Thirty-nine countries from around the world participated in the EMPACT joint action days against human trafficking last June. Led by Austria and co-led by Romania, Europol, Frontex and INTERPOL, the operation dubbed “GLOBAL CHAIN” resulted in the arrest of 219 individuals and the identification of more than 1,374 victims, including 153 children. Aiming to disrupt high-risk criminal networks, the action week focused on cases of sexual exploitation, forced criminality and forced begging.

The proven multidisciplinary approach involved Europol, Frontex and INTERPOL, along with police forces and border guards from several continents. This year, one of the objectives was to identify and disrupt the most threatening criminal networks active in the EU, such as mafia-type, ethnic and family-based organisations and other structured networks involved in human trafficking. Within the criminal phenomena of sexual exploitation, forced begging and forced criminality, law enforcement put particular emphasis on targeting cases involving children as victims.

Similar to actions carried out in previous years, this large-scale, jointly executed action aimed to spur the authorities to carry out specific activities within their respective countries and collectively among themselves for a week, but also to draw attention to this type of crime. The results of these joint action days reached not only the authorities, but also many other external actors who may play a role in reducing the number of victims of human trafficking.

Results of the EMPACT action days where 276 new investigations have been initiated:

• 362 suspects identified.
• 219 perpetrators arrested.
• 1,374 (1,221 adults, 153 children) victims identified and assisted.
• 2,074 criminal assets such as cash or seized devices.
• 363 fraudulent documents have been detected.
• More than 276 new investigations have been initiated.

In addition to combating child trafficking and the most threatening criminal networks, this international law enforcement effort saw several anti-trafficking hotspots around the world. This included actions in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Eastern Partnership countries and Ukraine.

During inspections around the world, officers would systematically search for signs of trafficking and forged documents, then arrest the perpetrators and safeguard the victims immediately. The inspections also led to the initiation of further investigations. In order to cross-check data and enable the exchange of information among participants, a coordination centre was established at Frontex headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. Together with experts from each country, staff from Frontex, Europol and INTERPOL helped coordinate the large-scale action week, which was supported by the EU4FAST project.

The European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) addresses the most significant threats posed by organised and serious international crime affecting the Union. EMPACT strengthens intelligence, strategic and operational cooperation between national authorities, EU institutions and agencies and international partners. EMPACT is implemented in four-year cycles focusing on common EU crime priorities.

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Monthly, the National Policing Institute (NPI) team produces InFocus, aseries of publications addressing various issues facing police in the United States. Each month, a feature story is published on a specific topic, sharing knowledge about the field, as well as research findings and resources that can benefit law enforcement agencies. On this occasion, they discussed in depth the role of women in the U.S. police force.

Currently, women represent approximately half of the U.S. population, but only 12% of police officers.

The data comes as no surprise, because researchers have been talking about the lack of female police officers for decades. In December 1974, this organization published a nearly 100-page manual to guide police agencies on how to recruit and train policewomen. This was almost fifty years ago, but it is clear that the profession – and the rest of society – is still struggling with the same problem.

According to these data, in 1974, there were about 1,000 female police officers in the USA.Today, there are an estimated 96,000. However, the statistics beg the question: it’s 2024, so why don’t you see more women in uniform?

Research suggests that women receive fewer complaints about their actions, use firearms less, and are less likely to use excessive force. Their communities perceive them as more honest and understanding, and there are often better outcomes for crime victims, especially in the cases of sex crime victims, when female police officers work their cases.

It is known that women can bring unique qualities and life experiences to the job. So how do you get more women to understand how suitable they are for policing?

Recruiting more women to a police agency contributes to a workforce that better reflects the diversity of the community it serves. This practice has advantages such as improving legitimacy, performance and trust.

The research also states that gender diversity causes more emphasis to be placed on care and well-being. A study of more than 50 jurisdictions showed that the difference in attentiveness, responsiveness, compassion, and helpfulness offered by female officers resulted in greater community satisfaction and increased feelings of police legitimacy. The evidence particularly highlighted these qualities and their role in marginalised communities.

