Policy and practice

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: National Police Chiefs’ Council Chair Martin Hewitt believes UK policing is facing a defining challenge in relation to public trust and confidence – one which will require officers and organisations to listen to and learn from those who experience prejudice – as he explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

OPINION: The UK has a lengthy tradition of problem-oriented policing (POP), but the enthusiasm for this long-term preventative approach has waxed and waned, and with it the impact of POP overall; however Professor Nick Tilley, a keen advocate, believes that a renewed commitment to the problem-solving mentality can reap benefits in enabling forces to meet many of the modern policing challenges.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Surrey Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, head of the NPCC Finance Co-ordination Committee, says this year’s pay freeze was a “bitter blow” for officers, but believes there are still plenty of opportunities to find efficiency gains in UK policing, as he explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix during a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

FEATURE: With the site of a new National Cyber Force now confirmed – along with the centre’s role in “offensive cyber operations” – the UK has reinforced its position as a leading player in global cyber security; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at plans for the NCF, the country’s continuing efforts to build cyber capacity, and the opportunities for developing new uses of artificial intelligence within those disruptive technologies.

OPINION : Project Bluestone involves Avon and Somerset working with leading academics to assess and address the force's issues around rape investigations; Dr Emma Williams of the Open University, one of the academics involved with Bluestone, assesses the ongoing project and its potential.

ANALYSIS: High-harm domestic abuse offenders are likely to have a criminal record and several police interactions before they are first reported for partner violence – and a small number go on to cause disproportionate harm – so could algorithms and machine learning help to target them early? This was one of the key questions considered by New South Wales Police Superintendent Andrew Hurst at last week’s rescheduled Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing conference.

ANALYSIS: Ahead of tomorrow’s London Policing College workshop on UK Policing Legitimacy – the fourth in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Dr Andy Bain, Associate Professor at Ohio’s University of Mount Union, explores some of the key challenges facing policing that, although highlighted by the pandemic, existed before the arrival of COVID-19 and need addressing.

FEATURE: A renewed focus on community scrutiny of the use of force – highlighted in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, and encouraged by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services – has prompted Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire Police Joint Protective Services command to set up a tri-county independent scrutiny panel on police use of force; panel chair Montell Neufville explains how the panel was established and will operate.

ANALYSIS: A fatal shooting by An Garda Síochána officers in 2000 prompted close scrutiny of the force’s critical incident command structure, but there has been little formal review since reports into the incident were published in 2006/7; as part of his dissertation for an MSc in Policing, Policy and Leadership, serving specialist firearms officer Colin Dowling has compared current critical incident structures available to the force, identifying the best practice option for the Garda.

ANALYSIS: Ahead of next week’s London Policing College workshop on UK Policing Legitimacy – the fourth in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – former Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rod Jarman, Director of the College, looks at the risks and challenges emerging for policing in a ‘post-pandemic’ world, and assesses what steps need to be taken to maintain police effectiveness and legitimacy.  

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen believes some gambling companies are on a par with drug dealers when it comes to targeting those with disorders and addictions, and the resulting harms can often include acquisitive crime; it’s an issue which she hopes the APCC will be able to tackle in partnership with other agencies, as she explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

INNOVATION: The recent European Police Chiefs Convention was the setting for the first Europol Excellence Awards in Innovation, with a project creating a new tool to target online child sex abuse and a multinational collaboration tackling global malware scooping the prizes; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the two award winners, as well as the wider issue of the importance of innovation in policing.

FEATURE: While the Met Police’s performance in relation to violence against women, misogyny and sexual abuse have come under close scrutiny and prompted a high-profile inquiry, a project to improve working conditions for women and parents and deliver a cultural change within the force in relation to family friendly employment practices is already reaping rewards, as Policing Insight’s Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Within weeks of the introduction of a new agreement ensuring Victoria Police officers in Australia can disengage from work when off duty, the pandemic arrived, and with it one of the few exceptions to the deal; but as The Police Association Victoria Secretary Wayne Gatt explains, officers understand the distinction between “what’s trite and what’s important”, and the spirit of the policy remains in place.

OPINION: Despite more than 12 months of negotiations to agree a bipartisan route for police reform in the US, talks between the Republicans and Democrats formally broke down last month, with no end result in sight; but Professor Thaddeus Johnson and Dr Natasha Johnson of Georgia State University believe that while congressional reform may have been doomed to failure, the federal government could still have a vital role to play in supporting change at a local level.

FEATURE: Ahead of this week’s London Policing College UK Preparedness workshop – the first in a series of workshops organised by the College, leading up to the 3rd International Police Education Conference in November – Supt Hannah Wheeler, the National PPE Lead for Operation Talla, explains how her team secured and distributed more than 80 million items of PPE, the steps taken to protect police and public, and the ongoing impact of the pandemic on policing.

FEATURE: With police legitimacy being challenged and examined more than ever, the law enforcement use of technology and data is also coming under close scrutiny; information and intelligence management expert Giles Herdale, and former NPCC ethics lead Dave Lewis, look at some of the key debates around these issues, which were up for discussion at the recent Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec) live event.

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Feature: Urgent changes need to be implemented to fraud investigations to improve the level of service to victims, according to HMICFRS. Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons looks at the recommendations to make this area of crime a higher priority.

POLICE SUPERS CONFERENCE 2021: Earlier this year, the Chair of the College of Policing Lord Nick Herbert launched a fundamental review of the College. At the recent Superintendents Association Conference, he revealed some early findings and the likely ‘direction of travel’ for the College.

Police Supers Conference 2021: Whilst the number of Black, Minority and Ethnic officers joining the police service is improving, the number in senior positions remains low at 4.3 per cent. This year’s Police Superintendents' Association Conference explored how representation in the senior ranks could be improved and how things might be about to change. Tina Orr Munro reports.

FEATURE: Efforts to deliver a better response to domestic abuse in Hertfordshire by strengthening partnerships, engaging survivors and adopting technology, have led to falling victim attrition rates and increased take up of support; Razi Hassan, Director of Partnership and Communication at the Domestic Abuse (DA) Alliance, explains the thinking behind the repurposed approach, and the success of the WEPROTECT app now in use by Hertfordshire Constabulary.

ANALYSIS: The Covid pandemic and multiple lockdowns have not prompted a “significant increase” in domestic homicide deaths, according to a new police and government report published last month; but the research does raise several areas of concern, including domestic abuse risks associated with lifting lockdowns, and the “entrenched and enduring” nature of the problem, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro reports.

FEATURE: The challenges of interoperability and improving communication and information sharing between police systems have long been recognised by police officers and managers alike, and the subject was a key topic for discussion at this year’s Emergency Services Show; Graham Newman of police software specialists Clue reports on the interoperability debate, and how tech and policing are working closer together to deliver improvements.