police forces in England and Wales has revealed significant disparities in the way the powers are used – including the number of people detained, the use of police vehicles to transfer detainees, handover times, and the use of custody – as Policing Insight’s Tina Orr Munro reports.

INTERVIEW: With this week’s official launch of the Neighbourhood Policing Programme (NPP) career pathway across England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Chief Superintendent Andy Sidebotham, Head of Uniformed Policing at the College of Policing, about the reasons for introducing the NPP, the make-up of the training modules, and what the new programme aims to achieve.

OPINION: With the UK Government recently announcing that the Vagrancy Act will be repealed by spring next year, Generation Rent Chief Executive Ben Twomey looks at the background to a 200-year-old piece of “outdated” legislation that is still used to criminalise some aspects of homelessness, and considers what may take its place.

OPINION: As part of US President Donald Trump’s framework for large deportations of undocumented immigrants, there has been a huge increase in 287(g) agreements allowing police to function as federal immigration officers, interviewing and detaining people before handing them over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); St Edward’s University Professor W. Carsten Andresen argues that many police forces have found such actions significantly undermine trust and public safety.

INTERVIEW: Merseyside Police’s two-pronged approach of piloting serious violence reduction orders and increasing high-profile uniformed foot patrols as part of a hotspot project has led to a drop in overall crime, and a 50% cut in violent crime in some areas; the force’s Supt Phil Mullally spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the two initiatives work together, the opportunities to improve community relations, and why “excellence in the basics” is better than “reinventing the wheel”.

OPINION: With the training schedule for the new Neighbourhood Policing Pathway (NPP) beginning next month, and first measures under the new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee due to be in place across England and Wales in July, former South Wales Police detective Steve Dodd, a subject matter expert on intelligence professionalisation, looks at the opportunities and challenges for the NPP, and the role of community intelligence-led policing methodology within it.

OPINION: Having spent more than 20 years advising and supporting police forces and stakeholders in the UK on how to bring meaningful change to police-community relations, Montell Neufville, Chair of the Joint Protective Services (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Hertfordshire Police) Scrutiny Panel and a National Advisory Group member of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, shares his top tips on the steps police and crime commissioners and mayors can take to improve trust between forces and the communities they serve.

FEATURE: A new report into the “effectiveness and efficiency” of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), published by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, warns that budgetary constraints have led to the lowest number of officers in the PSNI’s history, hampering the best efforts of the chief constable, his officers and staff to provide a high-quality service and build trust with communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.