Creating Opportunity
In March 2026, Rheinmetall’s CEO compared Ukrainian drone production to playing with Legos. He said the main producers were housewives using 3D printers in their kitchens.
Opinion
31 itemsThe Kind of Knowledge Policing Cannot Buy
Yesterday, I went to the funeral of someone who helped bring new technology into law enforcement early on. He started his career as a beat police officer in the early 1980s, in the heart of Amsterdam.
The Observable Officer
Police organisations are entering a new phase of internal accountability. Not because leadership has suddenly become more demanding, but because modern digital policing environments have made traditional forms of supervision structurally insufficient.
UK Police Digital Experience Survey: Policing has become Digitally Dependent without becoming Digitally Coherent.
A new Police Digital Experience Survey by Policing Insight, supported by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Police Federation of England and Wales and the Home Office, highlights calls from officers and staff for better IT integration, improved training …
AI report-writing tools may become policing’s first real AI governance test
AI report-writing tools may soon become policing’s first real operational test of AI governance. While public debate often centres on visible and controversial technologies like facial recognition, the first normalised use of AI within policing may simply involve routine report …
Why Europol’s expanding mandate is also a technology governance issue
Europol’s upcoming mandate is about more than just power. It will also decide who sets Europe’s police technology standards, manages data,influences vendor access, and ensures accountability.
Body-Worn Cameras: What We Got Here Is a Failure to Govern
Body-worn cameras entered policing with a very clear promise attached. They were supposed to improve behaviour.
We Were This Close… Grants, Policing and the Missing Middle
Across Europe, and likely elsewhere, substantial public money goes into policing and security innovation every year. Projects are launched, participant consortia are assembled, pilots are conducted, and results are documented.
La Grande Vadrouille : how far can digital sovereignty actually go?
France’s Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) has instructed ministries to prepare plans to reduce reliance on non-European digital technologies. The scope is broad: operating systems, collaboration tools, cloud infrastructure, and AI platforms.
I’m sorry, Dave. I am afraid I can’t do that…
AI systems used in policing sometimes fabricate. Generative systems can invent facts, compress uncertainty into false confidence, or complete patterns that are not there.
Opinion
Creating Opportunity
In March 2026, Rheinmetall’s CEO compared Ukrainian drone production to playing with Legos. He said the main producers were housewives using 3D printers in their kitchens. This was a far cry from the technology used by Rheinmetall, Lockheed Martin, or …
22 Jun 2026
Opinion
The Kind of Knowledge Policing Cannot Buy
Yesterday, I went to the funeral of someone who helped bring new technology into law enforcement early on. He started his career as a beat police officer in the early 1980s, in the heart of Amsterdam. At some point, he …
12 Jun 2026
Opinion
The Observable Officer
Police organisations are entering a new phase of internal accountability. Not because leadership has suddenly become more demanding, but because modern digital policing environments have made traditional forms of supervision structurally insufficient. Forces have always monitored conduct in one form …
28 May 2026
Opinion
UK Police Digital Experience Survey: Policing has become Digitally Dependent without becoming Digitally Coherent.
A new Police Digital Experience Survey by Policing Insight, supported by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Police Federation of England and Wales and the Home Office, highlights calls from officers and staff for better IT integration, improved training …
14 May 2026
Opinion
AI report-writing tools may become policing’s first real AI governance test
AI report-writing tools may soon become policing’s first real operational test of AI governance. While public debate often centres on visible and controversial technologies like facial recognition, the first normalised use of AI within policing may simply involve routine report …
11 May 2026
Opinion
Why Europol’s expanding mandate is also a technology governance issue
Europol’s upcoming mandate is about more than just power. It will also decide who sets Europe’s police technology standards, manages data,influences vendor access, and ensures accountability. The European Commission plans to propose new legislation to expand Europol’s mandate in the …
4 May 2026
Opinion
Body-Worn Cameras: What We Got Here Is a Failure to Govern
Body-worn cameras entered policing with a very clear promise attached. They were supposed to improve behaviour. Officers would be more professional, citizens would be less likely to escalate, complaints would drop, and the use of force would decline.
25 Apr 2026
Opinion
We Were This Close… Grants, Policing and the Missing Middle
Across Europe, and likely elsewhere, substantial public money goes into policing and security innovation every year. Projects are launched, participant consortia are assembled, pilots are conducted, and results are documented. By the formal standards of most programmes, these projects succeed …
22 Apr 2026
Opinion
La Grande Vadrouille : how far can digital sovereignty actually go?
France’s Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) has instructed ministries to prepare plans to reduce reliance on non-European digital technologies. The scope is broad: operating systems, collaboration tools, cloud infrastructure, and AI platforms. DINUM itself will act as a pilot.
14 Apr 2026
Opinion
I’m sorry, Dave. I am afraid I can’t do that…
AI systems used in policing sometimes fabricate. Generative systems can invent facts, compress uncertainty into false confidence, or complete patterns that are not there. But that is not the only problem, and in many operational settings it is not the …
8 Apr 2026