Find and share practice with organisations who are interested in crime reduction and criminal justice.
The practice bank is made up of shared interventions that have been implemented by crime reduction and community safety organisations, including policing. These have been used to address specific crime problems or organisational change.
You can use the practice bank to identify potential interventions for your own problem solving. Search for practices using the filters.
You can also share your own interventions to be considered for the practice bank.
Browse the practice bank
Title | Summary | Does it work? | Focus | Organisation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Abnormal loads check sheets (escort and encounter) | Using an app to gather detailed information when dealing with abnormal loads at the roadside, during both encounter and police escort. |
Promising | Prevention | |
A&E navigators | Providing support to patients with a violence-related injury after discharge from hospital, referring them to charities and support networks. |
Promising | Diversion | |
Advice and fraud prevention information for elderly people | Training social care sector staff to give anti-fraud advice to vulnerable elderly people. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Art-based diversion project – We’ve Got HeART | An exhibition by artists suffering substance addiction to increase engagement and referrals to drug recovery services within the hostel community. |
Promising | Diversion | |
Autism passport scheme | A virtual online passport to enhance awareness and safeguarding of individuals with autism, by integrating records into NICHE (a record management system). |
Promising | Prevention | Bailiwick of Guernsey Law Enforcement
|
Behavioural change independent domestic violence advisor (IDVA) programme | Multi-agency behaviour change service supporting participants identified as having problematic or unhealthy attitudes and behaviour towards family members. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Behind the badge – a media initiative to build trust and confidence in the police | Focuses on humanising officers and educating the public around the diversity of roles that exist in the Metropolitan Police Service. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
CCTV business viewing events | Sharing CCTV images of suspects with business community groups to increase identifications and facilitate new lines of enquiry. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Clear, hold, build | Framework for bringing serious and organised crime group threats into neighbourhood policing. |
Promising | Prevention, Diversion | |
Crime hot spots mobile phone app | An application that directs officers to geographical locations with high concentrations of serious violence. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Defensive planting to reduce residential burglary | Using planting to make properties less attractive for burglars and reduce victimisation in target areas. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Digital triage of data evidence for suspect interview | Transforms the digital scene capability focusing on both training and environment. It also strives to understand the digital demand workflow in Bedfordshire Police and how best to meet this demand. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Disrupting predatory behaviour in the night-time economy (Project Vigilant) | Targeting perpetrators in the night-time economy by spotting and disrupting predatory behaviour. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Early advice protocol | Providing early advice in rape and serious sexual offence investigations, to ensure a proportionate approach is taken to the examination of devices for suspects and victims. |
Promising | Organisational | |
Echo – feedback from callers, victims, residents and employees | Using a platform to capture and analyse large volumes of customer feedback, gathered through conversational SMS and a bespoke website. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Forensic marking to deter repeat victimisation related to domestic abuse and sexual offences | Forensic marking to deter perpetrators from repeat offending using forensic marking of moveable items and doorways, panic alarms, and forensic sprays or greases. |
Promising | Prevention, Reoffending | |
Habitual knife carrier index | Combines police crime and intelligence data with known risk factors associated with serious violence, to identify individuals most at risk of current or future involvement in knife crime. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention, Diversion | |
Harm reduction unit | An integrated risk management service for cases of stalking and other potentially dangerous persons. |
Promising | Prevention, Diversion, Reoffending | |
Help Point – all-in-one SOS system | Refuge points where anyone who feels in danger can activate an alert button and receive immediate support from a local control room. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Homicide prevention rapid debrief process | A rapid debrief process for homicides or ‘near miss’ incidents, completed as soon as appropriate after the offence to capture early learning and good practice. |
Promising | Prevention | |
ID scan for identifying people banned from licensed premises | ID scanning technology for late-night licensed premises pubs and clubs, linking information about banned people and night-time economy venues. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Improved access to details of non-molestation orders | Making details of orders more accessible to prevent domestic abuse perpetrators moving to another part of the country and targeting new victims. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Improving call management – summary, assessment, response (SAR) | Based on an FBI model that has been piloted for police call handlers to improve call management, and the application of THRIVE (threat, harm, risk, investigation, vulnerability and engagement). |
Promising | Organisational | |
Improving the quality and consistency of victim services (Op Crystal) | Focuses on improving the service delivered to victims, in particular the quality and consistency of information and updates, as well as ensuring all victim needs are assessed and addressed. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Inclusion moments – learning and conversations around diversity, equality and inclusion topics | Employees taking time out to have supported conversations about diversity, equality and inclusion topics for learning. |
Promising | Organisational | |
Incorporating feedback from children and young people who have been victimised | Bespoke training on the voice of the child, Victims' Code of Practice videos, forensic specialist child interviews and an intranet site around learning and tools. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Initial visits to victims of non-recent child abuse | Independent sexual violence advisors jointly attending initial visits to potential victims of non-recent child sexual abuse. |
Untested – new or innovative | Reoffending | |
Investigation surgeries | Face-to-face conversations with sergeants in all districts explaining force priorities and the impact of changes, to improve trust, confidence and motivation. |
Promising | Organisational | |
Investigative development programme for new sergeants | Training for newly promoted sergeants focusing on using the investigative mindset when attending and supervising crime scenes. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Leicestershire Police and Communities Together (LPACT) | Community events held to proactively engage with local black communities. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Licensing security and vulnerability initiative (licensing SAVI) | An online self-assessment tool for licensed premises, focusing on legal requirements and good practice to reduce impact at the venue and public spaces. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI)
|
