British policing needs a total rethink
If you started again with a clean slate, a blank sheet of paper, you would never design a system of policing like…
Martin Hewitt is the right pick for ‘border tsar’
The ‘border tsar’ isn’t the official title for Martin Hewitt. The former police chief has been appointed to the new…
Thousands of prisoners are about to be released early. Is probation ready?
I met Anthony by the gates of Thameside prison in south-east London. A skinny, gaunt-looking man in his 40s, he’d…
Prison cells are now being rationed
The announcement from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is couched in bureaucratic language, but there is no disguising it. ‘Process…
The riots have proved swift justice is possible
John O’Malley and William Nelson-Morgan; Adnan Ghaffour and Leanne Hodgson; Sameer Ali and Stacey Vint – some of the dozens…
How to stop the riots
For five days at the beginning of August 2011, it felt like we were on the brink of anarchy. Over…
Which crimes no longer deserve prison?
More people are being jailed than the justice system can manage. There are only 557 places left across 120 prisons…
Why Met firearms officers want to hand in their guns
The decision by up to 300 Metropolitan police firearms officers to withdraw from armed duties is a serious and worrying…
The Met police is caught in a dangerous spiral
Twelve months after Sir Mark Rowley embarked on a mission to re-boot the Metropolitan Police following a wave of scandals,…
Do we need a nationwide DNA database for crime?
When a man has spent 17 years in prison for a crime that he didn’t commit, there are many urgent…
The police are struggling to operate in a smartphone world
These are busy times for the police watchdog. It’s just started an investigation into serious allegations of misconduct against Devon…
The BBC has serious questions to answer over Huw Edwards
Huw Edwards is in hospital. That shocking news, in a statement from his wife, Vicky Flind, delivered an icy blast…
The police will be pleased with their coronation performance
‘I am immensely proud of the exceptional work of our officers who prevented criminal disruption, damage and danger destroying such…
We can’t rely on the police to clean up mobile phone theft
A call from my younger son’s secondary school was not what I was expecting at 11.30 a.m., but as soon…
Charles Bronson and the problem with parole hearings
The letter delivered last week to Mr Charles Salvador, of HMP Woodhill, from the parole board did not bring him…
How did theft become effectively decriminalised in Britain?
Haven’t we all had that panicky, sinking feeling at one time or another? A realisation that we’ve been the victim…
‘They call him the tunneller’: meet the new head of the Met police
Dressed in full uniform and clutching a clipboard, Mark Rowley walked out of the Royal Courts of Justice in London,…
