Leadership & Culture
What is Police Reform and will it make a difference?
What is police reform? Explore England and Wales’s 2026 proposals, recent reports, reform leaders and lessons from Scotland and Andy Wooff’s research.
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Topic
Public confidence and legitimacy
Why trust in the police matters, and how it is won or lost.
18 articles · All topics →
Evidence & Practice
Police complaints, the IOPC and local forces: who does what?
What is the IOPC? How do you complain about the police or check your local force? A plain-English guide to policing bodies and their latest verified reports.
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Evidence & Practice
Speed camera vans: how police can reduce speeding and retain public support
Where to deploy speed camera vans, what to tell the public and how to measure results. Evidence on speeds, collisions and support, with plain-language examples for online posts and roadside messaging.
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Evidence & Practice
The Right to Understand
A proposed Right to Understand childhood crime records: existing access rights, new evidence on sentencing transcripts and a supported route for adult survivors.
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Evidence & Practice
Self-Selection Policing: What Minor Offences Can Reveal
What self-selection policing can reveal through minor offences, what the driving research establishes, and the limits on searches and misconduct prediction.
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Technology & Innovation
How Worthing Became the 'Shoplifting Capital of the UK'
Was Worthing really the UK’s shoplifting capital? What reporting changes, population measures and the latest ONS evidence reveal about the claim.
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Evidence & Practice
Procedural Justice: The Police Leader’s Guide to Fair Encounters
What procedural justice means for UK policing: four principles, evidence on trust and crime, and practical ways to improve stop and search and supervision.
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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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Technology & Innovation
Football and domestic abuse: what the ‘38% rise’ headline leaves out
What studies of England matches reveal about alcohol, timing and recorded domestic abuse, and how police and partners could test their response.
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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
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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Leadership & Culture
Henry Nowak Murder: What the Court Found and What the IOPC Is Investigating
Henry Nowak’s murder: the sentencing findings, the IOPC investigation into two officers and the questions about urgent care, police decisions and accountability.
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Evidence & Practice
Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee: Confidence and Crime Need Different Measures
The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee combines named local policing, visible presence and hot-spots patrol. These can support confidence and crime reduction, but the evidence points to different mechanisms and measures for each.
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Evidence & Practice
‘Do You Understand?’ Is Not a Comprehension Test
Police and courts routinely ask people whether they understand cautions, rights and conditions. A yes/no answer can hide confusion. PACE and judicial guidance require active support for understanding; teach-back is one practical way to check it.
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Evidence & Practice
Police Custody Legal Advice: Why Suspects Still Say No
PACE gives detainees in England and Wales a right to free independent legal advice and forbids police from dissuading them from using it. The harder question is whether the way custody presents that right helps people make an informed decision when they decline.
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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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