Hundreds of law enforcement agencies have signed on to the 30×30 Initiative and have committed to help recruit 30% women in policy academy classes by 2030. With a coalition of police leaders, researchers and professional organizations at the forefront, 30×30 offers education, resources and technical assistance to guide agencies in retaining and advancing women police. NPI currently leads the 30×30 Technical Assistance Center and is developing tools and resources to help agencies achieve their goals, such as:

• Preparing for recruitment. The COPS Office offers recommendations on how to attract and retain women in the profession.
• Consideration for working parents. The U.S. daycare crisis is crippling the workforce. Fortunately, there are solutions, such as the San Diego Police Department’s customised daycare, which offers reduced rates and pays the centre’s employees above-average wages.
• Encouraging professional development. The National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE) supports female police officers through training and peer-to-peer mentoring to help women advance their careers.
• Learning from each other.
• Celebrating transformative leadership.

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Police departments in the United States have adopted the use of police uniform cameras in response to citizen demands for increased transparency and accountability regarding officers’ actions. Back in 2016, the Boston (Massachusetts) Police Department launched a pilot police camera program to study the overall implementation of the technology across its police force. The objective of the body-worn cameras is to improve the civility of police-citizen interactions and the work activities of police officers.

The Boston Police Department’s body-worn camera pilot test was intended to determine how the system would work when implemented among the department’s 2,100 officers, and to address officer and community concerns about the use of the technology. During the testing period, the department developed and established guidelines to guide officers in the use of body-worn camera technology.

These guidelines included a requirement that officers wearing body-worn cameras notify citizens at the beginning of the encounter that the interaction is being videotaped. Guidelines were also disseminated to seek citizens’ consent before recording any images in residences during emergency situations, and detailed guidelines were given for cases where video recording was mandatory during policing duties, such as:

• Vehicle stops.
• Citizen stops carried out by the police.
• All dispatched calls for service involving contact with civilians.
• Initial responses by patrol officers.
• Searches of persons who have provoked incidents, prior to their arrest.
• All types of searches with the presence of canine police.
• Driving incidents in emergency and/or pursuit cases.
• When an officer reasonably believes that a crowd control incident may result in illegal activity.
• Any civilian contact likely to cause an incident, including an incident that may result in the use of force.

All officers wearing body-worn cameras and all supervisors are required to attend training, approved by the Department, on the operation of the system.

Officers in the treatment group who wore body-worn cameras experienced fewer citizen complaints against them compared to officers in the control group who did not wear body-worn cameras. There was a 50.5% reduction in citizen complaints against treatment officers relative to control officers from the pre-intervention period to the 12-month intervention period.

Two theoretical perspectives that support the use of police body-worn cameras are deterrence and public self-awareness theories. Deterrence theory proposes that individuals refrain from committing crimes when they perceive that the costs of illegal acts outweigh the benefits of those acts. The possibility of police body-worn cameras capturing inappropriate or illegal behaviour on video during encounters may cause a deterrent effect on both officers and citizens by altering their perception of the risks of detection and punishment, especially if the video eventually goes viral. Moreover, this deterrent effect could generate benefits, even among officers not equipped with the cameras, by modifying the objective risk that their antisocial or illegal behaviour will be recorded by another officer and subsequently detected by the department’s supervisors.

Public self-awareness theory suggests that people are more likely to compare their immediate behaviours with established internal social norms, comply with rules, and display socially desirable behaviour when they know they are being observed. Thus, the presence of body-worn cameras can cause police officers and citizens to compare their behaviour with expected social norms and standards and can also encourage behaviours such as treating others in a respectful and procedurally fair manner.

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Sam Dotson faced an unusual challenge five years ago, when he became the head of the Amtrak Police Department (APD), the U.S. government-owned national passenger rail system’s law enforcement agency.

