Research Brief: August 2026
August has been quieter than July on the research front - three studies for you for this month, from digital coercive control to complaints against specialist firearms and counter-terrorism officers, plus a look at strip-searching in custody. As ever, if you spotted something I missed, let me know and I'll add it to the next edition.
TL;DR?
Policing digitally enabled coercive control — police often miss digital coercive control because they focus on single incidents rather than patterns, and officer confidence in spotting it is low across the ranks.
Legitimacy under two roofs — a comparison of complaints against Met counter-terrorism and firearms officers finds similar patterns of officer-level complaint concentration, but the two datasets cover different years, so read the comparison with care.
Strip searches in police custody — in one English force, Black detainees had consistently higher odds of being strip-searched than White detainees, even after accounting for offence type and vulnerability.
Policing digitally enabled coercive control: challenges in responding to and investigating digital abuse
Authors: Huber and colleagues
Journal: Policing and Society
Study design: Mixed-methods study combining police incident data from two UK forces with interviews of officers, third-sector practitioners and victim-survivors
Setting: United Kingdom
Summary: Digital technology increasingly features in coercive control, but this study found police frequently misidentify it, focusing on isolated incidents rather than the cumulative pattern of monitoring and restriction that defines the offence. Officer understanding and confidence in gathering digital evidence was limited across all ranks, though some forces are building specialist digital media investigator roles.
You'll be interested if: you lead domestic abuse investigation, digital forensics, or training and professional development for frontline and specialist officers.
Legitimacy under two roofs: citizen complaints against counter-terrorism and firearms command policing compared
Authors: Ford and Benning
Journal: CrimRxiv (preprint)
Study design: Comparative quantitative analysis of complaints records from two Metropolitan Police Service specialist commands
Setting: United Kingdom
Summary: Comparing complaints against the Counter-Terrorism Command and Specialist Firearms Command, this preprint finds broadly similar patterns — unlawfulness as the leading complaint category, and complaints concentrated among a small number of officers in both commands — alongside a notable difference in appeal rates. The two datasets cover different years, which the authors flag as a limit on direct comparison.
You'll be interested if: you work in professional standards, complaints handling, or governance of specialist armed or counter-terrorism policing.
Strip searches in police custody and their association with ethnicity/race: evidence from an English force
Authors: Ali and Dymond
Journal: Criminology & Criminal Justice
Study design: Quantitative analysis of custody records (over 25,000 detainees) from one English force
Setting: United Kingdom
Summary: Black detainees faced consistently higher odds of being strip-searched than White detainees, even after accounting for offence type, use of force, and disclosed vulnerabilities such as mental health or self-harm history. The disparity was more pronounced for Black men and Black children specifically than would be expected from race alone.
You'll be interested if: you work in custody, professional standards, or oversight of PACE search powers.
