Topic

Law and courts

The legal framework around policing, from PACE to the courts.

Procedural Justice: A Guide for Police Leaders — and How to Explain What It Actually Is

Procedural justice is the best-evidenced idea in modern policing — how an officer runs an encounter shapes trust and compliance more than what the encounter decides. A working guide for leaders and policy makers on what it actually is, the trials that test it, what the evidence doesn't yet show, and a simple way to get it into a uniformed officer's head before their next interaction with the public.

10 July 2026 Read article →

Influential People

Alex Murray and the Society That Asked Policing to Prove What Works

Alex Murray spent a career investigating murders and running counter-terrorism operations, then built the institution that asked British policing a harder question: does any of this actually work? A profile of the founder of the Society of Evidence-Based Policing.

16 June 2026 Read article →

Evidence & Practice

PoliceAI: What is it, why do we need it, and who runs it?

In June 2026 the government launched PoliceAI, a national centre to develop and scale artificial intelligence across the 43 forces of England and Wales. This is a working guide for leaders — what the institution is, the platforms underneath it, and the questions worth asking before any of it reaches your force. Built to grow as the picture does.

14 June 2026 Read article →

Leadership & Culture

Martyn's Law: An overview for Police, Business owners and Local Authorities

A mother's six-year campaign turned the Manchester Arena attack into the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 — Martyn's Law. A plain-English guide to what the law says, where it is on the road to enforcement, what it means for businesses, police officers and police leaders — and a practical, provisional checklist for getting a venue ready.

12 June 2026 Read article →

Influential People

Jerry Ratcliffe and the Case for Intelligence-Led Policing

A London beat officer turned Philadelphia professor, Jerry Ratcliffe spent a career arguing that policing should aim its scarce resources at the few places, times and people that produce most of the harm — and then test whether it worked. A profile of the criminologist behind intelligence-led policing and the Reducing Crime podcast.

7 June 2026 Read article →

Technology & Innovation

More or Less Policing: how to read the numbers without being fooled

A new strand, in the spirit of Radio 4's More or Less: police statistics are everywhere, and most of them are easy to misread. Here's how to read them — starting with the trap inside every stop-and-search figure.

7 June 2026 Read article →

Influential People

Sir Robert Peel and the Invention of Policing by Consent

In 1829 a Home Secretary persuaded a suspicious country to accept the first modern police force — unarmed, in plain blue, and answerable to the public rather than the Crown. A profile of Sir Robert Peel and the idea that still underwrites British policing: that the police are only ever the public in uniform.

7 June 2026 Read article →

Leadership & Culture

The Murder of Henry Nowak: What the Sentencing Remarks Reveal

On 1 June 2026, a judge sentenced Vickrum Digwa to life for the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak. Working from the judge's own sentencing remarks rather than the headlines, this is a careful, evidence-based account of what the court actually found — including what it found about the police response.

7 June 2026 Read article →

Evidence & Practice

“Do you understand?” - Does this question serve a purpose?

"Do you understand?" — asked after the caution, at booking-in, before a plea — sounds like fairness but often works as a ritual rather than a test: it invites a yes that keeps the system moving while quietly failing the people who most need clarity. Why we should stop asking and start explaining.

7 January 2026 Read article →

Evidence & Practice

The Legal Aid Paradox - when "I don't need a solicitor, I've done nothing wrong" undermines procedural fairness

The suspects who most need legal advice in police custody are the least likely to ask for it — and that undermines one of PACE 1984's core protections.

21 October 2025 Read article →

Evidence & Practice

The Hidden Crisis: How Police Burnout Threatens Officer Safety and Public Trust

Burnout raises the risk of excessive force and corrodes public trust. What the evidence says about exhausted officers, and what forces can do about it.

29 July 2025 Read article →

Evidence & Practice

When Police Stop Investigating Crime: The Fuel Theft Crisis hurting British Policing

Clear CCTV, a registration plate, precise timestamps — and still “case closed, no suspect identified”. How fuel theft became effectively decriminalised.

17 June 2025 Read article →

Evidence & Practice

Seeing Is No Longer Believing: How Synthetic Evidence Could Convict an Innocent Man

Every image and video in this article is fictional and AI-generated for illustration. John Smith, Margaret Doyle and Wessex Police do not exist, and no real person or event is depicted. A short case study in how cheaply CCTV can now be faked — and what an investigator has to do to keep a manipulated clip out of the file.

25 March 2025 Read article →

Evidence & Practice

Boosting Public Confidence Through Neighbourhood Policing

Delivered well, neighbourhood policing produces “quick, large and sustained” gains in public confidence. The evidence behind that claim, weighed.

18 February 2025 Read article →