The department, containing 431 officers under his command who maintain the security of railroad stations, facilities, passengers and tracks in 46 states, is headquartered at Washington DC’s Union Station, an area that is occupied by homeless people looking for a safe environment and to get away from extreme weather.

While this encampment around the station has not led to a significant increase in criminal activity, there were many complaints from passengers and station business owners, as well as some incidents that justified police intervention. In addition, the tragic loss of human potential was prevalent in this population, as were narcotic substances abuse, mental illness and human trafficking.

As published by the same official website of the U.S. police, suppressing homeless people, dismantling their camps or providing temporary shelter at night would not solve the problems that create their situation or lead to long-term improvements.

Dotson also realised that reducing homelessness requires a community-wide effort that must include housing authorities, health care providers and other stakeholders, as well as law enforcement, which he notes has become the first line of defence in addressing homelessness issues, despite not having social services with the necessary capabilities to respond effectively to the problems of these people.

To tackle the root of the problem and to help get as many people back on their feet, employed and housed as they should be, Dotson partnered the police with a crisis intervention group called the h3 Project.

Founded by Dr. Ami M. Angell to address homelessness and human trafficking in Washington DC, and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia, h3, which stands for Home, Health, Happiness, has succeeded in helping many people reclaim their lives.

On its website, h3 notes that in 2022, its volunteers found housing for 58 people, reunited 59 with their families, and provided vital documents and essentials for hundreds of others, while training 326 community members and law enforcement personnel to respond to drug abuse.

According to Dotson, the department saw a reduction in crime, fewer calls for service and less of a burden on police and city services. The department backs this up with data indicating that reported incidents of disorderly conduct dropped from 133 in 2017 to 70 in 2023, and all crimes went from 785 to 430 in that time period.

APD is an all-encompassing police department with patrol, criminal investigations and other divisions. In addition, all officers are trained in Integrating Communications Assessment and Tactics (ICAT), enabling them to work on a range of incidents successfully and safely.

Officers are ready to recognise the challenges they face, whether it is a medical or mental health issue. And they also know when to ask h3 to enter the scene and whether to stay with them to ensure their safety.

They also pass on information to other agencies and groups in nearby cities in Virginia or Maryland. In doing so, they helped people who were treated and got lost due to dementia or disappeared for other reasons.

They have been able to reunite many people with their family. And when new people show up, if they don’t have medication, they can usually get it back fairly quickly.

Finally, they are trying to develop a similar program in New York, at Penn Station/Moynihan Train Hall, with another supplier, and have good relationships with the NYPD (New York City Police Department). They want to do everything they can to help other police departments achieve better results and improve the lives of everyone: passengers, people who pass through or work at the stations, etc.

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The police in England and Wales have the power to warn someone when they are aware that a person’s current partner poses a real risk of danger, with what is known as Clare’s Law (the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme). But that level of communications varies greatly among police forces.

Research by University of Essex Professor of Criminology and Ethics Dr. Katerina Hadjimatheou, PhD, suggests that the lack of resources, police concerns about data sharing, and cultural resistance within the police contribute to the problem. She explains this in an article published in January 2024 in The Conversation.

Police can also provide the information if they identify a person at risk. Disclosures may include any information contained in police records that indicates a risk of abuse.

But the analysis of government data from 43 police forces found significant differences in police response rates under Clare’s Law.

In early 2024, journalist Shanti Das reported that some forces refuse to disclose this information. In analysing government data from 43 police forces, Das found significant differences in response rates to applications of this law. Some police report responding to 75% of requests, many to less than 30%, and at least one to 5%.

The research shows that receiving this type of information can be invaluable to victims of domestic abuse because of the way in which perpetrators use secrecy and lies to exert control. Every time an abuser begins a new relationship, he or she creates a false narrative about his or her past, using secrecy and lies to control the partner.

As the relationship develops and the abuse begins, perpetrators use psychological manipulation to blame the partner for their own behaviour, telling them that they deserve this abuse.