Nudging down burglary | A targeted nudge leaflet designed to reduce residential burglary, delivered by the local neighbourhood police team at postcodes of repeat burglaries. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Panic alarms for domestic abuse victims | Testing the efficacy of new, innovative, audio-recording panic alarms within the household. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Perimeter intrusion detection – remote camera to reduce repeat victimisation | Using signalling camera equipment to interrupt offending patterns at sites of interest, allowing time for the crime prevention team to help the victim improve their own security arrangements. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
PLANTER – reducing disproportionality in police use of force | A toolkit for use by community scrutiny panels when assessing body worn videos to establish if the correct level of force was used, then provide officers with consistent and constructive feedback |
Promising | Organisational | Att10tive
|
Police education (Pol-Ed) teaching resources | Lesson resources for schools, to teach children and young people about the law, policing and safeguarding. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Police scrutiny of use of police powers | Internal police team to scrutinise stop searches and uses of force. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Positive Steps mentoring network | Workshops to support staff and officers from underrepresented groups with promotion or assessment processes. |
Promising | Organisational | |
Prevention First – training and guidance in prevention practice | A whole-system approach that aims to train officers and staff in preventative approaches, and promote problem-solving and evidence-based policing. |
Promising | Prevention, Organisational | |
Professional development and action learning sets (PeDALS) | Targeted programme for underrepresented workforce groups to improve retention and support personal development. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Prolific burglar intensive programme | An intensive community order that replaces a burglary defendant’s custodial sentence. |
Untested – new or innovative | Reoffending | |
Railway Guardian safe rail travel app | Combines tools to support safer travel across Transport for London (TfL) and the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Rape and serious sexual assault investigation strategy | A three-part strategy for rape and serious sexual assault investigation, known as Project Eleos. |
Promising | Prevention, Reoffending | |
Rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) victim feedback | Structured phone interviews with victims to improve police and partners’ understanding of their experiences of investigations. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Rapid video response (RVR) for domestic abuse | An immediate and optional video frontline response service for domestic abuse calls for service, rather than emergency response. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Reducing theft of catalytic converters | A problem-solving plan for catalytic converter thefts across Surrey (Operation Blink). |
Promising | Prevention | |
Roadside posters to improve driving | A road safety campaign displaying roadside posters with 'watching eyes' in key locations, based on insights from behavioural sciences. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Safer business action days | A joint approach that focuses resources into a designated location to reduce business-related crime. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention, Diversion | |
Safer Nights Out van – tackling vulnerability in the night-time economy | A help point for vulnerable people, parked in the heart of Northampton's night-time economy every Friday and Saturday night. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Self-leadership programme for young people | Improving young people's life skills and their ability to regulate their own behaviour and challenge others, to reduce risk of harm. |
Promising | Diversion | |
Sexual harassment active bystander toolkit – Safe to Say | A campaign to prevent sexual harassment by encouraging active bystander responses. |
Promising | Prevention | Public Health Wales
|
Stopping unwanted prisoner contact with victims of domestic abuse | Protecting victims from further abuse, intimidation and coercive behaviour from perpetrators in prison by blocking communication channels. |
Untested – new or innovative | Reoffending | |
Suicide prevention focused on motorway bridges | A partnership operation to reduce suicides and improve responses to attempts on motorway bridges. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Survivor engagement – domestic and sexual abuse | Engaging with survivors of sexual and domestic violence through an independent advisor coordinator, to learn about their lived experience and promote change in the criminal justice system. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Tackling anti-social behaviour related to jetskis | Improving safety of speeding personal watercraft (PWC) along the Essex coastline, known as Operation Wave Breaker. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Targeting romance fraud using a citizen-focused approach | Use of socio-demographic data to enrich fraud-reporting data to target hotspots of romance fraud across England and Wales, leading to a reduction in monetary losses to victims of fraud. |
Promising | Prevention | |
Trauma support team (TST) to respond to victims of violence | A dedicated police team based in London's major trauma centre hospital to assist with evidence and investigations related to victims of violent crime attending hospital. |
Untested – new or innovative | Reoffending | |
Using community impact statements for knife crime | Statements that highlight the wider impact of knife crime on local communities and can be used as evidence to support prosecutions. |
Untested – new or innovative | Prevention | |
Using cyber volunteers to prevent online child victimisation | Reducing online child victimisation using a team of cyber volunteers to deliver online safety awareness messaging. |
Promising | Prevention, Diversion | |
Victim engagement forum | Involving people affected by crime and anti-social behaviour in engagement activities to scrutinise and influence service provision to victims. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Victim feedback panel | Engaging with victims of crime by listening and acting upon their feedback. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Virtual volunteers – solution-oriented policing | An online engagement platform to increase the number and diversity of volunteers who assist the police. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational | |
Walk and talks with young Somalian community members | Police worked with a local charity and volunteer Somalian community leaders to visit Somalian children and young people in public places. They discussed issues important to the young people, aiming to improve police engagement. |
Untested – new or innovative | Organisational |
About linked practices
Some practice examples are linked to other sources. You can use the 'Linked to' filter to identify these groups of practice.
You can find practice:
- identified in inspection reports published by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS)
- identified as Smarter practice that has been tried in a force and reviewed by the College of Policing, HMICFRS and the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), and is considered suitable for further testing
- which has won a Tilley award for problem oriented projects that achieved measurable success in resolving issues faced by the police, partners and the community
- which received funding for local innovation across science, technology, analysis, and research (Police STAR Fund)
Sharing your practice
You can share your intervention with other organisations to help them tackle similar problems.
Anyone from organisations with an interest in community safety and reducing crime can share implemented practice including:
- promising practice
- new or innovative practice (untested)
- examples of interventions that didn’t work
Your intervention does not have to be evaluated but should include some learning that can be shared.
We may ask for some more information about your practice example before we publish it. If you share practice, we will contact you 12 months after adding it to the bank to ask for updates.