Policy

FEATURE: Among the less visible effects of a decade of UK police funding cuts is the loss of spaces where officers can rest, eat, and talk to each other, a loss that could increase the risks of personal and professional isolation, and damage officer wellbeing; a new study led by Dr Carina O’Reilly (University of Lincoln), Nick Kealey (Liverpool John Moores University) and Dr Sean Bell (Open University) will look at how the provision of rest spaces has changed, and the impact on police officers and their wellbeing – and you can get involved.

OPINION: The NPCC’s Children & Young Persons Policing Strategy will aim to create “a culture of child-centred policing”, but too often police and other agencies overlook the impact of homelessness on young people’s vulnerability; Met Police Chief Inspector Dr Andy Briers, who has devoted most of his career to working with at-risk young people, sets out some of the challenges and opportunities for policing to improve support for homeless youngsters and divert them away from the criminal justice system.

INNOVATION: In the second in a series of articles exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in policing, Chief Philip Lukens looks at how wearable sensors and AI can enhance the physical and mental health of law enforcement professionals, echoing the NASA model to ensure that officers are not “compromised by cheap and inadequate healthcare”.

FEATURE: A recent survey of An Garda Síochána officers and staff highlighted concerns around training, a lack of performance culture, and poor change management, while at a Policing Authority meeting discussing the report, Commissioner Drew Harris told Authority members that 27% of the force’s staff had applied to transfer ahead of a new bill which would remove their Civil Service status, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: The ‘degree-entry’ debate can often be too focused on England and Wales, but research from former police officer turned academic Dr Andy Tatnell doesn’t have that problem; his thesis looks at the interesting differences in how Scotland, Sweden and Finland handle the complex work of training up their new frontline cops, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INNOVATION: Resource pressures, heavy workloads and improving service delivery are among drivers for policing to adopt machine learning algorithms to increase capacity and capability; but Research Fellow Hazel Sayer, machine learning specialist Dr Tamara Polajnar and Senior Research Fellow Dr Ruth Spence warn that key stakeholders need to be involved in determining the problem to be addressed, whether the algorithm is the right solution, and whether the force has the capacity to develop the technology and respond to its output.

ANALYSIS: With law enforcement approaches in various jurisdictions encountering both common and unique challenges, efforts to reform policing models have taken different forms and have had varying levels of success; Policing Insight’s Matthew Wood compares and contrasts the main reform efforts in Canada, the Republic of Ireland, the UK and the US over the past decade, exploring the successes and highlighting where more needs to be done.

OPINION: After more than 30 years in policing, David Marshall, now a criminology lecturer and author, argues that for policing to more effectively meet the challenges it currently faces, it must concentrate on the issues that are priorities to the public – such as detecting and preventing crime, and responding to emergencies – rather than on internally focused diversity, equity and inclusion campaigns.

ANALYSIS: Last week the UK Government unveiled its “narrower and more precise” definition of extremism; but Dr Chris Allen, Associate Professor and Extremism Hub Lead at the University of Leicester, warns that the definition’s non-statutory footing, the absence of any reference to the Prevent strategy, and the risk that labelling of extremists could be by ministerial decree are all adding to the confusion and concern around the new definition.

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INTERVIEW: Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye spoke to Policing Insight’s James Sweetland about the abuse he’s suffered during his first term – including a shocking threat to his life that made him question whether to continue as a PCC at all – and his desire to help the force reach its full potential.

FEATURE: In January the Global Law Enforcement & Public Health Association (GLEPHA) published a series of reports as part of the ‘Envisaging the future of policing and public health’ project, covering a range of topics including harm reduction, diversion, and violence against women and girls; in the last in a series of seven articles, Policing Insight’s Thomas James looks at GLEPHA’s report on the police response to those in mental health crisis.

FEATURE: In the wake of recent reports and inquiries, and his own experience as the former Regional Director for London at the Independent Office for Police Conduct, Sal Naseem recently called for “structural reform” of the Met, more investment in police leadership, and a new approach to the current “fragmented system of police accountability”, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

OPINION: With increased evidence of police officers around the world experiencing growing mental health trauma and PTSD, Neil Woods, a former undercover drugs officer and chairman of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) UK, believes policing urgently needs to explore the psychiatry revolution involving psychedelic medicine to protect officers’ mental health.

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ANALYSIS: The latest statistics for England and Wales indicate that levels of recorded crime have fallen to an all-time low, yet there has been little mention of the significant drop by the media, the Government or forces themselves; in this second of two articles, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett considers the implications for how police performance is judged.

INTERVIEW: In the second part of Policing Insight’s interview with Avon and Somerset Chief Constable Sarah Crew, she spoke to James Sweetland about the controversial incidents around issues of race explored in the TV series To Catch a Copper, and her own views expressed last year that the force is institutionally racist.

FEATURE: In January the Global Law Enforcement & Public Health Association (GLEPHA) published a series of reports as part of the ‘Envisaging the future of policing and public health’ project, covering a range of topics including harm reduction, diversion, and policing mental health; in the sixth in a series of seven articles, Policing Insight’s Thomas James looks at GLEPHA’s report on policing key populations.

ANALYSIS: Last week’s publication of the first part of the Angiolini Inquiry report highlighted significant concerns around misogyny, misconduct, and toxic cultures in policing in England and Wales; the findings echo previous research of female officers’ lived experiences by Senior Criminology Lecturer Dr Emma Cunningham, who believes policing needs support from outside experts to tackle misogyny and misconduct, and that change should begin with acceptance of the terms institutionalised racism and misogyny.

ANALYSIS: As organisations, individuals and communities around the world look to mark International Women’s Day, Dr Sarah Jane Fox of the University of Leicester Law School looks at the progress and challenges around women’s representation and roles in policing globally, and considers what more policing could and should be doing to achieve gender equality and equity.

FEATURE: Police recruitment has become increasingly challenging, particularly in reaction to addressing community under-representation; Policing Insight’s Vernon White, a former Chief of Ottawa Police and RCMP officer, looks back at a recruitment programme in northern Canada’s Nunavut territory, where English Second Language classes and corrective laser eye surgery were among the initiatives employed to increase recruitment from the Inuit community.

FEATURE: This month marks the 20th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack on Madrid that killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500 others; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks back at Al Qaeda’s bombing of the Spanish capital and how it changed counter-terrorism approaches across Europe, ahead of European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism on 11 March.

ANALYSIS: The latest statistics for England and Wales indicate that levels of recorded crime have fallen to an all-time low, yet there has been little mention of the significant drop by the media, the Government or forces themselves; in this first of two articles, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the latest crime data and longer-term trends in crime, and why the apparent success in crime reduction remains something of a secret.

OPINION: A recently published article on Policing Insight regarding modern slavery highlighted concerns about the impact of UK Government reforms on victims of trafficking, but the outcome in Scotland differs significantly to England and Wales, says SNP policing spokesperson Allan Dorans MP, who believes researchers and others need to pay closer attention to the emerging divergence in policing north and south of the border.