Police often file multiple reports of the same type of abuse from different victims but from the same perpetrator, sometimes over many years. Revealing these different patterns of abuse can disprove and disrupt the perpetrator’s arguments.

Most importantly, it can expose them for what they are: not a misunderstood or troubled person, but a serial abuser with a distinct repertoire of cruelty that they repeatedly inflict on partner after partner.

English police receive a domestic-abuse-related call every 30 seconds, making this type of abuse a third of all recorded violent crime. Although police leaders agree that it is one of their top priorities, some forces hardly make any disclosures under Clare’s Law.

One reason would be lack of resources. At least three police officers have stated that they have reduced or stopped promoting this Law simply because they cannot afford it. This requirement has been deployed without the Government providing the police with additional funds. This is important because responding to a request requires a lot of resources.

Between 2021 and 2023, the police in England and Wales received nearly 84,000 disclosure requests.

Another related problem is that, although disclosures can be made to anyone deemed to be at risk, some forces interpret this in a very limited way: they only disclose information to someone who lives with the person of interest or is currently in a relationship with that person.

The final and most troubling reason relates to cultural resistance, among some officers, to the decision by police management to treat domestic abuse as a serious crime and a police priority.

Only rigorous recruitment for domestic abuse roles, proper training and strictly enforced lines of accountability can begin to address this serious problem.

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During the 2019-2020 school term in the U.S., there were approximately 23,400 school resource officers (SROs). About 11,500 (49%) were employed by local police departments, 7,600 (32%) by sheriff’s offices, and 4,400 (19%) by school district police departments.

The document School Resource Officers, 2019-2020, authored by statistician Elizabeth J. Davis of the U.S. Department of Justice, compiles the results of a series of school-based law enforcement personnel surveys (SLEPS) conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). These surveys had two target populations: police agencies hiring school resource officers and the officers themselves, and were conducted in two phases: first, collecting school data from district police departments, and, nationally, a representative sample of local police departments.

From conducting the survey, Davis reports that about 8 out of 10 SROs are males and 6 out of 10 are white males. There are not many statistically significant differences by agency type in the percentages of male or female SROs.

Of the total SROs, 60% are white males and only 10% are African American males and white females. Hispanic males accounted for 8% and males of other races accounted for about 5%. Finally, they add to the study that only 4% of the total SROs are African American females, 2% are Hispanic females, and less than 1% are females of another race.

Of the total number of police officers assigned to U.S. schools, 10% reported speaking a language other than English and that this had been useful when interacting with students.

What is most alarming about the survey results is that around 69% of SROs responded that they had dealt with an incident in a classroom in the last 30 days. And 54% of these police officers had arrested a student for drug possession in the last year.

Nearly 100% of SROs carry firearms when working at their assigned school during the school year. In addition, all of them have been trained in the use of lethal force and de-escalation strategies at some point in their careers.

In addition, approximately 90% of these police officers have also received training on dealing with juvenile offenders, mental health problems, and conflict resolution.

More than half of all SROs are between 35 and 49 years old and more than a quarter (27%) are 50 or older and 18% are between 18 and 34 years old.

The report was published by the U.S. Office of Justice Programs.  The report, related documents and additional information on BJS publications and statistical programs are also available on the official BJS website.

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U.S. law enforcement agencies aim to recruit qualified candidates, facing challenges when seeking to enhance demographic diversity among officers. In the case of women, they are shown to have significant competencies when it comes to effective policing, helping to restore confidence in the police or obtain high rates of case resolution, but with a lower use of force.

The goal of the study was to understand how police agencies use online recruitment materials to recruit female officers. The research assessed the prevalence of text, images, and videos featuring women, as well as individuals from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. It also examined content related to recruitment and the job itself, employing thematic analysis to comprehend the representation of police and diversity.

