UK Police Force Research Articles

Social embeddedness and organisational justice in a UK police force

Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe police officers’ workplace social networks and to examine how police officers’ social ties, in combination with organisational climate, affect their attitudes towards and willingness to report misconduct.Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from a vignette survey of 86 response police officers in an English county police force. Officers’ attitudes towards misconduct and likelihood of reporting were analysed using multivariable regression models.Findings Descriptively, most officers have a small social network within the force, and police comprise about one-third of their total social networks. Officers were generally highly disapproving of misconduct and expressed they would challenge their peers in most scenarios, though reporting misconduct was somewhat less likely. Perceived peer disapproval of misconduct is a strong predictor of officers’ disapproval of misconduct and expressed likelihood of reporting misconduct. Organisational justice and social embeddedness were not usually associated with the challenging and reporting of misconduct.Originality/value This study is one of only a handful to report information on police officers’ friendship networks in the workplace, and these results show that peer influence remains an important vector for police management to use in promoting prosocial police culture and preventing misconduct.

Economic evaluation of a psychological surveillance and support programme in the UK police force

PurposePolice officers in the UK frequently experience traumatic events and work pressures, and these can have a detrimental impact on mental health. A psychological surveillance programme has been implemented and clinically evaluated. This paper reports an economic evaluation of the programme.Design/methodology/approachA decision analytic model was developed to explore programme costs, outcomes and return on investment for a notional cohort of 1,000 police personnel (officers and staff). The model parameters were obtained from a large data set of sequential psychological surveillance results. Changes in individual work productivity were derived from a workability measure included in the survey.FindingsThe modelled expected total cost incurred to screen 1,000 participants was £84,287 ($106,971). The expected net increase in work productivity for those receiving interventions was valued at £241,672 ($306,713). This result represents a return on investment of 187%. Sensitivity analyses showed that the model was robust to changes in key parameters.Research limitations/implicationsPolice personnel experiencing traumatic events may need specialist support from occupational health services or psychological therapy. Screening or surveillance can detect mental health problems, but its cost-effectiveness has been previously unknown.Practical implicationsThe value for money of providing surveillance within the police force to detect mental health problems is assessed in this research. The gains in terms of increased work are evident. In similar environmental working conditions, this could extend to emergency services globally.Social implicationsThe police are often called upon to deal with the lowest points in people’s lives. The findings have implications for police forces wishing to support officers to be able to provide the best of themselves in these situations.Originality/valueThere have been no previous studies in policing that have concluded that running a psychological surveillance programme in policing is financially viable. Although this requires initial investment, this paper models that the extra costs incurred are more than offset by improved work productivity.

Managing investigative interviews with vulnerable suspects in the UK: do specialist interview managers (IM’s) understand vulnerability?

ABSTRACT An Interview Manager (IM) is required to provide strategic advice to both a Senior Investigating Officer and the interview team on matters relating to suspect management in high stake investigations. This paper explored the perceptions of the IM with regard to what vulnerability is and the functionality of their role during their deployment with vulnerable suspects. A self-report questionnaire was completed by 53 IMs from 16 separate UK Police Forces together with IMs from 2 UK Counter Terrorism Units and a National Crime Unit. Overall, the responses indicated that there was lack of, (i) understanding of what constituted vulnerability in the context of the criminal justice system, (ii) understanding of the AA role and (iii) training regarding specific vulnerabilities and their impact on the investigative interview. These combined issues leave the vulnerable suspect as risk of the failure to receive a fair trial and a potential miscarriage of justice. More training and support should be provided at a national level and with their respective organisations.

Differentiating risk: The association between relationship type and risk of repeat victimization of domestic abuse

Abstract Much of the literature on domestic abuse focuses on those in intimate partner relationships or ex-partners, however, in the UK the Home Office definition also includes those in familial relationships. The Domestic Abuse, Stalking, and Harassment and Honour-Based Violence Risk Assessment assumes homogeneous risk factors across all relationships. This paper therefore examines the risk factors for repeat victimization of domestic abuse by relationship type between the victim and perpetrator in a UK police force. Using police-recorded domestic abuse incident and crime data, a logistic regression model found that the most similar repeat victimization risk profiles for 14,519 victims were amongst partners and ex-partners, with both relationships demonstrating the greatest degree of gender asymmetry, compared with other familial relationships. Physical violence was the strongest predictor of repeat victimization and was a statistically significant predictor for ex-partners, partners, and all familial relationships. Coercive behaviour was also a significant predictor for all relationships apart from partners, but not at the same magnitude as physical abuse. Recognizing the difference in risk by relationship type may assist the police in deciding the most appropriate response and interventions to reduce the risk of further harm.

