A report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has revealed that police in England and Wales fail to record in excess of 800,000 crimes a year. That’s one in five offences; over one-quarter of…
Not who you want stopping you on the street.
Danny Lawson/PA
Here’s a figure that deserves some attention: in the first year in which Scotland had a single police force, 8,000 stop searches were carried out by armed response officers, an average of 29 searches by…
The Toronto G20 summit showed what starts out as a peaceful protest can turn into a violent clash.
EPA/Sergei Ilinitsky
The Brisbane G20 summit is shaping up to to be Australia’s largest security operation. In recent decades, most large-scale protests in Australia have been relatively peaceful events, but the policing of…
Despite pressure from the pet community, few are turning up.
Rikki's Refuge
Even before the results come in, turn-out for electing South Yorkshire’s next Police and Crime Commissioner was shown to be extremely low. As the votes were being counted from the October 30 ballot, it…
Chemical weapons could be making a stealthy comeback.
Andreas Gradin via Shutterstock
On October 26 2002, to end a three-day siege on a theatre in Moscow by Chechen terrorists, Russian security forces used a secret incapacitating chemical agent (ICA) weapon believed to affect the central…
Police in Ferguson, Missouri, far beyond your friendly neighborhood patrolmen.
Larry W Smith/EPA
In August 2014, the police who faced protesters in Ferguson, Missouri looked more like soldiers than officers of the peace. Citizens squared off with a camouflage-clad police force armed with tear gas…
Better brush up on your sleuthing skills.
Casey Fleser
An alarming report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has revealed that some police forces have simply given up investigating some types of crime, instead calling on the general public to…
Mourners at the funeral of Michael Brown on August 25.
St.Louise Post-Dispath/Pool/EPA
As the world grapples with the containment of diseases such as Ebola, there is another epidemic that demands attentive responses, policies, and actions. It is one of grave proportions regarding the violation…
The blurring of the line between the military and the police, especially in the US, is now on the political agenda following recent events in Ferguson, Missouri.
EPA/Roberto Rodriguez
Anyone watching the footage coming out of Ferguson, Missouri in recent days would be forgiven for thinking they had tuned into a scene from a combat zone, rather than suburban America. There has been a…
With the Metropolitan Police agreeing to reveal whether undercover officers had relationships with women while using assumed identities, and a new Operation Herne report exposing more controversial police…
Metadata – as the name suggests – is data about data. While most of it may seem innocuous, it can be highly valuable to police, investigators and others. With the proliferation of smartphones, the amount…
Mobile phone towers can be used to locate people.
Flickr/Ervins Strauhmanis
Metadata is in the news again with revelations that police in Australia have been getting access to data collected from mobile base stations (cell towers). In the wiretapping world there is a distinction…
It has recently been announced that the Mayor of London’s Office on Policing and Crime (MOPAC) has authorised the Metropolitan Police to purchase three water cannon. This decision was made in advance of…
In preparing for the World Cup, Brazilian police have embarked on a process of cleaning up the country’s poorest neighbourhoods, known as favelas.
EPA/Antonio Lacerda
Brazil is famous for many things: samba, football and beaches, but also its favelas, the poor neighbourhoods that encircle its cities. These areas are often on invaded lands in middle and upper-class neighbourhoods…
Suspects are protected - but what about victims and witnesses?
Image via Shutterstock
A campaign is at large to secure statutory anonymity for all young people under 18 who are accused of crime. Lawyers, criminologists, judges, sociologists, academics, and politicians are in on it. It is…
A bit of ‘territorial support’ from the thin blue line.
Carl Court/PA Wire
Over the past ten years, 519 people have died after contact with the police, either in custody (the great majority) or during a pursuit or another road traffic incident. Some 23 people have been shot by…
Police rights to secretly collect suspects’ discarded DNA samples is dangerously unregulated according to new research. Laws…
With the Queensland Police Force covering his back, Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen (pictured right) was impervious in his time in power.
srv007
In his latest book, Jacks and Jokers, Matthew Condon traces the rise and influence of Queensland Police Commissioner Terry Lewis during the Joh Bjelke-Petersen years. In this extract, Condon writes how…
Surprisingly few police have the knowledge and skills to know how to deal with people in crisis.
Shutterstock
Police officers encounter people with mental illnesses every day, whether they are perpetrators, victims, or witnesses of crime. In 2013 alone, NSW police responded to more than 40,000 mental health incidents…
The move to mobile technology has opened up a wealth of metadata, but that information goes deeper than you may first think.
The Fuji street shooter/Flickr
Metadata related to lawful interception has been in the news a bit lately. You may have seen last week the Australian Federal Police (AFP) called for more access to electronic metadata as a Senate committee…