Theft

FEATURE: As we welcome in 2024, Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter looks back over what the past 12 months have meant for policing in the UK and internationally, how those issues have been covered by Policing Insight, and the continuing challenges and opportunities for the year ahead.

ANALYSIS: New international research on the approach by policing and industry to rural crime has highlighted the multi-million-dollar impact on farms and countryside communities often overlooked by law enforcement; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Dr Kyle Mulrooney of the University of New England and Inspector Oliver Fisher of Sussex Police about the steps that can be taken to improve prevention and response for farmers and rural communities.

FEATURE: The final report of the Commission on Crime and Gambling-Related Harms has called for reforms and a stronger commitment at a political level to address crime and other harms, a message echoed by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, which argues that crime linked to problem gambling must be tackled with the “same urgency and focus as other addictions”, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: The theft of livestock is a serious and growing problem in Australia, with large-scale and sophisticated thefts are being reported with increasing frequency; Kyle J D Mulrooney and Alistair Harkness, Co-directors of the Centre for Rural Criminology at the University of New England, explore the scale of the problem as well as highlighting new technologies which could help to tackle the challenge.

ANALYSIS: This week’s publication of both the Crime Survey for England and Wales and the latest Police Recorded Crime (PRC) statistics offers the first comparable crime figures to before the pandemic; Meghan Elkin, joint head of crime statistics at the Office for National Statistics, explains how these latest figures can help to explain whether Covid has led to any sustained impacts on levels of crime, and how survey methods may also influence the data.

OPINION: A recent joint speech by the heads of MI5 and the FBI highlighted the IP threat posed internationally by China; Dr Ben Stevens and Dr Gatra Priyandita of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute believe that, with Australian organisations under threat from state-sponsored IP theft, the Government’s recently elevated cybersecurity focus should be expanded to include a commission to examine the theft of Australian IP.