I help people use data to reduce crime. Associate Professor at @UCLCrimeScience. Former police officer.

Joined April 2009
1,637 Photos and videos
I've been seeing this map all week across social media, but quite a few things about it are wrong (no Southwark, two Bexleys) that suggest it's been AI generated without checking the details. So I created a version based on the actual census data:
What’s the most common non-English main language in your London borough? HT @mapsporn
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Domestic abuse victims who’re themselves police officers/staff (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) report receiving worse support from police than other victims, eg because investigators expect them to be more resilient than other victims, so they’re denied proper support. crimrxiv.com/pub/timmqdqx
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Matt Ashby retweeted
🧵New polling looks at the public reaction to Henry Nowak's murder, police failings and more general views about policing. Along with focus groups, its v.clear whatever people think of wider issues Henry's murder and the police response have shaken many Brits
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Senior detectives leading major investigations (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) find organisational causes of stress (eg lack of resources, excessive internal bureaucracy) more stressful than outside causes (eg traumatic events, court delays, poor work–life balance). tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
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Matt Ashby retweeted
Replying to @NABurkinshaw
The Epilepsy Society says ‘brainstorming’ is fine epilepsysociety.org.uk/about…
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Matt Ashby retweeted
For writing, first using the genAI tools to copy-edit should be relatively uncontroversial. They can do things beyond just identifying spelling errors, but give grammatical feedback as well. You can just tell the tools review this writing and give me back a list of potential copy-edits. They tend to be very high quality in my experience, so anyone saying "don't use it like this" is just sticking their head in the sand.
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Men's professional football matches in London led to real but small increases in police use of force in the local area. The typical effect of a match was that there were 0.77 more uses of force in a borough on a match day than would be expected otherwise. doi.org/10.1111/obes.70086
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Most street violence occurs in a small number of hotspots. New research shows hotspots (🇺🇸) are connected by (the same offenders using) the same weapons across hotspots, with nearby hotspots and those with similar ethnic makeup being more connected. doi.org/10.1177/002242782614…
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Interesting framework on how police (🇬🇧) are likely to use different AI tools in future, and the different ethical and reputational issues that creates. Good to see the Met having this debate at least somewhat in public. met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/…

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Routine arming of police (🇦🇺) didn’t lead to any change in the rate at which police shot people. This study doesn’t look at other potential consequences such as officer suicides using their firearm, which has been a consistent problem in Australia. doi.org/10.1177/109861112614…
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Police body-worn video recordings (🇺🇸) were associated with faster investigation times and (for some crime types, e.g. domestic abuse) less chance of prosecutors discontinuing a case, but little change in the likelihood of conviction. doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.70…
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Matt Ashby retweeted
Social media posts claiming that Dorset Police said 44% of sex offences are carried out by asylum seekers living in asylum hotels are false. We could find no evidence this is true. Dorset Police told us the figure is “incorrect” and was not issued by them. fullfact.org/immigration/dor…
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This review finds the evidence on the effectiveness of offender-based interventions (eg using cognitive behavioural therapy) to prevent repeat domestic abuse is weak. Lots of places are spending money on this, so we really need better evidence. doi.org/10.1007/s10896-026-0…
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Police (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) are much more likely to strip search Black and Asian people brought into custody, even after the offence a person is arrested for, whether they use drugs/self harm and how co-operative they were are taken into account. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.…
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Gunshot detection technology (🇺🇸) led to a large increase in police workload in responding to calls for shots fired (which tripled, partly due to false-positive alerts from the tech), but led to no change in the likelihood of solving any crimes. doi.org/10.1007/s10940-026-0…
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❓Gen AI could well annihilate scientific publishing by overwhelming journals with submissions. Many journals are in any case struggling as reviewers get ever harder to find. But I’ve no idea what comes next. How will we publish in future and what should we be doing to prepare?
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Really fascinating and detailed maps on how the population of different bits of Europe has changed over the past 60 years: rural depopulation and the move from east to west being the big stories.
Replying to @simongerman600
Wait, there is also an English version: correctiv.org/en/europe/2026…
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