British Police Research Articles

The impact of compliance with a compulsory model of drug diversion on treatment engagement and reoffending

Aim: Over a 10-year period from 2003, around 1.7 million arrests in England and Wales resulted in the suspect being exposed to mandatory drug testing and assessment processes. These provisions formed part of a wider drug interventions programme costing £1.3 billion. This study sought to assess the impact of compliance with these measures on treatment uptake and reoffending. Recidivism risk factors were also investigated. Methods: The use of linked administrative data relating to matched samples of recent heroin and/or cocaine (H/C) users identified in one English police force area over a 12-month period (N = 1630). Findings: There was no association between compliance with a compulsory model of drug diversion and subsequent engagement with structured treatment services, rates of treatment retention and successful discharge. Compliance was also not found to be associated with reductions in the rate and volume of reoffending after 12 months. The factor with the largest effect on risk of recidivism was poly use of H/C. Main offence, engagement with structured treatment, number of prior convictions and (younger) age were also identified as recidivism risk factors. Conclusions: These results are discussed in the context of subsequent legislation and policy which further expands the reach of mandatory testing and assessment measures as a form of constraints-based drug diversion.

A Historical Study on the Rise and Fall of British Police Legitimacy

A Historical Study on the Rise and Fall of British Police Legitimacy

Arming the police in Britain

In 2010 Derrick Bird shot and killed 12 people, as well as injuring a further 11, in Cumbria. A legitimate question that arose after the tragedy was whether the outcome would have been different if the British police had been armed? This paper explores whether human rights law requires, or at least justifies, the UK authorities to arm the police in the pursuit of public protection? Derrick Bird was licensed to possess his firearms. Is a more proportionate response amendments to the existing weapons certification process? These are some of the questions which this article seeks to address.

‘I’m a copper not a welfare officer’

This article uses what was a very popular programme, Hunters Walk, to challenge dominant understandings of the British police series in the 1970s. Studies of British television drama often characterize this genre as being epitomized by The Sweeney throughout this decade; remembered for its use of film cameras on location to regularly depict action sequences in a somewhat escapist fashion. This article complicates such a dominant critical opinion by drawing attention to a popular series shot in the studio with video cameras and analysing its engagement with feminist concerns and representations of gender, a trait usually attributed to soap operas at that time.

Revisiting the classics: S. Holdaway (1983) Inside the British police: a force at work. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

As a field of social science research, policing has been fortunate to have a number of influential academic researchers and a rich history of significant writing. This is something to be celebrated. Our Revisiting the Classics series aims to bring together leading commentators to review books that contribute to the core of police studies. There will always be debate about which books are seminal and which authors have had the greatest influence on the discipline. We hope this initiative will encourage readers to rediscover the value of work done by previous generations.

Adaptive Flexibility

Identifying the cognitive processes underlying tactical decision making is vital for two purposes: (a) reducing risk through improved training and (b) facilitating the public’s attitudes toward the legitimacy of the police and criminal justice system. Despite this, very little research has been conducted into British police decision making involving the use of firearms. This study begins to address this gap by examining the impact that expertise has on British police’s use-of-force decisions during armed confrontations. To do so, the tactical decision-making processes of 12 expert specialized firearms officers and 11 novice authorized firearms officers during armed confrontations were compared through cognitive task analysis methods. Data were coded via categories derived from theory and patterns inductively emergent within the data. The results found expert specialized firearms officers to be more flexible in adaptive responding to situational changes, while novice authorized firearms officers reported a more sequential and linear process of tactical decision making. In identifying the key features of expertise within this environment (“adaptive flexibility”), this study has theoretical and practical implications for the acceleration of authorized firearms officers’ expertise acquisition to bridge the existing gap resulting from a lack of available qualified operational force commanders.

Validation of objective records and misreporting of personal radio use in a cohort of British Police forces (the Airwave Health Monitoring Study)

BackgroundTerrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is a digital communication system progressively adopted by Police Forces in Great Britain since 2001. In 2000, the UK Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones suggested that exposure to TETRA-like signal modulation might have adverse effects on health. The Airwave Health Monitoring Study was established to investigate possible long-term effects of TETRA use on health. This requires estimation of TETRA use among Police Force employees participating in the study. MethodsWe investigated TETRA usage among 42,112 Police officers and staff. An algorithm was created to link each personal radio user to his/her objective radio usage records for the 26,035 participants with available data. We linked 16,577 personal radio users to their objective radio usage records and compared self-reported usage with data from the TETRA operator for those individuals. ResultsFor weekly usage, the correlation between self-reported and operator-derived personal radio usage was r=0.69 for number and r=0.59 for the duration of calls. Compared with objective data, participants under-reported the number of calls and over-reported the duration of calls by a factor of around 4 and 1.6 respectively. Correlations were lower and bias higher when looking at daily usage. ConclusionWhere both objective and self-reported information were available, our study showed substantial misreporting in self-reported TETRA usage. Successful linkage of large numbers of TETRA users to objective data on their personal radios will allow objective assessment of TETRA radio usage for these participants and development of algorithms to correct bias in self-reported data for the remainder.

Fear of crime on the rail networks: Perceptions of the UK public and British Transport Police

Counter-terrorism on the rail network is vital to the security of the United Kingdom. The British Transport Police (BTP) employ covert and overt security measures to prevent crime, which includes: closed circuit television, armed police, unarmed polisce, police community support officers, police dogs, stops and searches and awareness campaigns. All security measures aim to deter crime while importantly reassuring the public. We surveyed both members of the public and BTP officers about the perceived effectiveness of current security measures, specifically with regards to fear of terrorism. Feelings of reassurance and the perceived effectiveness of security measures were positively related. The most effective and reassuring security measure was the use of armed police; whereas the least effective and reassuring was the use of awareness campaigns. However, interestingly, qualitative analyses suggested that an increase in armed police without informed awareness campaigns would have a negative impact on public reassurance by increasing fear.

Maintaining order in the drug game: applying harm reduction principles to drug detective work

Drug war rhetoric is losing favour in the political arena due to its increasingly obvious failures and there is a growing consensus amongst governing elites that something ought to change. Against this backdrop, the concept of ‘harm reduction’ has moved to the foreground of the research agenda and some policing agencies appear to be reconfiguring their enforcement interventions to focus on managing drug markets in a way that minimises the various associated harms. This article draws on the findings of an ethnographic study of specialist detective units in two English police services to examine how recent developments in drug policy discourse have been received and implemented at an operational level. Although there have been some positive advancements, it argues that changes to the prohibition regime are largely superficial and strong cultural resistance remains. The discussion considers how harm reduction principles might be better applied to the policing of drug markets.

Praxis and the disruption of organized crime groups

Although reports state the frequency of general crime has fallen across the developed world, no such trend is evident within organised crime. This has caused law enforcement agencies to search for more innovative approaches to tackle this global problem. Emerging prominently within this period has been a ‘disruption’ approach, albeit little systematic research currently supports its use. This study explores the way one English Police Force has tackled 15 Organised Crime Groups (99 individuals), using this type of approach. The study specifically examines the characteristics of the offender, the tactics used, and the re-offending levels following the police activity. It concludes by highlighting: the methodological challenges associated with the measurement of organised crime disruption; the ethical questions surrounding this type of intervention; and the overall effectiveness of the approach.

A small constellation: risk factors informing police perceptions of domestic abuse

ABSTRACTPolice in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) now routinely use risk assessment tools to identify common risk factors for re-abuse and lethality when responding to domestic abuse. Nevertheless, little is known about the extent to which officers understand and perceive the importance of factors commonly included on risk assessment tools for predicting future abuse. This study attempts to shed some light into this area of research by exploring the responses of 720 British and American police officers to questions regarding how important and how essential various risk factors are for evaluating the level of risk or harm a victim of domestic abuse may face in the future. Findings indicated that British and American officers were largely in agreement about a small constellation of risk factors that they considered integral to the risk assessment process: using or threatening to use a weapon; strangulation; physical assault resulting in injury and escalation of abuse. The results revealed that officers’ country of employment, rather than their demographic characteristics or experience policing domestic abuse, was a particularly influential predictor of their perceptions, and that both the situational context and the victim's perception about risk are important in domestic abuse risk assessment.

The McDonaldisation of police–academic partnerships: organisational and cultural barriers encountered in moving from research on police to research with police

ABSTRACTPartnerships between police and academics have proliferated in recent years, reflecting the increased recognition of the benefits to be had on both sides from collaborating on research, knowledge transfer and other activities. The literature on police–academic partnerships refer to inherent obstacles in bringing the ‘two worlds’ of research and practice together, and reflects an increased recognition on both sides of the benefits to be had from the co-production of research – reflecting a shift from conducting research on police, to conducting research with police. This takes place in the wider context of moves towards evidence-based policing, and the professionalisation of policing in the UK. In this paper we reflect on our experiences of building a police–academic partnership, focusing on: (1) the internal organisational and cultural drivers and barriers; (2) the opportunities offered via ‘in-house’ research by analysts and police officers and (3) evaluation. We highlight the increasing risk presented to both sides by the ‘McDonaldisation’ [Heslop, R., 2011. The British police service: professionalization or ‘McDonaldization’? International journal of police science & management, 13 (4), 312–321, Ritzer, G., 2004. The Mcdonaldization of society. London: Sage] of police–academic partnerships, and the need to thus play close attention to how the identification and prioritisation of research, its conduct, and aspects of evaluation, are managed and supported in practice, with open and transparent dialogue between police and academic partners. The paper draws on qualitative interviews conducted with police officers and police staff, and our observations and reflections while conducting a strategically driven university-police collaborative project with police forces in England.