Does darkness increase the risk of certain types of crime? A registered report protocol.

Evidence about the relationship between lighting and crime is mixed. Although a review of evidence found that improved road / street lighting was associated with reductions in crime, these reductions occurred in daylight as well as after dark, suggesting any effect was not due only to changes in visual conditions. One limitation of previous studies is that crime data are reported in aggregate and thus previous analyses were required to make simplifications concerning types of crimes or locations. We will overcome that by working with a UK police force to access records of individual crimes. We will use these data to determine whether the risk of crime at a specific time of day is greater after dark than during daylight. If no difference is found, this would suggest improvements to visual conditions after dark through lighting would have no effect. If however the risk of crime occurring after dark was greater than during daylight, quantifying this effect would provide a measure to assess the potential effectiveness of lighting in reducing crime risk after dark. We will use a case and control approach to analyse ten years of crime data. We will compare counts of crimes in 'case' hours, that are in daylight and darkness at different times of the year, and 'control' hours, that are in daylight throughout the year. From these counts we will calculate odds ratios as a measure of the effect of darkness on risk of crime, using these to answer three questions: 1) Is the risk of overall crime occurring greater after dark than during daylight? 2) Does the risk of crime occurring after dark vary depending on the category of crime? 3) Does the risk of crime occurring after dark vary depending on the geographical area?

Post-traumatic Embitterment Disorder in UK Authorised Firearms Officers Following Post-incident Procedures: A Cross-Sectional Web Survey

In the United Kingdom, authorised firearms officers (AFOs) respond to the most serious threats, and in situations where a weapon is discharged may be subject to a post-incident investigation. The investigation may feel unjust and lead to post-traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED), however, there is a lack of research on PTED in this group. The current study estimated the prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of PTED in 40 UK AFOs with experience of a post-incident procedure following a firearms-related incident. An online cross-sectional survey was hosted on Qualtrics, and participants were recruited via a gatekeeper at one UK police force. PTED was assessed using the PTED self-rating scale. Potential predictors and outcomes were measured using surveys of personal and general belief in a just world (BJW), including belief in distributive justice (i.e., fair outcomes) and procedural justice (i.e., fair processes), anger, and social desirability. Participants reported whether they had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression, and whether they experienced the post incident investigation as more problematic than the firearms incident. Results showed 15% of participants displayed clinically relevant levels of PTED. Having a possible post-traumatic stress disorder and/or depression diagnosis, feeling as though the post-incident procedure and subsequent treatment were more problematic than the incident itself, and a lack of belief in personal distributive justice, increased the risk of experiencing PTED and PTED predicted increased feelings of anger. Measures are needed to ensure the post-incident procedure delivers fair outcomes and that AFOs are given the right targeted support throughout the process.

Sickness absence and associations with sociodemographic factors, health risk behaviours, occupational stressors and adverse mental health in 40,343 UK police employees.

Police employees may experience high levels of stress due to the challenging nature of their work which can then lead to sickness absence. To date, there has been limited research on sickness absence in the police. This exploratory analysis investigated sickness absence in UK police employees. Secondary data analyses were conducted using data from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study (2006-2015). Past year sickness absence was self-reported and categorised as none, low (1-5 days), moderate (6-19 days) and long-term sickness absence (LTSA, 20 or more days). Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine sickness absence and exploratory associations with sociodemographic factors, occupational stressors, health risk behaviours, and mental health outcomes, controlling for rank, gender and age. From a sample of 40,343 police staff and police officers, forty-six per cent had no sickness absence within the previous year, 33% had a low amount, 13% a moderate amount and 8% were on LTSA. The groups that were more likely to take sick leave were women, non-uniformed police staff, divorced or separated, smokers and those with three or more general practitioner consultations in the past year, poorer mental health, low job satisfaction and high job strain. The study highlights the groups of police employees who may be more likely to take sick leave and is unique in its use of a large cohort of police employees. The findings emphasise the importance of considering possible modifiable factors that may contribute to sickness absence in UK police forces.

Commuting for Crime

Abstract People care about crime, with the spatial distribution of both actual and perceived crime affecting the local amenities from living in different areas and residential decisions. The literature finds that crime tends to happen close to the offender's residence, but does not clearly establish whether this is because the location of likely offenders and crime opportunities are close to each other, whether more local crimes are likely to be solved or whether there is a high commuting cost for criminals. We use a rich administrative dataset from one of the biggest UK police forces to disentangle these hypotheses, proposing a procedure for controlling for the selection bias induced by the fact that an offender’s location is only known when they are caught. We find that the cost of distance is very high, especially for crimes without any financial gain. For property crimes, we find a similar cost of distance to commuting for legal work. We also investigate how local socio-economic characteristics affect both the number of criminals and the number of crimes.

“Can I Have a Look?”: The Discursive Management of Victims’ Personal Space During Police First Response Call-Outs to Domestic Abuse Incidents

The complexities of domestic abuse as both a lived experience and a crime generate unique communicative challenges at the scene of emergency police call-outs. Space is a prominent and complex feature of these ecounters, entailing a juxtaposition of the institutional and the private, whereby frontline officers seek evidence of abuse from victims in the same space in which the abuse occurred. This paper explores how speakers manage one evidentially salient aspect of these encounters: officers’ advancement into victim’s immediate personal space to inspect and photograph their injuries. As compared with the attention dedicated to preserving vulnerable victims’ personal ‘bubble’ of space in formal investigative interviews, first response guidelines allow participants more leeway to adapt their behaviour according to the unpredictable demands of each situation. I present two case studies here which form part of a wider study of first response call-outs to domestic abuse incidents reported to a UK police force. The audio data have been extracted from police body-worn video footage and transcribed, with visual information represented intralinearly. Through conversation analysis, I examine the microinteractional means by which personal space is made relevant and consequential to the unfolding talk, with a focus on how ownership rights and control over the space are (re)constructed discursively. Analysis demonstrates that entering victims’ personal space can be managed in ways that either reinforce their disempowered position or afford them some control. The findings have implications in relation to victims’ potential vulnerability, police-victim relations and the nature of the evidence produced.

A Tailored mHealth App for Improving Health and Well-Being Behavioral Transformation in UK Police Workers: Usability Testing via a Mixed Methods Study.

When considering the policing environment of 2022, many roles previously in the domain of warranted officers (police officer) are now performed by nonwarranted police staff equivalents. These police staff roles have expanded rapidly into other areas such as investigations, custody, and contact management, which were traditionally seen as police officer functions and put staff under some of the same stresses as police officers. A UK police force requested help in investigating technologies that could be used to improve health and well-being for both officers and staff. The aim of this study was to create a health and well-being app for police officers and staff, which considered the unique requirements of the users throughout the designing, building, prototyping, and testing stages. This study involved quantitative approaches (demographic web-based survey questions and the System Usability Scale) and qualitative approaches (open web-based survey questions and semistructured interviews). Unsupervised usability testing of a prototype app was undertaken by members (N=48) of the commissioning client using their smartphones. After completing a preregistration application for screening purposes, participants downloaded a trial version of the app. Then, they completed a web-based questionnaire after testing the app for 10 days. A subsample of participants (9/48, 19%) was interviewed. Deductive thematic analysis was undertaken to identify key themes and subthemes. Data collected during usability testing concerned the 6 domains of the app-food and diet, activity, fluid intake, sleep, good mental health, and financial well-being-and informed the creation of improved design during prototyping. Some usability and design issues and suggestions for improvements were also addressed and implemented-including shift management and catch-up cards-during this cycle of development. This study highlights the importance of coparticipation with officers and staff across the entire development cycle, to coproduce a human-centered design methodology to enable the development of a considered and user-centered solution. It demonstrates the need for producing a multifunctional tool rather than focusing purely on an individual element for this user group. It also highlights how linking and being able to track optional, personalized elements of health data against one another, cross-referenced to individual shift patterns, might help to inform and provide users with a chance for reflection and therefore influence behavior change.

Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement

Research on pandemic domestic abuse trends has produced inconsistent findings reflecting differences in definitions, data and method. This study analyses 43,488 domestic abuse crimes recorded by a UK police force. Metrics and analytic approaches are tailored to address key methodological issues in three key ways. First, it was hypothesised that reporting rates changed during lockdown, so natural language processing was used to interrogate untapped free-text information in police records to develop a novel indicator of change in reporting. Second, it was hypothesised that abuse would change differentially for those cohabiting (due to physical proximity) compared to non-cohabitees, which was assessed via a proxy measure. Third, the analytic approaches used were change-point analysis and anomaly detection: these are more independent than regression analysis for present purposes in gauging the timing and duration of significant change. However, the main findings were largely contrary to expectation: (1) domestic abuse did not increase during the first national lockdown in early 2020 but increased across a prolonged post-lockdown period, (2) the post-lockdown increase did not reflect change in reporting by victims, and; (3) the proportion of abuse between cohabiting partners, at around 40 percent of the total, did not increase significantly during or after the lockdown. The implications of these unanticipated findings are discussed.

An analysis of interview strategies in high-stakes crime investigations in the UK: Are they fit for purpose?

Providing strategic advice to the Senior Investigating Officer is a key element of the role of the Interview Manager in high-stakes crime investigations. However, no actual evaluation of such strategies has been undertaken. This exploratory study examined 15 interview strategies from three UK police forces in connection with high-stakes crime investigations. Overall, the analysis illustrated that the strategies were poorly designed, vague and lacked a cohesive structure. The study has provided an invaluable first insight into strategy design and implementation in the investigative interviewing arena. More research is required to focus on design and implementation of interview strategies.

Impact evaluation and economic benefit analysis of a domestic violence and abuse UK police intervention.

This study evaluated the impact and economic benefit of Cautioning and Relationship Abuse (CARA), an intervention which aims to reduce re-offending of first-time low-level domestic violence and abuse perpetrators. The analysis was based on two samples drawn from separate UK police force areas. CARA's impact was assessed using a matched sample of similar offenders from a time when CARA was not available. The matching was based on a host of offender and victim characteristics and machine learning methods were employed. The results show that the CARA intervention has a significant impact on the amount of recidivism but no significant reduction in the severity of the crimes. The benefit-cost ratio in both police force areas is greater than one and estimated to be 2.75 and 11.1, respectively, across the two police force areas. Thus, for each pound (£) invested in CARA, there is an economic benefit of 2.75-11.1 pounds, annually.

Algorithmic policing: an exploratory study of the algorithmically mediated construction of individual risk in a UK police force

ABSTRACT Predictive policing has captured the imagination of both enthusiasts hoping to improve public safety and opponents raising concerns around algorithmic bias and opacity. Based on seven in-depth interviews with officers in a UK police force, this article examines the dynamics of how automated risk scores institutionalise an individual-focussed threat-harm-risk strategy aimed at preventing repeat offending. Born out of the need to prioritise work given budget cuts, the risk scores alleviate fears of missing opportunities for prevention and render professional decision-making defendable. Rather than replacing professional judgement, the article finds that officers maintain discretion in a process of co-construction by scrutinising the risk scores and weighing them against other priorities and operational constraints. In a climate of austerity, a concern arises from the scores’ potential to drive short-term selective incapacitation rather than prevention through supportive measures.

The prevalence of depression, anxiety, stress and their relationship to length of service in the UK police force

Policing is considered a highly stressful role, and police officers are at risk of mental health issues during their service. This is an area which has gained increasing attention in recent years, but further research, using validated measures, is needed to help identify other factors that are important and ensure further development as well as evidence-based, bespoke intervention. The current study sought to explore the general prevalence of stress, depression and anxiety in a UK sample of police officers, to examine whether length of service moderates the effects of stress, depression and anxiety, and whether certain personality traits protect against these. A self-report questionnaire was completed by 177 serving UK police officers from 10 different regions. Results revealed clinical levels of anxiety and depression, and comorbid presentations of major depression and anxiety, at rates significantly higher than reported in the general population. Results indicated officers are most at risk of experiencing stress during the first 15 years of their service, and that officers’ stress was organisational rather than trauma related. Additionally, officers higher in traits of extraversion and lower in neuroticism reported lower anxiety. The results of these findings are discussed, and suggestions have been made based on the current findings.

‘Wait! Don’t touch me!’: Police uniforms, family anxiety, and rituals of purification in the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Emblematic power is entrenched in the uniform and bodily image of the police. The COVID-19 pandemic has afforded a new layer of understandings of ‘dirty work’ with police officers, and has shown how the police uniform is perceived to be an involuntary vehicle for physical contamination and symbolic taint. This article is based on interviews with 18 police officers from 11 UK police forces over the summer of 2020 and explores how the COVID-19 pandemic caused increased fear and anxiety about virus contraction, particularly when officers were not prioritised for testing and vaccinations at the time. The possibility of transmitting COVID-19 to family members motivated officers to treat their uniforms differently, and they undertook purification rituals to mitigate violations of the physical and symbolic space around the body. Fear and anxiety of ‘the unknown’ is a motivator for discussions about long-term effects of officer well-being, and the significance of learning to prepare for future pandemics.

Embedding Evidence-Based Policing (EBP): A UK case study exploring organisational challenges

This paper explores organisational challenges of embedding ‘Evidence-Based Policing’ (EBP) using a mixed methods design sampled across a range of ranks/roles, in a case study UK police force. Key organisational constraints identified include limited awareness of/access to research evidence, lack of resources, capability concerns, and challenges related to organisational culture and leadership. Organisational constraints were disproportionately experienced by lower ranking officers and staff, and senior officers were not fully cognisant of these challenges. There is a need to better equip officers and staff of all ranks to engage with EBP and address the identified organisational challenges.

Improving the ‘victim journey’ when reporting domestic abuse cyberstalking to the police – A pilot project evaluation

Criminal justice responses to stalking in England and Wales have come under increased scrutiny following the Joint Criminal Justice Inspectorate report in 2017. In response, police forces throughout England and Wales attempted to improve their handling of stalking. In one UK police force, a project was developed to improve the identification, investigation and victim journey for domestic abuse cyberstalking offences. The project included a specialist investigation team along with a dedicated and co-located Independent Domestic Violence Advisor. This article draws on research conducted during the evaluation of the project and will evidence high levels of victim engagement, positive reports from victims and a 100% success rate in obtaining restraining orders. These findings highlight the valuable role of specialist teams with integrated, independent support for victims and suggest that the victim journey can be improved through collaborative projects between the police and specialist organisations.

Predicting Domestic Abuse (Fairly) and Police Risk Assessment.

Domestic abuse victim risk assessment is crucial for providing victims with the correct level of support. However, it has been shown that the approach currently taken by most UK police forces, the Domestic Abuse, Stalking, and Honour Based Violence (DASH) risk assessment, is not identifying the most vulnerable victims. Instead, we tested several machine learning algorithms and propose a predictive model, using logistic regression with elastic net as the best performing, that incorporates information readily available in police databases, and census-area-level statistics. We used data from a large UK police force including 350,000 domestic abuse incidents. Our models made significant improvement upon the predictive capacity of DASH, both for intimate partner violence (IPV; AUC = .748) and other forms of domestic abuse (non-IPV; AUC = .763). The most influential variables in the model were of the categories criminal history and domestic abuse history, particularly time since the last incident. We show that the DASH questions contributed almost nothing to the predictive performance. We also provide an overview of model fairness performance for ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups of the data sample. Although there were disparities between ethnic and demographic subgroups, everyone benefited from the increased accuracy of model-based predictions when compared with officer risk predictions.

Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Brewin, Miller and Burchell (2022).

Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Brewin, Miller and Burchell (2022).