The police recruitment materials highlighted various characteristics that acted as deterrents for women considering applying to the police force. Police agencies do not provide consistent messages about diversity, resources for women, or support for work/life balance. In addition, differences were found between the police with the highest and lowest percentages of female presence, with inconsistent and often contradictory messages.

The document stresses that greater representation of women in law enforcement agency positions better reflects the social diversity of the communities they serve. Along these lines, the Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended that agencies strive to create a workforce that contains a wide range of diversity based on race, gender, language, life experience and cultural background to improve understanding and effectiveness in dealing with society.

Despite the benefits previously identified, female representation in police organisations has lagged behind that of other historically underrepresented demographic groups. For example, although the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in the police reached 27% during 2013, women represented only 12%.

This research concludes that public recruitment material is quite deficient when it comes to recruiting women for the police. People make employment decisions based on imperfect information, as job applicants have limited knowledge of an organisation and a job until they are hired and fill the position. In the context of this study, jobseekers must infer what a job and an organisation are like from the limited information available to them through channels such as websites, social networks and personal contacts. Recruitment materials should have a stronger value for people with less pre-existing information about the organisation.

Although there is awareness of the obstacles to entering a police career, there is limited understanding of the content and messaging employed by police agencies on their websites and social media accounts. This study contributes to the existing literature by quantifying and describing current practices and providing recommendations for aligning current practices with evidence-based practices. To this end, they set out to answer the following questions:

1. How is diversity described in agency recruitment materials?

2. How do agencies address barriers and facilitate access to law enforcement careers?

3. What themes do police agencies use to describe a career in law enforcement?

4. How do the above characteristics differ between agencies that employ more or fewer women?

To answer these questions, a content analysis was conducted of online recruitment materials from a purposively selected set of agencies, which varied by location, agency type and size, and proportion of female police officers.

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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and with a very challenging job market, community frustration with the police profession increased exponentially, as did concerns about officer safety and welfare. All across the country, law enforcement agencies are facing a historic crisis in recruiting and retaining qualified candidates.

As agencies continue to look for innovative ways to attract qualified potential candidates while retaining current personnel, the crisis demands an immediate and effective response to ensure that law enforcement can maintain sufficient staffing levels to serve the public safety needs of their communities. Tackling these issues may require an examination of agencies’ foundational organizational structure and processes to meet the needs and expectations of both law enforcement and the community more clearly and simply.

In response to this situation and recognising that how law enforcement professionals are hired and retained has a major impact on reducing violent crime, as well as overall public safety and community trust, Attorney General Merrick Garland identified these issues as a top priority for the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Bureau of Justice Assistant (BJA) and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), agencies of the US Department of Justice, brought together a group of more than 30 law enforcement and community leaders from across the country in Washington in April of this year to discuss existing best practices and emerging and transformative solutions designed to address current uniformed personnel challenges.

In addition to command staff and other police leaders from diverse associations, it was emphasized that recruitment and retention issues are among the most significant problems facing federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies across the country, regardless of size or location.

All of these reflections, recommendations and conclusions were compiled in a report on the recruitment of new police officers. Among the document’s recommendations are:

• Short-term solutions, with a shorter implementation time.
• Long-term strategies, with more time to implement them.
• Introduce young people, as early as primary school, to law enforcement and public safety as a career.
• Leverage the existing skills and interest of potential recruits in the policing profession with greater focus on programs such as internships (short-term) and apprenticeships (long-term).
• Establish educational alliances.
• Work with local secondary schools to identify and develop immersion opportunities.
• Work with institutions of higher education to offer courses designed to teach students material relevant to a police career.
• Consider creating a degree program focused exclusively on preparing students for careers in law enforcement.

As main conclusions, the document states that:

• Law enforcement is at a crossroads as many officers leave the profession through resignation or retirement, while candidates are becoming less and less qualified.
• The long-term strategies provided in this report invite law enforcement agencies to work to increase the attractiveness of policing as a job option, attract good candidates, and better prepare new recruits for the realities of modern policing.
• It must be ensured that existing employees know they are valued, that the health and safety of the workforce is promoted, and that community trust is increased.

