Police informers and professional ethics

The use of informers is morally problematic for police institutions, for investigation managers, and for those individuals either who act as informers or who have daily responsibility for handling informers. This paper examines the moral issues concerning informers at each of these levels. Recourse to informers can be accommodated within Miller and Blackler\u27s moral theory of policing. Within this context, criteria for the morally justifiable deployment of informers are proposed and supplemented with further proposed criteria for morally justifiable informer participation in crime. Morally justifiable recruitment of informers is also considered. Despite directly serving the purpose of policing, informers do not incur police professional obligations

Paradigm not procedure: current challenges to police cultural incorporation of human rights in England and Wales

This paper examines the extent to which human rights have become an organizational norm in UK policing, a decade after the Human Rights Act 1998 was enacted. Particular reference is made to covert investigation and human rights in the context of new police powers enacted after the HRA 1998 which extended police access to and use of covert investigation. The paper concludes that attempts to achieve transparency through documentation has created the impression that protection of human rights is a bureaucratic process rather than a cultural paradigm

Body-worn POV technology : Moral harm

Unless explicitly consented to by the subject, the image-taking (and by extension, the video or audio recording) of an individual is a moral intrusion against personal privacy: a moral wrong for which an over-riding claim of justification must be established if the image-taking is to take place without the subject's explicit consent. Why should this be so? This paper briefly establishes the connection between image-taking and conceptions underpinning personal privacy

Deterring Drivers : An initiative to reduce car theft and joyriding by young people in Townsville

The Deterring Drivers program is a pilot initiative that aims to better understand the motivations of young people who engage, or are at risk of engaging, in car theft and joyriding and to deter them from these activities in the future. Developed by a team of researchers with collective expertise in criminology, policing, road safety, psychology, and medicine/health, the program is designed for young people aged 13-17 years, with a specific focus on at-risk First Nations youth. Participants in the program attend a one-day weekly session for six consecutive weeks. Each session begins with an educational talk delivered by an expert in medicine, policing, or psychology, together with talks delivered by crime victims. Considering research that shows that joyriding participants give little thought to the inherent dangers of these activities (Dawes, 2002), the aim of these sessions is to educate young people about the dangers of car theft and joyriding and to enhance levels of empathy for victims of crime and the wider community. These sessions also aim to empower participants to make better decisions and highlight the importance of being a good role model to family and peers. In addition to these educational sessions, the program incorporates several ‘hands-on’ recreational activities, such as panel beating workshops, a visit to a golf driving range, and the completion of a high-ropes course. The panel beating sessions are designed to channel participants’ interest in cars in a positive, safe, and legal manner (Dhami, 2008), while the other hands-on activities are intended to bring participants together using safe adrenaline-based bonding activities to combat feelings of social isolation or exclusion (Dawes, 2002). Further, these activities encourage participants to reflect on concepts related to dangerous driving and car accidents, including speed, momentum, and impact. This report details an evaluation of the pilot of the Deterring Drivers program, that took place over a six-week period in March and April 2023 in Townsville, Queensland. The city of Townsville is experiencing high rates of car theft and joyriding among young people, ranking fourth among Australian local government areas for motor vehicle theft (National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council, 2021). These issues are causing growing displeasure amongst Townsville residents (Smith, 2018), thus calling for a targeted response to address this issue. The Deterring Drivers program was specifically designed in response to the issues being experienced in Townsville, with the aim of reducing instances of car theft and joyriding in that city and inspiring youth to engage in more prosocial activities

Who\u27s afraid of the BEM? The politics of excellence

Examines the adoptation and application of the EFQM Business Excellence Model within British policing as a model of performance management

