Policy and practice

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Security & Policing 2025 – the official UK Government global security event - is your exclusive gateway to cutting-edge security innovations, top decision-makers, and game-changing insights. Don’t miss this chance to shape the future of global security and resilience.

INTERVIEW: In just over a year, the Police National Computer in England and Wales is set to be replaced by the new Law Enforcement Data Service; Ian Weinfass spoke to those leading on the project for the Home Office and the police service about what the change will mean for officers, what else needs to happen, and the potential implications of not hitting the target date.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Join us in Stratford Upon Avon, the beautiful market town and the birthplace of William Shakespeare, 17 - 18 March 2025 for a groundbreaking conference exploring the power of collaboration between CCTV Providers and Policing.

INNOVATION: Inspired by ‘café scientifiques’, the team from the Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) have been working with forces across England and Wales to hold a series of ‘evidence cafés’ – informal gatherings designed to increases two-way dialogue between academics and practitioners and explore how research findings relate to real-world policing practices – as the CPRL’s Dr Keely Duddin, Kendal Wright, Frances Wright and Dr Nicky Miller explain.

FEATURE: A new report from the Northern Ireland Policing Board exploring the relationship between children and young people and the Police Service of Northern Ireland has urged the Service to engage more effectively with youngsters who may often be vulnerable to influence and control from paramilitary and organised crime groups, with the role of neighbourhood officers and a rethink of the use of stop and search among key steps to improve that engagement, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: A life-saving biometric monitoring system introduced into custody cells in Regina Police Service is among a range of innovative strategies being implemented across the service, as Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend discovered when she spoke to Chief Farooq Sheikh and Staff Sergeant Pierre Beauchesne.

ANALYSIS: The Australian Government published a new counter-terrorism (CT) and counter-violent extremism (CVE) strategy last month, with surprisingly little publicity; Henry Campbell of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) believes that the new document is both light on CT policy and lacking in strategy, and fails to meet the new and evolving terrorist threat facing Australia.

FEATURE: The continuing development of digital and multi-channel public contact is a key issue for policing across England and Wales; in the first in a new series of police technology webinars produced by PolicingTV, Digital Public Contact Programme SRO DCC Simon Megicks, NPCC National Contact Management lead ACC Catherine Akehurst, and Simon Hall, Chair of techUK’s Justice and Emergency Service Interoperability Forum, shared their views on the importance of closer working between forces, budget challenges, and the potential for more effective data sharing.

INNOVATION: Operation Makesafe is the nationwide policing initiative working with hotels and accommodation providers across England and Wales to target and prevent premises being used for child sexual exploitation (CSE); Richard Fewkes, Director of the Hydrant Programme and the CSE Taskforce, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the initiative works, and the potential to expand to other sectors including fast-food outlets, taxi companies and vape shops.

FEATURE: A recent evaluation of the roll out of the ‘Right Care, Right Person’ approach to responding to mental health crises has identified savings in police time allowing forces to free up resources for other priorities – but challenges around decision-making, communications, and the funding and capacity constraints for other agencies are also hampering the effective implementation of the scheme across England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: In the latest in a series of articles exploring the opportunities and challenges presented to police by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), Chief Philip Lukens explores the application of AI by motor manufacturers and corporations to monitor vehicle use and driver behaviour, and how this could aid police investigations while also exposing law enforcement to accusations of overreach.

FEATURE: The recent wildfires sweeping across Southern California highlight the importance of efficient and effective disaster management; in the wake of this tragedy, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the latest European initiative to harness the benefits of drone technology to provide disaster management agencies and first responders including police with up-to-date and accurate information that can improve resilience, response and recovery in the face of such catastrophes.

FEATURE: An active bystander training project launched by the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner has led to a 125% increase in the likelihood of participants challenging sexist comments online, and a greater understanding and awareness of sexual harassment; the project now looks set to expand from police and stakeholder organisations into other public sector bodies as well as the private sector, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: A Dorset Police trial which expanded the video response approach used with domestic abuse cases to a wider range of calls and crimes has seen significant increases in arrest rates, positive outcomes and satisfaction levels for victims, and potential savings of £1.5million; now the approach could be expanded across the whole county and shared with other forces, as Supt Stewart Gates explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

OPINION: Birmingham University Associate Professor Dr Tara Lai Quinlan argues that the disproportionate policing in England and Wales of people of colour – particularly children – and other under-represented groups can be challenged and changed through active bureaucratic representation, where officers from such under-represented groups are empowered to ensure that institutional policies and practices benefit their communities of origin, either at group or individual levels.

FEATURE: The first report in a two-part review of the police response to extensive disorder across England and Wales last summer has praised officers for their “immense bravery”, but has highlighted concerns over the capacity and capability of forces to respond to such widespread violent disorder, the speed with which resources are mobilised, and the wellbeing support for frontline officers, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: While the work of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU) has been lauded in some quarters, Janine Ewen – a specialist in trauma, public health, policing and harm reduction – argues that many communities in Scotland outside of Glasgow have yet to benefit from the work of the SVRU, with the failure to identify and support community-led local initiatives highlighting the gap between the theory and practice of this public health approach.

FEATURE: A new study by the Australian Institute of Criminology exploring the views of victim/survivors of coercive control finds that the overwhelming majority back calls for such actions and manipulation to be criminalised to enable earlier and more effective interventions by police and others in the criminal justice system, despite acknowledging fears over disproportionality, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Recent events in Manchester highlighted the strained relationship between police and members of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities; Lee Curran, Lecturer in Policing at Liverpool John Moores University, Dr Dan Allen, Principal Social Work Lecturer at Liverpool Hope University, and Dr Julie Feather, Senior Research Fellow at Edge Hill University explore the reciprocated tension, fear and mistrust between community members and law enforcement, and outline the suggestions for a four-step framework to improve that relationship.

INTERVIEW: Chief Fady Dagher of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (Montreal City Police) is looking to transform the relationship between police and the communities they serve, with a range of groundbreaking initiatives – including an Immersion Programme where officers live with host families to gain a better understanding and insight into the everyday challenges they face – designed to create a new policing culture and more cohesive communities, as he explained to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend.

INTERVIEW: Assistant Chief Constable Martin Brunning, Chair of the Investigator Wellbeing Sub-group of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing of Investigators portfolio, and Sarah Jayne Bray, the portfolio Programme Manager, spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the need for a strategic approach to staff wellbeing, the importance of line managers prioritising one-to-ones with their staff, and how best practice identified in investigator wellbeing can be applied across the workforce.

INNOVATION: With the police response to those in mental health distress – whether in relation to safeguarding, crime or public protection – a challenge for policing globally, Edge Hill University’s Dr Jude Towers looks at the results of the mental health diversion and advisory panel initiative in Lancashire, which offers an alternative out-of-court disposal approach to mental health-related offending that is winning support from officers as well as those in crisis.

FEATURE: Dr Usman A. Ojedokun, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, explores some of the context and contributing factors to the continuing problem of police impersonation in Nigeria, the impact it has on both the community and the Nigeria Police Force, and what steps can be taken to tackle the issue.

FEATURE: Last month’s Senior Women in Policing Conference saw speakers call for “gender unity” against the “common challenge of patriarchy” and highlight concerns around the “authority gap” that still persists between men and women, as well offering bespoke peer reviews for forces to assist women aspiring to take on leadership roles and allow people to be “as authentic as possible”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.