Gavin Hales
@gmhales.bsky.social
Researching/discussing policing, crime and the criminal justice system. Senior Associate Fellow @policefoundationuk.bsky.social but my own views.
Based in London, UK.
Based in London, UK.
Dr Gillian Fairfield, chair of the Disclosure and Barring Service, to lead 'Casey 2' review of the Met www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Met police to face ‘Casey 2’ inquiry after recent scandals
Gillian Fairfield to lead review as critics say nothing has changed since 2023 report found systemic discrimination
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Dr Gillian Fairfield, chair of the Disclosure and Barring Service, to lead 'Casey 2' review of the Met www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
I strongly suspect the changes to jury trials won't happen. The fact they are even being proposed, however, is a sign of how badly neglected the justice system has been for a long time now.
November 26, 2025 at 6:56 AM
I strongly suspect the changes to jury trials won't happen. The fact they are even being proposed, however, is a sign of how badly neglected the justice system has been for a long time now.
It's great to see this issue still getting coverage. The subject of 'victim withdrawal' in rape investigations is far more complex than most people realise.
Telling not reporting: Rethinking victim attrition
policinginsight.com/feature/anal...
policinginsight.com/feature/anal...
Telling not reporting: Rethinking victim attrition
Attrition rates in UK rape cases have prompted considerable concerns, but data analysis led by Dr Fiona Vera-Gray and Jo Lovett of London Metropolitan University (as part of the Operation Soteria Data...
policinginsight.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:41 AM
It's great to see this issue still getting coverage. The subject of 'victim withdrawal' in rape investigations is far more complex than most people realise.
Reposted by Gavin Hales
www.londoncentric.media/p/london-pho... would be good for them to credit @jim.londoncentric.media
London's thieves are burying phones in flowerbeds
The police don't take much interest in returning the stolen devices when they're dug up — so London Centric decided to do it.
www.londoncentric.media
November 25, 2025 at 7:48 AM
www.londoncentric.media/p/london-pho... would be good for them to credit @jim.londoncentric.media
BBC News - "Gardeners unearth stolen phones left by snatchers"
One example of how and why police can stop and search the right people but find nothing.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
One example of how and why police can stop and search the right people but find nothing.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 7:17 AM
BBC News - "Gardeners unearth stolen phones left by snatchers"
One example of how and why police can stop and search the right people but find nothing.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
One example of how and why police can stop and search the right people but find nothing.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Gavin Hales
We're organising a webinar on 18 February to mark the end of my @adr-uk.bsky.social Fellowship on school absences and crime. With talks from top-notch colleagues including @iainbrennan.bsky.social, @foxnic.bsky.social, Mark Mon-Williams, and many others!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-schoo...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-schoo...
From School Absences and Exclusions to Crime: Evidence and Implications
This webinar marks the conclusion of an ADR UK Fellowship examining the longitudinal relationship between school absences and crime.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 9:55 AM
We're organising a webinar on 18 February to mark the end of my @adr-uk.bsky.social Fellowship on school absences and crime. With talks from top-notch colleagues including @iainbrennan.bsky.social, @foxnic.bsky.social, Mark Mon-Williams, and many others!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-schoo...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-schoo...
Bucket list night out watching Radiohead at the O2 yesterday with my wife and kids. First time I've seen them live in 30+ years of listening to them and it was relentlessly magnificent.
November 22, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Bucket list night out watching Radiohead at the O2 yesterday with my wife and kids. First time I've seen them live in 30+ years of listening to them and it was relentlessly magnificent.