Issues in transatlantic police cooperation

Research from a Fulbright Police Fellowship conducted in summer 2001 studying US attitudes and policies to inter- national law enforcement cooperation is presented. Differences between UK police and the multitude of US federal agencies in approaches to investigating transnational organised crime are identified, along with the implications for conducting evidence- gathering abroad and joint operations. No one approach is either right or wrong: the key to successful investigations lies in accommodating, rather than bemoaning, political and cultural differences in attitudes to law enforcement. This article alerts investigators to some of the issues they may encounter in transatlantic cooperation. Although researched and largely written prior to 11 September 2001, the aftermath of those events has not materially affected the conclusions drawn here. Positive attitudes to cooperation have been promoted, but some differences in approach have also been enhanced

Pro-activity, partnership and prevention: the UK contribution to policing organised crime in Europe

Whatever the outcome of political initiatives within the European Union (EU) and other European states regarding closer integration of political and economic institutions, there has long been evident an increasing integration and cooperation amongst the higher echelon of criminals across the continent.1 Whether or not the EU expands its membership, refines its constitution, harmonises the laws of Member States or even disintegrates, law enforcement agencies across Europe will continue to have to deal with the significant threat posed to national and global infrastructures by the free market of organised crime (Fiorentini & Peltzman, 1995; see also Williams, 1998: 265-8). This market will feed off opportunities presented by the EU but will also flourish in the absence of such a supranational entity. This paper considers approaches that are being adopted within the UK to the policing needs of Europe and possible responses to new demands with particular reference to organised crime

From Empire to Europe: evolving British policy in respect of cross-border crime

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed the metamorphosis of Britain from a global, imperial power to a full (if sometimes ambivalent) member of the modern regional partnership that is the European Union (EU). During the same period, transnational criminal activity was transformed from an arena in which criminal fugitives sought merely to evade domestic justice through self-imposed exile to an environment in which improved travel and communication facilities enabled criminals to commute between national jurisdictions to commit crime or to participate in global criminal enterprises run along modern business lines. This development is so serious that it is considered in some quarters a threat to national security and the very fabric of society

Process and practicalities: mutual legal assistance and the investigation of transnational crime within the EU from a UK perspective, 1990-2004

Domestic criminal law helps define State sovereign identity. Over the past fifty years some criminality has become increasingly transnational in character. In the absence of a universal criminal code (as opposed to specified international crimes), States apply municipal law to prosecute offences of a transnational nature relying on mutual legal assistanceto secure evidence located outside the prosecuting State.A comparatively late contributor to the development of mutual legal assistance the UK now seeks to influence the work of the EU in developing a legal framework upon which to base mutual legal assistance and enhanced international law enforcement co-operation. The course of this developmentis outlined.This thesis examines through questionnaire and interview data, investigator and prosecutor experience of mutual legal assistance mechanisms in gathering of evidence from abroad for use at trial in England and Wales. Comparisons are made with data from an earlier survey of UK police (1996) and with an evaluation of mutual legal assistance administrative mechanisms within the EU (1999-2001) in order to identify changes in investigator experiences since the EU began to drive the strategic development of regional international law enforcement co-operation with the Treaty of Amsterdam and to assess whether politicians and administrators are delivering the solutions needed by investigators working across national borders.Set within the legislative context of the Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act 1990, the data indicate that neither this regime nor the emerging EU framework were addressing all practitioner concerns. Political responsesto the New York terrorist attacks of September 2001, which occurred during data gathering for this thesis, accelerated legislative construction in the UK and the EU. Updated to include discussion of these changes (some still not yet entered into force), the thesis now provides a benchmark against which to assess their impact in due course

The organization of \u27organized crime policing\u27 and its international context

This article reflects upon a decade of developments in the organization of organized crime policing, particularly within the international context. the review illustartes that the policing (in its widest sense) of organized crime is based on certain prerequisities. other actors besides law enforcement agencies have key roles to,play. the creation of an appropriate instrumental framework is equally as important as having competent and appropriate agencies in place. The multipilicity of interests beg questions about what is feasible in the co-ordination of organized crime policing, given that organized crime is a global phenomenon beyond the scope of any one agency or jurisdiction to deal with alone