Operational policing

OPINION: Despite a continuing focus on diversity and inclusion across policing, specialist units in particular remain stubbornly homogeneous; new research within tactical and firearms teams by Dr Ashleigh Bennett, an occupational psychologist with extensive experience in policing and the public sector, highlights the significant cultural barriers officers encounter within these teams, and suggests steps forces should be taking to ensure inclusion becomes simply a matter of how policing operates.

ANALYSIS: Following last month’s announcement by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood of a review of the UK legislation around demonstrations and assemblies, Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone, a former Metropolitan Police officer and public order specialist, looks at the background to the current Public Order Act 1986, the finer details of the legislation, and the challenges it presents for the policing of protests that the review will hopefully address.

OPINION: Police forces globally face continuing modernisation challenges – with technology a key element in driving change – but the employee experience is often neglected in the transformation process; Phillip Bland, Global Government Advisor at experience management specialists Qualtrics, sets out how forces can ensure the frontline employee voice is heard, measured and acted upon in the police modernisation process.

OPINION: Research from the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) is spearheading survivor-informed change throughout operational policing and the criminal courts; NAPAC Chief Executive Gabrielle Shaw outlines how the research offers an alternative approach to justice which looks beyond criminal conviction, prioritising support for survivors and building a system that provides accessible routes to both formal and personal justice outcomes.

FEATURE: With the frequency and severity of wildfires increasing across Europe, a series of innovative new projects has been launched to strengthen wildfire management and readiness, offering valuable guidance to fire services, other first responders, and police and fire commissioners alike, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

OPINION: Recent headlines around the Pacific island nations’ role in drug production and trafficking have seen comparisons made with Latin America’s cartel-dominated countries; but John Coyne, Director of National Security Programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, warns that the reality is much more nuanced, and that the way to tackle the ‘smugglers haven’ is through continued partnership and collaboration between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands.

FEATURE: The recent Building Bridges evidence-based policing conference in Ontario showcased efforts by policing to correct the mismatch between how crime is experienced and how it is measured, with a harm-focused framework pioneered by Barrie Police Service and London Police Service’s new gamification approach to hot-sport policing leading the way, as Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood reports.

FEATURE: Recent US research in five communities in Chicago has highlighted the “vicious circle” of poor homicide clearance rates and negative community perceptions of police effectiveness which has shaped community co-operation, suggesting that “improving both real and perceived police efficacy could enhance homicide clearance outcomes”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Today’s law enforcement leaders are pressured to do more with less – all while managing new waves of crime, volumes of complex data and growing demands for public transparency. That’s why departments across the globe are turning to evidence-based policing powered by data and AI, to improve decision making, build trust and work more efficiently.

OPINION: Former West Midlands Sergeant Phil Cleary, co-founder of SmartWater and now a published novelist, shares one officer’s account of how underfunded services, not indifference, may have shaped the failures around the UK child grooming scandal that are now widely condemned, explores what could have been done differently, and suggests steps the current Government could take to reset the child protection and safeguarding response.

INTERVIEW: The Hellenic Police is a partner in the NOTIONES project, a European network bringing police agencies together to improve the capacity and capability of intelligence functions; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth spoke to Anthoula Bania and Christos Floros, Lieutenant Colonels in the Hellenic Police, about their work with the NOTIONES network, and the benefits of participating in European security research and innovation projects.

FEATURE: An initiative led by Leicestershire Police – working with fast-food chain McDonalds, the local authority, St John’s Ambulance and other partners – has seen serious violence in parts of the city’s might-time economy cut by half, leading to a global problem-solving in policing award and the prospect of the programme being rolled out in other parts of the country, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson has been credited with turning round the performance of the force since he took over the top job in 2021, as well as being vocal about the importance of getting the basics right in policing; he spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the need to focus on professionalism and impartiality, developing a proactive mindset among officers, GMP’s approach to neighbourhood policing, and the challenges and benefits of a National Centre of 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.

ANALYSIS: New research into how perpetrators of repeat abuse “weaponise attachment” use grooming, trauma-sharing, and emotional manipulation to coerce victims – a relationship wrongly described by many professionals as ‘codependency’ – has highlighted the language and actions that police, social workers and others need to understand to be able to recognise coercive control, as research author and University of Cambridge Doctoral Researcher Mags Lesiak explains.

ANALYSIS: Findings of a study that focused on policing students’ decision-making suggest that while participants generally apply the National Decision Model impartially, subtle biases are evident in their reasoning processes; analysis also reveals that despite training efforts to reduce bias, socio-economic biases persist, influencing perceptions of suspects and victims – although not always resulting in overtly biased decisions – as study author and Professional Policing graduate Olivia Fowler explains.

OPINION: The collapse over the past decade of construction firms Carillion and ISG and provider Robin Hood Energy highlighted the dangers to public services and the risks for government of major single suppliers going bust; but as Content Guru Co-Founder and Deputy CEO Martin Taylor warns, the collapse of key policing supplier could disrupt critical communication channels, damage public confidence and compromise public safety – so what can forces be doing to reduce those risks?

INTERVIEW: Vehicle manufacturers and security companies are being urged to join police and other agencies in a new public-private partnership to tackle organised vehicle crime, which researchers believe costs the UK economy more than £1.75 billion a year, as Mark Kameen, a former senior police officer and now project lead for the National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: An Inspectorate report into the UK National Crime Agency’s National Data Exploitation Capability (NDEC) is warning that the Agency risks missing vital intelligence due in part to a mounting “technical debt” that means it spends much of its annual IT budget updating hundreds of legacy systems rather than investing in long-term technology solutions, with NDEC staff using outdated and obsolete IT when trying to work on large volumes of data, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: As International Control Room Week gets underway, Essex Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Contact Operations Lead, outlines the development of AI Post-Call Analysis, which produces concise, easy-to-read summaries of all incoming control room contact and automatically categorises calls by topic to enable rapid retrieval and analysis – one of a tranche of technical innovations designed to help forces “move from overwhelmed to empowered”.

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 recent report into serious and organised crime (SOC) sets out the need for a new international alliance to “match the speed, reach and ambition of the threat” from organised crime networks, which are currently taking advantage of law enforcement’s traditional geographical boundaries, siloed working, and legacy technology and structures more suited to a “bygone age”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.