Find and share practice examples 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, support investigations, and drive organisational change.
You can use the practice bank to identify potential interventions for your own problem-solving, or explore investigation case examples to identify potential lines of enquiry.
If you have an example that you would like to be considered for the practice bank you can find out how to share your own example.
Go straight to the practice bank
Using the practice bank
You can browse the practice bank or you can search for practices using the filters. This means you can search by:
- purpose – the area of interest, for example, prevention, diversion, reoffending, organisational, investigation
- topic – the area of interest, for example, anti-social behaviour, contact management, leadership
- organisation – the force or organisation that shared the practice
- stage of practice – the level of testing, for example, untested, evaluated locally, independently evaluated
About recognised practice
Some practice examples are linked to other sources. You can use the recognised practice filter to identify these groups of practice, including practices that:
- have been identified in inspection reports published by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS)
- have been identified as smarter practice, tried in a force and reviewed by the College of Policing, HMICFRS and the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), and considered suitable for further testing
- won a Tilley award for problem-oriented projects that achieved measurable success in resolving issues faced by the police, partners and the community
- received funding for local innovation across science, technology, analysis, and research (Police STAR Fund)
Browse the practice bank
| Title | Summary | Purpose | Stage of practice | Organisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Effective use of Immigration Enforcement hearings to implement administrative removal of foreign offenders cultivating cannabis. |
Investigation cases | Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) | ||
Effective use of digital forensics to recover and attribute email, phone, and text communications to a suspect of stalking. |
Investigation cases | Derbyshire Constabulary | ||
The use of chemical evidence analysis, injury detail and expert advice to identify an unknown substance which had been injected, facilitating life-saving medical treatment. |
Investigation cases | Northumbria Police | ||
Using CCTV, doorbell video, social media, and clothing analysis from before, during, and after offences to identify offenders. |
Investigation cases | Northumbria Police | ||
Investigators effectively planned initial interviews to inform expert advice and undermine the defence of sexomnia in a case of rape and sexual assault. |
Investigation cases | Police Service of Northern Ireland | ||
Investigators used ‘proof of concept’ forensic fire testing to determine whether a discarded cigarette could have caused a house fire, ultimately disproving accidental ignition as a plausible cause. |
Investigation cases | Nottinghamshire Police | ||
Using GPS geo-location data embedded in images and videos from a mobile device to place offenders at the scene at the time of a criminal damage offence. |
Investigation cases | Northumbria Police | ||
Data provided by a European e-vehicle hire company identified users accessing their app who were not purchasing services. Partnership collaboration and analysis made it possible to link customer activity to local battery thefts. |
Investigation cases | Merseyside Police | ||
Using a specialist expert forensic adviser to analyse toxicology results, linking drug use to the time of an offence. |
Investigation cases | Warwickshire Police |
How to share your own example
You can share your example with other organisations to help them tackle similar problems. Before you share your example, you can browse the practice bank to check if it has already been added.
Practice examples
Anyone from organisations with an interest in community safety and reducing crime can share implemented practice. Your example does not have to be evaluated but should include some learning that can be shared.
We may ask for some more information about your example before we publish it. If you share practice, we will contact you 12 months after your example is published to ask for updates.
If you have any questions about sharing your practice, or would like to update your example, you can email [email protected].
Investigation case examples
Investigation case examples help officers and staff identify and develop what is a reasonable line of enquiry to follow in their investigation. These examples are from professionalising investigations programme (PIP) 1 or 2 investigations and will be reviewed by a panel of subject matter experts before publication.
We're looking for examples that:
- are new or innovative
- have been tested through the court process and have resulted in a successful prosecution, and
- were identified as a significant contribution to the success of the case
If you have any questions about sharing your investigation case example, you can email [email protected]