Leadership & Culture
Plant seeds, not billboards: how evidence-based policing should grow
How police leaders can help frontline ideas become tested improvements: spot it, tell it, work it, share it.
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Topic
Leadership
How policing is led, and how culture is set from the top.
16 articles · All topics →
Evidence & Practice
Before Serious Misconduct: Can Police Data Identify Harmful Team Cultures Earlier?
Can complaints, use of force, driving standards and misconduct data identify harmful police team cultures earlier? Research on peer effects and Operation Hotton suggests forces should test the possibility.
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Evidence & Practice
Procedural Justice: The Police Leader’s Guide to Fair Encounters
Procedural justice is one of policing's strongest routes to legitimacy: give people voice, make neutral decisions, show respect and explain trustworthy motives. The evidence supports the approach, but leaders should be precise about what it has — and has not — been shown to change.
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Technology & Innovation
Police confidence and media coverage: what 25 years of headlines can—and cannot—tell us
Compare Guardian police headlines with public confidence data, inspect the method and understand why the two trends cannot establish causation.
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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.
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Evidence & Practice
AI in policing: what leaders should check before approving a tool
A practical approval checklist for police leaders: test accuracy, check data handling, assign accountability and make human oversight work.
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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.
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Leadership & Culture
Martyn's Law 2026: what police and venues need to know
Martyn's Law is enacted but not yet in force. Here is what the 2025 Act requires, what changed in 2026, and what police and venues should do before commencement.
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Influential People
The Society of Evidence-Based Policing: Nurturing the Idea That Every Officer Can Test What Works
The SEBP's real value isn't lobbying or publishing — it's lowering the bar so that any officer with a good idea can test it, get support to do so properly, and share what they find. Here is what it is, what it actually does, and why that matters.
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Influential People
Jerry Ratcliffe and the Case for Intelligence-Led Policing
Former Metropolitan Police officer Jerry Ratcliffe helped turn intelligence-led policing into a practical model: interpret the criminal environment, influence decisions and test whether targeted action changes harm.
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Influential People
Lawrence Sherman and the Invention of Evidence-Based Policing
In 1981 Lawrence Sherman ran a domestic violence call as a scientific experiment, and policing was never quite the same. A profile of the American criminologist who argued that the police should be tested like medicine — and who taught the officers, Alex Murray among them, who carried the idea into British policing.
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Influential People
Robert Peel and the Meaning of Policing by Consent
Robert Peel created the Metropolitan Police in 1829, but the nine 'Peelian principles' were not written by him. What the history actually supports — and why policing by consent remains a useful test of legitimacy.
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Evidence & Practice
Nitazenes in the UK: What Police Leaders Need to Know
Nitazenes are already present in the UK drug market and have been linked to close to 1,000 recorded deaths since June 2023. The 2026 evidence points to adulteration, counterfeit medicines, naloxone readiness and local early-warning systems — not a proven wholesale replacement of heroin.
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Evidence & Practice
Police Burnout and Fatigue: What Leaders Can Actually Change
Police wellbeing is not only an individual resilience issue. Organisational stressors, fatigue and poor supervision are associated with worse mental wellbeing and impaired performance. The strongest leadership response is to change working conditions as well as offer support.
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Evidence & Practice
Neurodiversity in Policing: The Retention Problem Leaders Can Fix
UK police employees with autism and ADHD report both strengths and barriers at work, with workplace adjustments frequently requested but not made. The evidence supports better management and adjustments — not stereotypes about what neurodivergent officers can or cannot do.
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Evidence & Practice
Neighbourhood Policing Works — When Forces Protect What Makes It Work
The evidence supports neighbourhood policing as a route to higher public confidence, but visibility alone is not enough. The strongest model combines targeted presence, community engagement and problem-solving — and requires forces to protect the capacity to deliver all three.
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