'Northamptonshire chief constable fined £50,000 for contempt of court'
Re the release of video evidence: "Counsel for Northamptonshire police, Dijen Basu KC, said over four years the force had breached every single order made against it."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Re the release of video evidence: "Counsel for Northamptonshire police, Dijen Basu KC, said over four years the force had breached every single order made against it."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Northamptonshire chief constable fined £50,000 for contempt of court
Judges spare Ivan Balhatchet a prison sentence, after an earlier ruling that the force had ignored repeated orders to turn over video footage of an arrest
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:35 PM
'Northamptonshire chief constable fined £50,000 for contempt of court'
Re the release of video evidence: "Counsel for Northamptonshire police, Dijen Basu KC, said over four years the force had breached every single order made against it."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Re the release of video evidence: "Counsel for Northamptonshire police, Dijen Basu KC, said over four years the force had breached every single order made against it."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
The officer who appeared in the Panorama documentary boasting about beating a detainee's legs with his baton made up that account, which didn't happen. He was dismissed without notice. www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/metro...
November 14, 2025 at 9:15 PM
The officer who appeared in the Panorama documentary boasting about beating a detainee's legs with his baton made up that account, which didn't happen. He was dismissed without notice. www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/metro...
On the abolition of PCCs: I imagine that one of the things this may well do is reduce the impact of party politics on police governance at the sub-national level. Eg there will be much less of a Tory/Labour 'bloc' e.g. on matters of policy.
November 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM
On the abolition of PCCs: I imagine that one of the things this may well do is reduce the impact of party politics on police governance at the sub-national level. Eg there will be much less of a Tory/Labour 'bloc' e.g. on matters of policy.
Reposted by Gavin Hales
The counter-cyclical pattern means DA homicides reached 24% of the total in the year to June 2025, approaching historically high levels - a function of rising DA homicides and falling non-DA homicides (latter to v low levels). #crimestats
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November 11, 2025 at 9:36 PM
The counter-cyclical pattern means DA homicides reached 24% of the total in the year to June 2025, approaching historically high levels - a function of rising DA homicides and falling non-DA homicides (latter to v low levels). #crimestats
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Reposted by Gavin Hales
I thought it was interesting that DA and non-DA homicides have been counter-cyclical over the last decade, and followed v different patterns long-term. 17% of homicides have been DA since 2003, 15% over the past decade.
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November 11, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I thought it was interesting that DA and non-DA homicides have been counter-cyclical over the last decade, and followed v different patterns long-term. 17% of homicides have been DA since 2003, 15% over the past decade.
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Reposted by Gavin Hales
I had a quick look at homicide trends in London (MPS) having seen this headline. DA homicides have been increasing for 2 years, but nos aren't unusually high - 24 in the year to June v 23.2/yr avg since 2003, 19.3 last decade (these are rolling annual totals). www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/m...
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November 11, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I had a quick look at homicide trends in London (MPS) having seen this headline. DA homicides have been increasing for 2 years, but nos aren't unusually high - 24 in the year to June v 23.2/yr avg since 2003, 19.3 last decade (these are rolling annual totals). www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/m...
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I had a quick look at homicide trends in London (MPS) having seen this headline. DA homicides have been increasing for 2 years, but nos aren't unusually high - 24 in the year to June v 23.2/yr avg since 2003, 19.3 last decade (these are rolling annual totals). www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/m...
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November 11, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I had a quick look at homicide trends in London (MPS) having seen this headline. DA homicides have been increasing for 2 years, but nos aren't unusually high - 24 in the year to June v 23.2/yr avg since 2003, 19.3 last decade (these are rolling annual totals). www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/m...
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Genuine Q, are there prisoners who aren't released when they are supposed to be? If so, are there net more accidental releases, or more accidental non-releases, or do they just cancel each other out?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
More than 90 prisoners freed by mistake since April
The government publishes new figures for England and Wales, as it faces pressure over accidental releases.
www.bbc.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Genuine Q, are there prisoners who aren't released when they are supposed to be? If so, are there net more accidental releases, or more accidental non-releases, or do they just cancel each other out?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
'England’s children’s commissioner calls for closure of young offender institutions' www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/a-p...
“A production line of pointlessness”: Children on custodial remand | Children's Commissioner for England
Since becoming the Children’s Commissioner, I have travelled across the country meeting children whose lives are shaped by decisions made far away from
www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk
November 11, 2025 at 7:40 AM
'England’s children’s commissioner calls for closure of young offender institutions' www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/a-p...
