Operational policing

FEATURE: Research into the impact of the police roll-out of the Right Care, Right Person model of responding to those in mental health crisis in England and Wales suggests that while the approach has made a “considerable contribution” to reducing police contact with those who have mental health problems, in some cases it has left others in frontline positions in “dangerous situations”, and has led to stakeholders “gaming the system” to ensure a police response, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: In the wake of the UK Government’s white paper on police reform, Steve Dodd, a former South Wales Police detective and College of Policing subject matter expert on intelligence professionalisation, argues that policing can immediately adopt community intelligence-led policing methodology as an enabler for the Government’s ‘local to national’ ambitions.

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons explores Ontario’s Mental Health Crisis Response programme, a virtual reality training model being rolled out to all officers across the province which research suggest can help to de-escalate those mental health crisis interventions, reduce the police use of force, and improve public trusts and confidence in law enforcement.

INTERVIEW: Human trafficking and exploitation are challenges that law enforcement cannot “police your way out of”, warns UCL’s Ella Cockbain, Professor of Human Trafficking and Exploitation, with more focus on a public health approach, improved listening to the voices of victims and survivors, and a better understanding of what really works among the key steps to meeting those challenges, as Prof Cockbain explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: With the latest analyses by both the National Crime Agency and the European Union Drugs Agency highlighting the continuing rise of drug misuse across the continent, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explores the work of a new project that focuses on upskilling local police, city prevention services, and youth and social workers as part of a multi-stakeholder approach to tackling the impact of the drug misuse.

ANALYSIS: As the dust begins to settle on the proposals laid out in the UK Government’s recent white paper on police reform, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett takes a closer look at the plans, exploring among other things the challenges around force mergers, the creation of a new national police service and the changing constitutional relationship between policing and government, and considers whether the suggested reforms laid out in the paper are simply too radical and too ambitious.

INTERVIEW: A series of ‘Gold Standards’ published by the UK’s National Police Chaplaincy service designed to inspire forces “in their care for colleagues and positively impact communities” will mirror many of the aims of the recent police reform proposals in England and Wales, while also helping officers to cope with an emotional weight in modern policing “that is too heavy for many to bear”, as National Police Chaplain Reverend Matthew Hopley explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: From complex crimes and tight finances to emerging technology and the public expectations, policing in the UK is facing a wide range of often complex challenges; in an article drawing on her recent Atkins Lecture, Professor Kate Bowers, Director of UCL’s Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science, sets out some of those key challenges and, in the wake of the recently published white paper on police reform, suggests some potential ideas to address them.

FEATURE: With the rapid growth of the internet offering law enforcement and security services huge new quantities of increasingly accessible open-source intelligence (OSINT), AI will play an invaluable role in policing and other organisations’ ability to collate, analyse and provide actionable intelligence from that information, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explains.

OPINION: In the latest in a regular series of articles from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), Philip Seccombe, Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire and the APCC’s Joint Lead on Roads Policing, welcomes some of the measures set out in the UK’s recently published Road Safety Strategy, but urges the Government to go further to protect those who feature disproportionately among the 1,600 people killed on UK roads every year.

OPINION: Efforts to address the issue of ‘police culture’ are a regular feature of transformation programmes in law enforcement; organisational psychologist Michael Stephenson argues that most culture change initiatives fail because those creating them fundamentally misunderstand what culture is, its complexity, and the importance of recognising and addressing the role of ‘micro-narratives’ rather than trying to engineer new cultures through imposed idealised values and mindsets.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: In just nine months, South Wales Police has dismantled 63 county lines - compared with only three identified four years ago - while freeing 3,276 analyst hours. How? Through the Chorus Intelligence Suite (CIS). Frontline officers now progress investigations in real-time, analysts focus on critical analysis, and previously siloed data surfaces unknown evidence. The outcome: faster and smarter operations that disrupt criminal networks, protect vulnerable people, and deliver measurable results.

