Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Gavin Hales

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 1d

This seems notable - on current data, the 90 homicides recorded by the Metropolitan Police in the year to August 2025 is the lowest 12-month total since the monthly data started in 2003. #crimestats

3 20 15

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 1d

This Home Office research on homicide trends and drivers is well worth a look www.gov.uk/government/p...

1 1 2

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 1d

The data in my first chart are from two MPS sources, published via the London Datastore: the Homicide dashboard data (to June 2025) and the monthly crime data (July and August 2025) data.london.gov.uk/publisher/mps/

Publisher: Metropolitan Police Service – London Datastore

data.london.gov.uk

1 1

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 1d

It's also worth saying that homicide trends show some consistency across force areas, which suggests macro-level social forces are at play (a chart from last year).

1 2

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 1d

My personal view: to understand the fall to the lows of recent years, you have to explain the increase from late-2017.

3

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 1d

This seems notable - on current data, the 90 homicides recorded by the Metropolitan Police in the year to August 2025 is the lowest 12-month total since the monthly data started in 2003. #crimestats

3 20 15

Reposted by Gavin Hales

Dr Carole McCartney 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ @ctmccartney.bsky.social · 2d

so wonder if combination of their experiences, but I couldn't help but think that some recruits see it as a way of 'becoming' an officer. Not all of course, but some will want acceptance from officers with those views and so adopt them too. Susceptible probably, but is a way of blending in.

1 1

Reposted by Gavin Hales

Dr Carole McCartney 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ @ctmccartney.bsky.social · 2d

Also, while aren't canteens anymore, I still think 'canteen culture' is alive and well. When teaching on PCDA. Year 1, they all lovely and reasonable. Year 2, a few already starting to have pretty objectionable views. Year 3 and lots expressing some horrid views and say they are 'fitting in'.

1 1 1

Reposted by Gavin Hales

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

I've been wondering recently how many racist police officers were racist when they joined, and whether part of the issue is logical fallacies arising from having a lot of contact with very narrow sections of society in places with which they may not otherwise be familiar.

3 2 13

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

Although as we've recently seen, the expression of bias can be quite explicit and justified as being grounded in 'lived experience'.

2

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

I wonder if there are any examples of police agencies designing policies/training type interventions to mitigate the risks of these kinds of biases? I've previously wondered if officers receive any training in logical fallacies, for example.

1 3

Reposted by Gavin Hales

Jerry Ratcliffe @jerryratcliffe.net · 4d

An interesting thought experiment here, and ... if you follow the logic of the thread, raises broader and potentially significant questions about the validity of 'lived experience' as a viable criminological research tool.

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

I've been wondering recently how many racist police officers were racist when they joined, and whether part of the issue is logical fallacies arising from having a lot of contact with very narrow sections of society in places with which they may not otherwise be familiar.

1 1 6

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

That's extremely helpful, thank you.

1

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

I often think about the way I've heard some police talk about Traveller communities, as a similar White minority example.

3

Reposted by Gavin Hales

Matt Ashby @handle.invalid · 4d

So it was important to remember that the offenders I was coming into contact with were a tiny and unrepresentative minority of a much larger community that I rarely met. But I can see how easy it would be to forget that if you’re not alert to the risk.

1 1 3

Reposted by Gavin Hales

Matt Ashby @handle.invalid · 4d

What you described certainly matches my experience. Where I grew up meant I knew lots of Asian kids but few Black people. So when I was policing the Tube in Wembley in 2006, the only Somali teens I’d ever met were those we were arresting for robbery and I no other experiences to balance against.

…

1 1 3

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

You may have noticed I have assumed it's a real risk. If you disagree with that assumption, I'd be interested to hear why.

2 1

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

The thought that follows is this: how do we help police officers avoid their narrow experiences (their 'lived experiences') shaping their wider views about places and people, and recognise the risks of logical fallacies in their thinking and decision making that might result?

1 4

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

And that's most of your experience of that area. You don't live there, socialise there, have kids who go to school there, chat with parents or fellow dog walkers in the park there.

How does that shape your views of those places and the people who live there?

1 3

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

Now imagine you've grown up and live in the home counties and get a job policing a highly diverse part of inner London and spend your days dealing with people from backgrounds you don't share, who hurt other people in a variety of awful ways.

1 1

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

Does this analogy work? Imagine you run a car repair garage and for whatever reason most of your customers drive BMWs, and they only bring them to you when they break down. Is there a risk you start thinking there's something wrong with BMWs in particular?

1 1

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

This links to the notion of 'blue-tinted spectacles', described to me some years ago by a serving officer, who had moved to live in an area he had previously policed and came to recognise how his policing experience had given him a very skewed picture of that place.

2 3

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · 4d

I've been wondering recently how many racist police officers were racist when they joined, and whether part of the issue is logical fallacies arising from having a lot of contact with very narrow sections of society in places with which they may not otherwise be familiar.

3 2 13

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · Sep 13

www.gov.uk/government/s...

Hate crime, England and Wales, year ending March 2024

www.gov.uk

1

Gavin Hales @gmhales.bsky.social · Sep 12

And totally ignored in the debate about the policing of 'malicious communications', a sizeable chunk are domestic abuse related.

1 3