Reposted by Gavin Hales
If you want to engage with policing policy and practice, you need to understand that policing is all about managing the trade offs between different risks, and doing so with finite resources where opportunity cost considerations abound.
November 10, 2025 at 8:23 PM
If you want to engage with policing policy and practice, you need to understand that policing is all about managing the trade offs between different risks, and doing so with finite resources where opportunity cost considerations abound.
If you want to engage with policing policy and practice, you need to understand that policing is all about managing the trade offs between different risks, and doing so with finite resources where opportunity cost considerations abound.
November 10, 2025 at 8:23 PM
If you want to engage with policing policy and practice, you need to understand that policing is all about managing the trade offs between different risks, and doing so with finite resources where opportunity cost considerations abound.
Reposted by Gavin Hales
LFR is probably the closest you'll get to a policing system with no false positives. In the process it helps secure justice for victims and public protection by enforcing court orders.
November 10, 2025 at 1:40 PM
LFR is probably the closest you'll get to a policing system with no false positives. In the process it helps secure justice for victims and public protection by enforcing court orders.
Reposted by Gavin Hales
Policing is all about managing the trade offs between different risks, and doing so with finite resources where opportunity cost considerations abound.
November 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Policing is all about managing the trade offs between different risks, and doing so with finite resources where opportunity cost considerations abound.
Looks interesting: "we suggest that the call to ‘defund the police’ may not be the radical alternative that many would have us believe and instead call to ‘refund civil society’ by advocating for a ‘community first’ approach to resolve complex social problems."
Delighted to share our paper, where Dr Sam Weston, Dr Clare Griffiths , and I set out a vision for what a society with ‘considerable less need of being policed’ might look like….. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Children and young people’s perceptions of and interactions with the police: A case for ‘defunding the police’, ‘refunding civil society’ and introducing ‘community first’ - Samantha Weston, Clare Gri...
Louise Casey’s review revealed a series of concerns about London Metropolitan Police concluding that institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia pervades acro...
journals.sagepub.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Looks interesting: "we suggest that the call to ‘defund the police’ may not be the radical alternative that many would have us believe and instead call to ‘refund civil society’ by advocating for a ‘community first’ approach to resolve complex social problems."
Thinking about S&S disproportionality in London and the thought occurs that when volumes bump along at historically low levels as now - c. 10-11k/month - it's v likely most are responding to public reports. Hence, dispro is likely mainly reflective of incoming demand. #stopsearch
November 10, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Thinking about S&S disproportionality in London and the thought occurs that when volumes bump along at historically low levels as now - c. 10-11k/month - it's v likely most are responding to public reports. Hence, dispro is likely mainly reflective of incoming demand. #stopsearch
Reposted by Gavin Hales
There seems to be a widespread view that disproportionality in police contact (S&S, arrests, use of force) is primarily a function of police decision-making & therefore in the gift of policing to solve/resolve.
November 9, 2025 at 4:03 PM
There seems to be a widespread view that disproportionality in police contact (S&S, arrests, use of force) is primarily a function of police decision-making & therefore in the gift of policing to solve/resolve.
Reposted by Gavin Hales
FWIW, I have elsewhere suggested that police disproportionality should be viewed simultaneously as both a symptom of and a cause (esp historically) of structural inequalities.
November 9, 2025 at 10:48 PM
FWIW, I have elsewhere suggested that police disproportionality should be viewed simultaneously as both a symptom of and a cause (esp historically) of structural inequalities.
Reposted by Gavin Hales
...Meanwhile, the contribution of wider structural inequalities to disproportionality in contemporary police contact receives almost zero consideration when disproportionality is discussed.
November 9, 2025 at 10:44 PM
...Meanwhile, the contribution of wider structural inequalities to disproportionality in contemporary police contact receives almost zero consideration when disproportionality is discussed.