OPINION: In their analysis of some of the key measures in the recent UK Government policing reform paper, Leeds Trinity University Associate Professor Jonathan Jackson and Policing Lecturer Adam Stokes argue that commitment to reform will need to be long-term and cross-party to succeed, and that some of the proposals appear to offer macro solutions to micro problems.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says GenAI-related child exploitation increased 6,345% in the US from 2024 to 2025. One alarming trend is the use of GenAI to general deepfake child sexual abuse materials. SS8 helps detect and investigate these images by combining EXIF metadata analysis, third party detection solutions like wasitAI, lawful intelligence data, and more, but standardized legal definitions and technological guardrails are necessary as well.

ANALYSIS: The UK Government’s recently published white paper on police reform included proposals for a Senior National Co-ordinator for public order policing, to be based in the new National Police Service; Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone, a former Metropolitan Police officer and public order specialist, explores the proposals outlined in the paper, as well as setting out the need for a wider review of approaches to public order policing as part of the reform process.

INSIGHT: The Canadian Integrated Ballistics Identification Network (CIBIN) has become a valuable tool in firearms investigation, turning ballistic evidence into actionable intelligence capable of linking cases, suspects, and criminal networks; but to ensure that CIBIN increases the capability to combat gun crime, law enforcement must continue to prioritise data and intelligence collection and sharing, say Vernon White, former head of Ottawa Police, and Soham Thorat, a technical and strategic expert in firearms intelligence.

FEATURE: A report on the scale of violence experienced by young people aged 13-17 in England and Wales – one of four reports drawn from a survey undertaken by the Youth Endowment Fund – found that half of them had witnessed violence, nearly one in five had been a victim, and one in eight admitted carrying out violence themselves, while more than 80% of those aged 13-17 have viewed conversations online about hurting specific groups, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: This year will see the launch of two new counter-terrorism initiatives in the UK – a register of specialists who can provide protective security and preparedness advice for businesses and organisations, and a new regulation training individuals to provide counter-terrorism advice and preparedness measures in the workplace – which are both part of the broader response to the Manchester Arena bombing under the aegis of what has become known as ‘Martyn’s Law’, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth explains.

FEATURE: In the latest in The Police Student series focusing on Community and Neighbourhood Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the issues of police visibility and public perception, its impact on reassurance and confidence in policing, and the effectiveness of foot patrols.

FEATURE: A report capturing key insights, challenges, and priorities identified during a roundtable on intelligence and serious and organised crime (SOC) – featuring officers and intelligence leads from more than 30 UK forces alongside regional organised crime units and overseas partners – is calling for intelligence to be repositioned as the “strategic engine” in the fight against SOC, and sets out steps to build capacity and embed an intelligence-led culture, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: As the scale and complexity of financial crime, fraud and cyber-crime continue to grow in the UK and globally, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons explores two new measures to tackle the challenges – the creation of the We Fight Fincrime Association, and the launch of the victim-centred Report Fraud service by City of London Police.

OPINION: In the wake of the publication of the UK Government’s white paper on police reform for England and Wales, former chief officer Will Kerr highlighted four key challenges, drawing on lessons learned during restructuring in Scotland and Northern Ireland; in this longer-read article, he expands on those points, exploring the challenges facing the reform intent set out in the paper, and suggests steps that can be taken to ensure the process is more effective.

FEATURE: A new rural and wildlife crime policing strategy for England and Wales incorporates the ‘4Ps’ approach of prevent, pursue, protect and prepare to tackle criminal activity, alongside increased police powers, greater co-operation and better use of technology, with a particular focus on the actions of organised crime groups that are blighting rural communities, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The Australian Institute of Criminology will be hosting the AIC 2026 Conference on 17-18 March 2026. The theme of this year’s conference will be Transnational Serious and Organised Crime (TSOC) and the aim of the event is to present the latest research on TSOC and how this can be applied to policy and practice.