Operational policing

ANALYSIS: A recent report based on interviews with officers in England and Wales in 2021-22 highlights a number of ‘institutional challenges’ around investigating rape and serious sexual offences; however, Prof Betsy Stanko, Senior Strategic Academic Advisor for Operation Soteria, Chief Constable Sarah Crew, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Adult Sexual Offences, and Detective Chief Superintendent Melissa Laremore, Operation Soteria Delivery Lead, set out the significant progress in addressing these and many other issues over the past five years.

FEATURE: A new mental health response and support system based on joint working between An Garda Síochána and the Health Service Executive, which involves officers with specialist mental health training working alongside clinicians and the creation of a community-based forum for referrals, could be rolled out nationally after a pilot of the Community Access Support Team (CAST) initiative in Limerick saw a significant drop in detentions of those in crisis, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: Methamphetamine prices in New Zealand have recently fallen significantly, and a similar trend has been seen in Australia; Massey University’s Professor Chris Wilkins, Associate Professor Dr Marta Rychert, and Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr Robin van der Sanden argue that while competition, demand and enforcement may be factors, the most convincing explanation is the growing role played by Mexican cartels in the manufacture and supply of meth and other drugs.

FEATURE: As the European Commission (EC) unveils a new agenda to prevent and counter terrorism, which includes new practical tools for countering the radicalisation of minors, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth suggests that the EC would do well to learn some of the lessons from the implementation of the Prevent Strategy in the UK, including the statutory duties on all schools, colleges and universities to protect children and young adults in their care from adopting extremist and violent ideologies.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: To understand how criminal networks operate, intelligence needs to connect across cases, sources and time. Fragmented data, isolated tools and repeated manual effort make that difficult in practice. This article explores five structural blockers and how addressing them helps build a clearer, more complete and continuously evolving intelligence picture.

ANALYSIS: As policing in England and Wales continues to deal with frequent and often large-scale protest and counter-protest, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has highlighted the “grey area” in which officers now operate; Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone, a former Metropolitan Police officer and public order specialist, explains the current complex challenges around tactical and operational public order decisions, and the need for a clearer focus on ‘lawful’ rather than ‘peaceful’ protest.

INTERVIEW: Departing HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Andy Cooke spoke to Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass about his time in charge of scrutinising police forces, the “national disgrace” of court delays faced by victims, and why he believes the Government’s planned major reforms – including significant new powers for the inspectorate – are a once in a generation opportunity to make communities safer.

OPINION: As transnational criminal networks grow in complexity and reach, the Australian Border Force is evolving from a traditional customs and immigration agency into a sophisticated intelligence-led law enforcement organisation; the results are already visible, says strategy and reform consultant Kavitha Vipulananda, but the challenges ahead are formidable – and some of the most significant are not operational at all.

FEATURE: A new report from the Scottish Institute for Policing Research into policing after lockdown and how to rebuild relationships with the “Covid generation” has urged police to introduce “poverty awareness training” for officers to provide a better understanding of inequality’s impact on youth-police relations, and develop stronger partnership and collaborative approaches, 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.

INTERVIEW: Following the launch in England and Wales last year of the first phase of the neighbourhood policing programme training modules, a new tranche of training is now providing officers with the skills and knowledge to tackle serious and organised crime (SOC) in local communities; Chief Superintendent Andy Sidebotham, Head of Uniformed Policing at the College of Policing, spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the local impact of SOC, and how the investment in officers will benefit communities.

ANALYSIS: For more than 12 years, Toronto Police Service’s Neighbourhood Community Officer (NCO) program has been working to place officers directly within communities, build relationships, and focus on solving problems; since its launch, Dr Doug Thomson and Dr Emma Smith have been evaluating the successes and challenges of the NCO program – both from the perspective of the officers involved, and from the communities they work in and with – as Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Criminal scam operations are rapidly evolving, and SIM farms now power fraud at an industrial scale. These covert centers can house tens of thousands of SIM cards, cycling through them to evade detection while enabling mass scam calls and texts. SS8’s latest analysis reveals how advanced location intelligence helps law enforcement uncover these hidden operations and shut them down.

FEATURE: The latest report by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee into forensic science provision in England and Wales is warning that the neglect of the system is a “national scandal in the making”, with urgent steps needing to be taken including the creation of a National Institute for Forensic Science, an independent national storage capacity for long-term evidence retention, and a credible plan to preserve specialist forensic skills, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: The latest report from digital investigations specialists Cellebrite highlights that while smartphones are now involved in 97% of criminal cases, many policing agencies still face a digital evidence backlog due to factors such as a lack of digital forensics resources, and a reliance on portable hard drives to share digital data; but there are steps that law enforcement can take to ease the bottleneck and speed up justice, as Jared Barnhart, Cellebrite’s Head of Global Engagement & Community, explains.

INTERVIEW: This week saw the UK launch of a new Level 3 Award in Counter-Terrorism Protective Security and Preparedness, developed by Skills for Justice (SFJ) Awards in collaboration with the National Counter-Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), and endorsed by Counter Terrorism Policing; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to SFJ Awards Managing Director David Higham about the aims of the qualification, the involvement of NaCTSO, and how the award helps with the implementation of Martyn’s Law.

ANALYSIS: A recent evaluation of the Serious Violence Duty – introduced in England and Wales under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 – has underlined the importance of data sharing and the key role of analysis in supporting inter-agency collaboration and the implementation of a ‘whole-system’ approach to tackling serious violence, reports Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: In the latest in The Police Student series focusing on Community and Neighbourhood Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly focuses on the issue of policing and community engagement – the evolution of the approach, opportunities for and barriers to engagement (especially with hard-to-reach communities), and what officers can do to engage the communities they police.

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: As forces work towards Policing Vision 2030, questions remain about the pace of meaningful change. This article explores how predictive policing is enabling forces to move from reactive response to earlier intervention, using existing data and governed AI to build prevention and public trust.

ANALYSIS: A report from the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre is calling for a more consistent police use of out-of-court resolutions (OoCRs) in the UK, after researchers found that the approach was much more likely to be used with young and first-time offenders rather than low-risk repeat offenders, for whom an OoCR could break the cycle of offending; the research also highlights the importance of including those with lived experience in the design of schemes, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

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.

OPINION: Following on from the publication of the Government’s Road Safety Strategy for England, and calls from some quarters for the measures to go further to prevent road fatalities, Leo Taylor, Director of Drivetech (the AA’s driver training and risk management business), explores what the strategy will mean for drivers and particularly for the role of roads policing, with a greater focus on the use of technology, collaboration with other stakeholders, and the preventative benefits of high-visibility policing.

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