Police Attitudes in England to Return Interviews, in Repeat Missing Person Cases

AbstractThe aim of this article is to examine the attitudes of English police officers to return interviews of people who are reported missing repeatedly (e.g. three times or more). In addition to a brief police ‘Safe & Well Check’ a return interview is also carried out by a police officer and seeks to find out where people went and why, in order to identify potential risks to their safety and whether they experienced harm whilst they were missing. A mixed‐methods survey of 50 constables from one police force in England ran in March 2014, using quantitative and open qualitative questions. Key themes that emerged were individual frustration at repetition, negativity around usefulness of the interviews, a challenge to involve third sector partners, and development areas in training. Statistical significance was found in variables relating to officer experience and gender, against views on interviewing missing people. The article looks at the limited existing literature and makes recommendations about best practice with return interviews, advocating a multi‐agency approach to improve interventions, and better training to improve positivity towards missing people. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Deterrent Effect of the Death Penalty? Evidence from British Commutations During World War I

During World War I, the British military condemned over 3,000 soldiers to death, but only executed 12% of them; the others received commuted sentences. Many historians believe that the military command confirmed or commuted sentences for reasons unrelated to the circumstances of a particular case and that the application of the death penalty was essentially a random, “pitiless lottery.” Using a dataset on all capital cases during World War I, I statistically investigate this claim and find that the data are consistent with an essentially random process. Using this result, I exploit variation in commutations and executions within military units to identify the deterrent effect of executions, with deterrence measured by the elapsed time within a unit between the resolution of a death sentence (i.e., a commutation or execution) and subsequent absences within that unit. Absences are measured via handwritten trial records and “wanted” lists prepared by British military police units searching for deserters and preserved in war diaries and police gazettes. I find some limited evidence that executing deserters deterred absences, while executing Irish soldiers, regardless of the crime, spurred absences, particularly Irish absences. I present a model where perceived legitimacy of authority affects why people obey the law.

Sex differences in the relationship between work patterns and diet in British police force employees: a nested cross-sectional study

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Theo Bikel (1924–2015)

Theodore Meir “Theo” Bikel was a consummate performer and actor, as well as political activist. Born in Vienna, he fled with his family to Palestine in 1938, where he became an actor in Tel Aviv; he moved to London following the war, where he continued as an actor and also budding folk performer. He learned folk songs while involved with Alan Lomax and the American expatriate leftwing community; he appeared on Lomax’s BBC television series Song Hunter. One British police report noted in early 1954, while keeping watch on both Lomax and Ives: “It has recently been learnt that Burl IVES, the well-known broadcaster of hill-billy music, was first given his chance to broadcast on the American radio by LOMAX who also assisted Josh WHITE another American singer to gain public approval.” The Red Scare was alive and well in Great Britain, although much more muted that in the United States. Bikel moved that year to the United States and quickly plunged into the worlds of Broadway theater and commercial folk music. His New York apartment quickly became a gathering spot for folk musicians, including the Clancy Brothers and Cynthia Gooding. For the rest of his life Bikel juggled his acting and singing careers, with great success in both, while always continuing his progressive politics. His Hollywood career began in 1951 with John Houston’s The African Queen, with Bikel playing a World War I German naval officer, soon followed by Moulin Rouge, The Pride and the Passion, The Enemy Below, The Defiant Ones, and My Fair Lady, to name only a few. On Broadway he began with Tonight in Samarkand, then had a string of hits, including The Sound of Music, for which Rodgers and Hammerstein included “Edelweiss” just for him; he appeared as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for at least 2,000 performances beginning in 1967. Meanwhile, he appeared in various television productions. He managed to squeeze into this busy schedule dozens of folk-music albums, beginning with An Actor’s Holiday, Folk Songs of Israel, and a Young Man and a Maid with Cynthia Gooding, all for Elektra in 1956. Two years later Songs of a Russian Gypsy appeared, then many more albums for Jac Holzman’s label during the following decade. With his facility for languages, Bikel’s albums added to the numerous international recordings of the 1950s, which deftly countered the Cold War’s suspicion of foreigners. As if his acting and performing careers were not enough, in 1956 Bikel opened two pioneering folk venues in Los Angeles with Herb Cohen. The first, the Unicorn, seating fewer than 100, launched the career of the folk duo Bud and Travis. Soon thereafter Bikel and Cohen opened Cosmo Alley, behind the Ivar Theater in Hollywood, which seated 150 and served beer and wine, and where Maya Angelou

