New Met Police recruits to get part-time work option

The Metropolitan Police have announced the option for new police constables to work part time. The move towards more flexible working has come about to try and break down barriers, particularly for women who want to join policing but are deterred from doing so due to the working hours.

Prior to this announcement, there was a requirement for new recruits to complete training and a probationary training period before being allowed to apply for part-time positions.

The Met Police Federation have said that it is not yet clear how the scheme would work when a major incident requiring officers to be called on at short notice occurs.

The training for the new part-time positions will begin in November.

Source: BBC News

Future technology trends in security

The Home Office have released a paper about future technology trends in security. The paper contains the research and analysis undertaken to discover which emerging trends and threats the government and private sector should consider to inform future policy.

The paper covers a wide range of topics including Artificial intelligence, driverless cars and public surveillance and covers trends related to security over the next 10 years.

Source: gov.uk

Independent Research into Hate Crime Victims’ Experiences of Policing

This research was carried out after HMIC recommendations were made following a report that found that police response to hate crimes is inconsistent.  The main findings of the independent research were that:

• Victims would like police officers and staff to be better at recognising hate crime through proper recording and appropriate responses
• Victims would like better trained officers to deal with them, who show awareness and understanding of individual circumstances
• Victims would like clear information about support services in a format they can understand.

The research comes to these conclusions after exploring how police record hate crime, the difficulties in recognising hate crime, the effects of hate crime including the need for victim support and the reasons why people don’t always report hate crime.

Source: HMICFRS

Ongoing Research on Implementing Police Transformation in Line with Policing Vision 2025

Research by The Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning (OU) and IFF Research was carried out in order to understand to what extent and in what ways English and Welsh police forces are prepared for the changes to training, learning and development required to implement Policing Vision 2025, and how they can best be supported to realise this ambition.

A survey was done to establish a baseline of working practices, and attitudes about training, learning and development from both managers and portfolio leads at police forces across England and Wales and the information gathered from it will be used to assess changes in practices and attitudes over time.

The research team encourage all police to read and consider the report in order to stimulate ideas for taking steps to change as well as to consider report outcomes and findings alongside other documents and policies about organisation development and workforce change.

This research continues including an ‘endline survey’ in summer 2019 which will be a mirror image of the baseline survey.

Joint Inspection of Handling of Disability Hate Crime Cases

In the years between previous joint reports by HM Inspectorates in 2013 and 2015, the progress of the CPS and police in their handling of disability hate crime cases was disappointing.  This year’s joint inspection report, however, is a lot more promising.  In particular:

• The way in which CPS area hate crime co-ordinators review cases and pass on improvements to colleagues were praised
• CPS hate crime co-ordinators were also praised for engagement with the community via scrutiny panels as well as for their efforts to make sure tougher sentences are passed where evidence of hostility is proven
• CPS decision-making in disability hate-crime cases was ‘excellent’
• The number of cases being identified correctly as hate crimes is increasing
• Better compliance with the victim’s code of practice
• An increase in the number of successful applications for sentence uplifts due to cases containing elements of disability hate crime

Further improvements are still to be made and recommendations have been made with respect to:

• The identification and investigation of cases involving disability hate crime
• The coordination of work between the police and CPS
• Changes to be made to better highlight and explain cases in court and defence where an increase in sentencing is required

Source: Justice Inspectorates

Proposed Changes to Police Pursuits

The Home Office are currently consulting on proposed changes to the law, guidance and training governing police pursuits.

Issues set out in this documentation for consultation and potential future action include:

• considering whether any legislative change should apply only to police pursuits or to police response driving as well
• whether to revise the various exemptions from certain areas of road traffic legislation to make them clearer and more consistent
• amending the definitions in the offences of careless and dangerous driving to take account of the training and experience of police drivers
• making clear that a suspect being pursued is responsible for their own decision to drive dangerously and that blame should not be attached to the pursuing police officer.

Source: Home Office

Police Professional Digital Edition

Police Professional have released their Digital Edition which contains key features of the week. Topics include:

Saving changes
The procurement of common police equipment offers considerable scope for efficiencies. Chief Constable Simon Cole discusses the progress to achieving uniformity.

Strength from diversity
Following their graduation last week, the newly qualified strategic leaders of the service explain how the contributions from speakers and each other have prepared them for the future.

Connecting the particles
Research highlights a prevalence to misdemeanour in environmental hotspots, and suggests reducing pollution could have benefits to reducing crime.

Signals on hold
Kenny MacAskill admits that those warning of likely difficulties in hitching British Transport Police to Police Scotland were right and looks at whether progress will resume once the tracks to implementation are cleared.

Raising the bar
In a concerted effort to alleviate the burden and dissatisfaction with the complaints and misconduct system, professional standards leaders are working to ensure lengthy investigations are minimised by treating minor breaches as performance issues.

Harnessing the citizen
The service appears to be calling on the public to play a greater role in policing their communities but, asks Professor Colin Rogers, are they aware they have replaced neighbourhood resources?

Mistakes are allowed
A significant Divisional Court ruling has dismissed a claimant’s application for a judicial review into the Metropolitan Police Service’s use of a search warrant against her property. John Riddell explains why the decision will assist officers who are executing search warrants.

Source: Police Professional (signup required)

Translational Criminology Magazine

The Centre for Evidence-Based Crime Policy has released their Spring Issue Criminology Magazine.

Topics include:

• The Matrix Demonstration Project – research translation tool created for police agencies to help visualise, synthesise, and translate evaluation studies on police crime control strategies.
• From Research to Practice, Two Decades Later: Evidence-Based Policing in Madison, Wisconsin.
• Evidence that Gun Laws Can Reduce Intimate Partner Homicides.
• What Role Should Criminologists Play in Criminal Justice Debates? A Push for Public Criminology with a Cautionary Note.
• A Practitioner Guide to Understanding P-Values.
• Collaborative Efforts to Address and Prevent Fatal Traffic Crashes.
• Using Data to Inform Pretrial Supervision: Strategies from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
• The Importance of Statistical Power in Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Source: Centre for Evidence-Based Crime Policy

Police forces set to start new Apprenticeship Scheme

Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Nottinghamshire are now recruiting constables as part of the new apprenticeship scheme, designed by the College of Policing.

In addition to regular policing duties, new recruits will have to complete projects in specialist areas, which will count towards a degree in professional policing. This paves the way for the police service becoming a profession.

More forces will be recruiting constables onto the scheme later this year.

Source: Police Oracle (signup required)

Man having ‘mental health crisis’ dies after officer restraint

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched an investigation into the death of a 35-year-old man suffering a ‘mental health crisis’ who died following restraint used by Metropolitan Police officers.

The man, who reports say was attempting to gain access to rear gardens, was detained at the scene and later taken by London Ambulance to hospital where he later died. The IOPC said its investigators had reviewed footage from officers’ body-worn cameras “that shows the man in an agitated state”.

Last year the Independent Police Complaints Commission (replaced by the IOPC in January) said that officers should not restrain people with suspected mental health problems.  This warning followed the death of a 25-year-old who was detained under the Mental Health Act in 2010 and later collapsed in custody.

Source: Independent