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The use of force by police officers is currently a matter of great public interest. From 2018 to 2022, thanks to an award from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), the City of Rochester (New York), the Rochester Police Department (RPD) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) collaborated in order to study incidents of use of force by the RPD.

The main goal of the project was to help the public understand the RPD’s use of force that went beyond engaging with viral videos. To guarantee the privacy of both officers and others involved in the RPD’s use of force, as well as to produce a large number of incidents, the researchers aggregated the use of force incidents into one dataset.

The report, published by the U.S. Department of Justice, highlights that the creation and analysis of this data set also enabled the RPD and RIT to pursue the secondary goal of uncovering potential improvements in RPD policy and training on the use of police force.

The purpose of this paper is to help other agencies replicate this project with their own data on use of force. Therefore, the paper sets out not only the findings of this project, but also the processes used and the challenges the researchers found in the hope that other police agencies can use and extend them.

Thus, it is relatively easy to access data on each use of force incident for the purpose of examining a single incident, but extremely difficult to aggregate them into a data set of all use of force files.

Due to the inaccessibility of the data, a significant part of that project was the transformation of a PDF image folder into a row and column dataset.

After creating the dataset, the researchers undertook two tasks: first, describing that dataset for a lay audience and, second, gaining new insights into the RPD’s use of force.

To help other law enforcement agencies to replicate this analysis, the researchers explain several organizational and bureaucratic challenges they encountered that other agencies could potentially avoid or mitigate.

This report concludes with recommendations for different police agencies considering this or similar attempts to learn from existing local data analysis, which are as follows:

• Law enforcement agencies should establish relationships with universities in the area of research.
• Law enforcement should store data digitally whenever possible.
• Police analysts should include the citizenry as one of the many clients they serve.
• Law enforcement agencies should invest in computer resources capable of performing advanced analytical techniques.
• Local government agencies should consider the enormous potential of using the latest IT tools.

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The London Metropolitan Police has released a plan to be developed over the next two years aimed at reducing crime, increasing public trust and providing higher standards of service quality.

A New Met for London 2023-2025 is the product of more than 10,000 police interactions with Londoners. The document represents what citizens have said about their priorities in the area of security.

Through the London Metropolitan Police website, they present A New Met for London for communities to get to know their local officers, help them shape their policing priorities and work with them to try to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour. And since the implementation of this plan, when victims ask the police for help, they are sufficiently satisfied with the response so far.

The so-called A New Met for London details the priority areas on which this plan will focus, aimed at ensuring that Londoners receive a quality service through more effective policing. It focuses on three areas of reform:

The fight against community crime is based on how crime is reduced, public trust is restored and the link between those in uniforms and the communities is re-established. The plan aims to place more community policing officers and support officers in local neighbourhoods to ensure that the priorities of Londoners are met.

Working with citizens to better fight crime and anti-social behaviour, bringing together all of the Met’s specialised resources to make a difference in communities with higher crime and lower trust.

Cultural change must be provided to the entire Met to embed the values of policing by consent and build a strong culture centred around delivering for London, maintaining high standards of service quality and also learning from others. The idea is to become a police service that does not discriminate – that combats racism, misogyny and homophobia – and better reflects the diversity of the city they serve.

Fixing the foundations of the police organisation is the best way to help Londoners to succeed. Better organising and deploying the police and ensuring the delivery and training tools, equipment and utilities they need to reduce crime. It is necessary to match the best organisations in the use of the data and technology they need to use their skills accurately, while maintaining trust and high standards.

The launch of the plan should see a reset in the way London’s police interact with communities, with a focus on how the A New Met for London plan will be rolled out at the local level. The organisation has also committed to reviewing the steps being taken to ensure that the progress of the proposed changes is clear.

The plan, as well as a more summarised compilation, can be found on the Metropolitan Police website.

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