Utilising the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 for crime record data

Purpose – This research paper aims to consider the use of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) as a resource providing access to otherwise unavailable data from the UK Police forces. Not seeking to be a critical examination of Police practice, it offers insight to many aspects of records management appertaining to the police service provision of recorded crime. Authors consider whether record management is sufficiently integrated into police practice, given the transparency called for by the FOIA, contemporary societal needs and the growing requirement to provide high value evidence led assessments of activity both within and external to the service. Design/methodology/approach – FOIA was utilised to collect data from all police forces in England and Wales through multiple requests. Carried out over a 15-month period, three requests were collated and responses compared, allowing for examination of compliance with the legislation and reflections on the manner in which records were sought and ultimately disseminated. Findings – Generally, responding to FOIA requests was well managed by English Police Forces. Methods of data management and collection practice were exposed which the authors suggest pose questions on the strength of records management consideration that may be worthy of further work. Configuration management of records is highlighted as an essential function given the disparity of data releases experienced. Research limitations/implications – This research highlights the FOIA as a valuable methodological tool for academic researchers, but it is limited in respect of seeking firm contextual explanation of the Police internal procedures to answer requests. By making common requests over a long time period to the same Police forces, it provides a clear study of FOIA processes and raises potentially significant questions for records management consideration. Practical implications – Findings provide advice on developing use of the FOIA as an academic methodological resource and reflect on the findings impact on internal police use of data and information records. Originality/value – This paper allows for reflection on the importance of high-value records management in the day-to-day business of the police service and questions whether such knowledge areas are suitably considered. Covering an area of little previous academic enquiry, the research informs criminal justice practitioners of areas for potential further discussion and academic researchers on the validity of using the FOIA as a valuable information source.

Can People With Intellectual Disability Resist Implications of Fault When Police Question Their Allegations of Sexual Assault and Rape?

When people alleging sexual assault are interviewed by police, their accounts are tested to see if they would stand up in court. Some tests are in the form of tendentious questions carrying implications (e.g., that the sex was consensual) damaging to the complainant's allegation. In a qualitative analysis of 19 English police interviews with people with intellectual disability (ID) defined in a variety of ways, we show how people with ID deal with the pragmatic complexity of such tendentious questions. We give examples in which the complainants detect and resist the questions' damaging implications; but we focus on occasions when the complainants do not do so. We discuss the use of tendentious questions in the light of national United Kingdom guidelines on the treatment of vulnerable witnesses.

Structures of Authority: Post-war Masculinity and the British Police

Le roman policier britannique des années 1950 a peu intéressé les critiques, peut-être parce que ces années sont perçues comme « l’âge d’or » de la légitimité policière (Loader and Mulcahy 2003). Cette perception est renforcée par le cinéma de cette époque, dans lequel la police est présentée comme l’incarnation de la masculinité traditionnelle et des vertus nationales. Pourtant, ce modèle n’a aucun rapport avec la réalité de la fin des années 1940 et du début des années 1950 et doit être évalué à la lumière des développements apparus dans le roman policier. Alors que le cinéma utilise le genre pour rassurer son public, cet élément est bien moins évident dans le roman.

The Deterrent Effect of the Death Penalty? Evidence from British Commutations During World War I

During World War I, the British military condemned over 3,000 soldiers to death, but only executed 12%; the others received commuted sentences. Many historians believe that the military command confirmed or commuted sentences for reasons unrelated to the circumstances of a particular case and that the application of the death penalty was essentially a random, “pitiless lottery.” Using a dataset on all capital cases during World War I, I statistically investigate this claim and find that the data are consistent with an essentially random process. Using this result, I exploit variation in commutations and executions within military units to identify the deterrent effect of executions, with deterrence measured by the elapsed time within a unit between the resolution of a death sentence (i.e., a commutation or execution) and subsequent absences within that unit. Absences are measured via handwritten trial records and “wanted” lists prepared by British military police units searching for deserters and preserved in war diaries and police gazettes. I find some limited evidence that executing deserters deterred absences, while executing Irish soldiers, regardless of the crime, spurred absences, particularly Irish absences. I present a model where perceived legitimacy of authority affects why people obey the law.