Reviewing the situation: practitioner perspectives on the use and effectiveness of 28 day homicide reviews

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report a study of practitioner views on the 28-day homicide review process. Design/methodology/approach – The research draws upon primary data from interviews with senior investigating officers (SIOs) engaged in homicide investigations and review officers tasked with reviewing homicides unsolved after 28 days. Findings – The review process was perceived to be meeting the needs of the organization but adding little, or no direct value to SIOs. Despite this, there was agreement as to the potential value and necessity of the homicide review process. Issues such as the purpose and process of reviews were considered, with recommendations providing impetus for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to review the use of reviewers commensurate with their expertise, the training and development of reviewers, and the aims, format and timing of a review. Research limitations/implications – The study involved the MPS, and its relevance to review processes elsewhere, whilst likely, is unproven. Further research could identify whether similar issues arise elsewhere, although the findings of this study could encourage other forces to undertake internal reviews of their own systems and processes to understand whether improvements could be made. Whilst over a third of the SIOs and Murder Investigation Team managers took part in the study, a fifth of the review officers were interviewed. Practical implications – MPS should amend the objectives of a MCR to reflect the role they play in the prevention of miscarriages of justice. The MPS should conduct a skills analysis of existing staff. Reviewers should be appointed to cases within their sphere of expertise, and should all be qualified at Professionalising the Investigative Process (PIP) Level 3. The MPS should consider an arbitration process for contested review recommendations. The College of Policing should consider a PIP development programme for proactive SIOs. The College of Policing should review and support SIO continuing professional development opportunities within the MPS. Originality/value – The findings are relevant to any police service currently undertaking 28-day reviews of unsolved homicide investigations

Professionalizing criminal investigation: an examination of an early attempt to support specialization in criminal investigation

This article explores perceptions of individuals involved in an early attempt to professionalize detective work in Kent, UK. In 2000, Kent Police developed a Strategic Policing Doctrine incorporating a learning and development strategy. These ideas resulted in a partnership between Kent Police and Canterbury Christ Church University producing the Advanced Detective Training (ADT) programme including a university qualification, the BSc (Hons) in Applied Criminal Investigation delivered between 2001 and 2006. This research, conducted in 2016, used semi-structured interviews with 27 participants including: trainers, academic staff, students, and the Chief Constable. The research revealed that there were challenges in the selection of candidates, use of the term ‘advanced’ in the programme title and the abstraction of ADT trainees. A very high proportion of ADT officers valued the ‘training’ part of the programme with the majority valuing the ‘academic input’. This research provides a useful analysis of previous attempts to develop detective professionalization and accredited learning relevant for programme designers responding to the introduction of the Police Education Qualification Framework and direct entry and fast track detective training

Theology at the coal-face of hospitalisation - the development and evaluation of a postgraduate certificate in Healthcare Chaplaincy

Healthcare chaplaincy is working towards recognition as a registered health profession. An accredited programme of professional education is part of that process. The University of Glasgow supported by NHS Education for Scotland have developed a programme of professional education for healthcare chaplains that is integrated into an MSc. (MedSci) in healthcare. This article outlines the commissioning, development and evaluation of a postgraduate certificate in healthcare chaplaincy by students, clinical mentors and experienced healthcare chaplains. It also highlights an innovative approach to practice development in spiritual and religious care in healthcare

Superorbital Period in the High Mass X-ray Binary 2S 0114+650

We report the detection of a superorbital period in the high-mass X-ray binary 2S 0114+650. Analyses of data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) All-Sky Monitor (ASM) from 1996 January 5 to 2004 August 25 reveal a superorbital period of 30.7 +/- 0.1 d, in addition to confirming the previously reported neutron star spin period of 2.7 h and the binary orbital period of 11.6 d. It is unclear if the superorbital period can be ascribed to the precession of a warped accretion disc in the system.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to MNRAS 27th January 2005. Manuscript expanded to include discussion of evolution of periods, and hardness ratio variability. Number of figures increased from 5 to 9. Accepted for publication 19th December 200

Remarks on the Reeh-Schlieder property for higher spin free fields on curved spacetimes

The existence of states enjoying a weak form of the Reeh-Schlieder property has been recently established on curved backgrounds and in the framework of locally covariant quantum field theory. Since only the example of a real scalar field has been discussed, we extend the analysis to the case of massive and massless free fields either of spin 1/2 or of spin 1. In the process, it is also shown that both the vector potential and the Proca field can be described as a locally covariant quantum field theory.Comment: 28 pages, references and remarks added, typos correcte

Microwave oven fabricated hybrid memristor devices for non-volatile memory storage

© 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd. Novel hybrid non-volatile memories made using an ultra-fast microwave heating method are reported for the first time. The devices, consisting of aligned ZnO nanorods embedded in poly (methyl methacrylate), require no forming step and exhibit reliable and reproducible bipolar resistive switching at low voltages and with low power usage. We attribute these properties to a combination of the high aspect ratio of the nanorods and the polymeric hybrid structure of the device. The extremely easy, fast and low-cost solution based method of fabrication makes possible the simple and quick production of cheap memory cells

Topological Properties from Einstein's Equations?

In this work we propose a new procedure for to extract global information of a space-time. We considered a space-time immersed in a higher dimensional space and we formulate the equations of Einstein through of the Frobenius conditions to immersion. Through of an algorithm and the implementation into algebraic computing system we calculate normal vectors from the immersion to find out the second fundamental form. We make a application for space-time with spherical symmetry and static. We solve the equations of Einstein to the vacuum and we obtain space-times with different topologies.Comment: 7 pages, accepted for publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys.