Sharing the good work police are doing locally and nationally

This issue of Going equipped comes more than a year after the first COVID-19 lockdown began. The pandemic has affected policing in many ways, but our officers and staff continue to work tirelessly for the communities we serve.

Going equipped is here to share the good work you are doing, both locally in forces and nationally with your colleagues. We hope that it will help us all to learn from each other and to better understand what works in policing.

This issue has a host of excellent articles. One of our long reads gives an overview of the practical problems involved in policing modern slavery, as well as the ethical dilemmas that often surround long-term investigations into this type of crime. Our other long read takes a look at the fascinating topic of silence during suspect interviews, specifically the pressure this may place on the interviewer.

We also have two interesting articles that focus on community engagement. One encourages us to consider the idea of hyper-localism within policing, by engaging the community not only to identify problems, but also to help us solve them. The other article, on police summer camps, focuses on activity to ensure prevention. It is fantastic to read about how this approach has continued and developed even in light of the pandemic.

After suggestions following the first issue, we have introduced a book review. Our first review is of Crossing the Line by John Sutherland, who you may know as @policecommander on Twitter. This review of his second book gives you a real flavour of the tricky narrative that he challenges, especially in terms of the question: what should the police actually do?

I hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as I have. We believe that the value of Going equipped is evident, but we need your contributions to ensure that we have articles going forward. 

• If you would like to submit an article or send any feedback, do get in touch: [email protected]