Policy and practice

LONG READ: Once regarded as among Europe’s safest and most peaceful countries, Sweden has faced a significant increase in shootings and violence over recent years, due in large part to the rapid expansion of gang conflict and organised crime; Policing Insight’s James Sweetland spoke to officers and academics working to tackle the problem, and explored how the country’s interpretation of the group violence intervention (GVI) approach pioneered in Boston is having a big impact on Scandinavian streets.

FEATURE: With worryingly high levels of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the UK and other countries, tackling these crimes will require effective leadership and greater leverage of the digital landscape by police investigators; ahead of next week’s London Policing College workshop focusing on these issues, College Director and former Met Police Chief Superintendent Parm Sandhu explores some of the policing opportunities and challenges in the fight against VAWG.

OPINION: While Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) have been in existence for several decades, modern technology to clone VINs for stolen cars, ‘title wash’ damaged vehicles and create fraudulent records has contributed to Canada’s growing car theft problem; Vernon White, former Chief of Police for Ottawa Police Service, and Joe Carlebach, former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor, argue that provincial governments have a key role to play in tackling this issue through physical VIN verification services.

INTERVIEW: Declining levels of public trust and confidence in policing can be attributed to a wide range of issues, from cuts creating a lack of visibility and overwhelming demand, to high-profile misconduct and serious crimes committed by officers; in the latest in a series of articles focusing on this month’s UK Police Digital Summit, Policing Insight’s Graham Jarvis spoke to Mike Lattanzio, Chair of the National Police Technology Council and Chief Information Officer for the Thames Valley and Hampshire forces, about how technology can help to regain that public trust and confidence.

INTERVIEW: The University of Tennessee’s Law Enforcement Innovation Center (LEIC) established a global reputation for forensics training, but more recently has become recognised for innovative approaches to issues including leadership, communications and culture; Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend spoke to LEIC Training Specialist Jeff Hundley about the institution’s evolution, training challenges, and its student demographic.

ANALYSIS: Last month the cross-party UK Home Affairs Committee published its latest report on drugs, which included calls for a reform of legislation, greater cross-departmental collaboration in combating drugs, and more emphasis on protecting children and adopting a trauma-informed approach to the problem; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons explores some of the key recommendation from the Committee.

ANALYSIS: Historically low reporting and conviction rates for rape and sexual assault in the UK and elsewhere remain a significant cause for concern; Pragya Agarwal, Visiting Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice at Loughborough University, believes that proper training in rape myths – and greater awareness for officers and juries around unconscious biases against sexual assault survivors – are essential if women are to trust the system enough to report more offences.

FEATURE: After months of negotiations, in August the UK was re-admitted to the Horizon Europe programme, offering police organisations and innovators funding opportunities for research and collaboration across an extensive range of threats and crime types including terrorism, cybercrime, human trafficking and child sexual exploitation, as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports.

FEATURE: The findings of the Policing Productivity Review across forces in England and Wales are due to land on the Home Secretary’s desk at the end of this week; in the latest in a series of articles focusing on the topics and debates from this month’s UK Police Digital Summit, Policing Insight’s Graham Jarvis explores some of the key points highlighted by review lead Alan Pughsley, who gave Summit delegates an update on the work of the review so far.

FEATURE: A habitual knife-carrier index pioneered by Sussex Police, which uses a multi-source database to identify at-risk young people and develops intervention and support to tackle reoffending and victimisation, is securing significant reductions and is now being considered by a number of other forces across England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With the use of artificial intelligence (AI) expanding rapidly across society, police face increasing opportunities and challenges around its safe, ethical and reliable adoption and implementation; Caitlyn Kennedy, Policy & Research Officer for the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA), outlines the context and key points behind the Agency’s recently launched Australia New Zealand Police Artificial Intelligence Principles.

INTERVIEW: In the final part of our extended interview series with Professor Laurence Sherman, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland sought the views of the Metropolitan Police Chief Scientific Officer on misconduct, making tough choices, and how artificial intelligence and live facial recognition might transform the nation’s largest police force.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The London Policing College 5th International Conference Nov 2023 is focused on the leadership challenges for police education considering specifically the digitalisation of policing, violence against women and girls, and the response to tactical changes in public demonstrations and disorder. How to manage the transition to a new digital model for policing and its implications for leadership in the law enforcement sector set against lower levels of trust and confidence and challenges to performance.

OPINION: As the opioid crisis continues to grow in countries around the world, more police forces in the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere are looking to equip officers with overdose reversal medication naloxone to save lives; Vernon White, former Chief of Police for Ottawa Police Service, and Joe Carlebach, former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor, argue that with enforcement showing little signs of ending the opioid crisis in the near future, naloxone should become standard issue for officers.

INNOVATION: A new partnership between Merseyside Police and Childline is providing children in custody with an anonymous call to counsellors in an attempt to provide support without direct law enforcement intervention and break the potential cycle of offending, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: The policing of public demonstrations puts police officers under considerable scrutiny, particularly in light of recent tactics by demonstrators; ahead of two public order policing workshops to be hosted by the London Policing College in October, former Metropolitan Police Commander and workshop chair Roger Gomm looks at the main issues surrounding public order policing, with a particular focus on the importance of communications in ensuring peaceful and successful outcomes.

ANALYSIS: The rapid expansion of the metaverse will leave police facing a whole new raft of challenges and potential criminality; in the second in a series of articles highlighting key topics and debates from last week’s UK Police Digital Summit, Policing Insight’s Graham Jarvis spoke to technology expert Dr David Nugent about policing the metaverse, the balance between free speech and accountability, and how verified digital identities could help to reduce and detect crime while freeing up police resources.

OPINION: CANADA: As calls for ‘defund the police’ switch to ‘refund the police’ in priority areas, Dr N Zoe Hilton, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and Dr Sandy Jung, Professor of Psychology at MacEwan University, argue that police-researcher partnerships are needed now more than ever, and could be particularly beneficial in developing and implementing the assessment tools to tackle intimate partner violence and coercive control.

ANALYSIS: Last week police officers and staff, industry experts and stakeholders gathered in Brighton for the UK Police Digital Summit; in the first in a series of articles highlighting key topics and debates from the two-day event, Policing Insight’s Graham Jarvis spoke to keynote speaker, Police Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Paul Taylor, about facilitating innovation and how forces can collaborate to make the best use of technology.

OPINION: Vernon White, former Chief of Police for Ottawa Police Service, and Joe Carlebach, former Hammersmith and Fulham councillor, have previously argued that establishing a college of policing for Canada – similar to the UK College of Policing – could help to create standards and professionalise the policing role; in this second article they look more closely at the UK experience, and suggest where the College of Policing could be doing more to improve law enforcement agencies and the service they deliver.

ANALYSIS: Earlier this year Andy Cooke, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary for the UK (excluding Scotland), asked the Home Office for a suite of legal changes, including the unprecedented ability for him to give directions to police forces, the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass examines the calls and reveals how they have gone down within the service, and in Whitehall.

INTERVIEW: In the third part of our extended interview with Professor Lawrence Sherman, Policing Insight’s James Sweetland spoke with the Met’s Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) about the controversial topic of stop and search and the force’s new ‘precision’ approach to tackling violent crime on the streets of London.

ANALYSIS: The recent change of Prime Minister in Vanuatu comes after a period of political crisis during which China sent officers and equipment to strengthen the Pacific island’s police force; John Coyne, head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Northern Australia Strategic Policy Centre, believes its crucial that Australia and New Zealand return to working with others across the Pacific to support law enforcement in the islands, and prevent a slide into the undemocratic policing model favoured by Beijing.

OPINION: The recent directive from UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman calling for a review of police officers’ political activism is the latest salvo in a much wider conversation about so-called ‘woke’ policing; Policing Insight’s Graham Wettone, a former long-serving police officer, looks at the origins of the term ‘woke’, its relevance to policing, and how the service has been affected by increased politicisation.