Designated bodies in the police super-complaints system

Following consultation, charities and groups can now become designated bodies for the super-complaints system, which aims to improve accountability of police forces.

The super-complaints system, set out in the Policing and Crime Act 2017, will complement existing complaints procedures. Once a policing super-complaint is received, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services will work with the Independent Office for Police Conduct, College of Policing, and others as required, to review the evidence provided by the designated body and agree an appropriate response.

Designated bodies will be able raise issues or concerns on behalf of the public about patterns or trends in policing which are, or appear to be, significantly harming the interests of the public. The criteria for becoming a designated body was published on 26th March.

Organisations who feel they can contribute to the improvement of policing will have 6 weeks to apply from 3 April, and must demonstrate that they fulfil the 9 criteria set out in regulations. The new system will be operational later this year.

Source: Wired-gov.net

Police Funding Debate

An Opposition Day debate on Police funding is scheduled for Wednesday 28 March 2018. The subject of the debate has been selected by the Leader of the Opposition.

The text of the motion, in the name of the Leader of the Opposition, is:

That this House asserts that the loss of 21,000 police officers, 18,000 police staff and 6,800 police community support officers since 2010 in addition to the reduction in the number of armed officers has damaged community safety and public security; is concerned that central government funding to local police forces will fall in real terms for the eighth consecutive year in 2018-19 and in addition that there will be a £54m shortfall in funding for counter-terror policing; notes with alarm the assessment of the National Police Chiefs Council that this will mean tough choices for policing in the year ahead; supports the conclusion of the UK Statistics Authority that the Prime Minister could have led the public to conclude incorrectly that the Government were providing an additional £450m for police spending in 2018-19; and calls on the Government to take steps to increase officer numbers by 10,000 and to fulfil the full counter-terrorism policing requirements laid out by police chiefs for the year ahead and to report to the House by Oral Statement and written report before 19 April 2018 on what steps it is taking to comply with this resolution.

Domestic abuse learning identified by IOPC

An IOPC investigation has looked at whether incidents brought to the attention of Avon and Somerset Constabulary were appropriately resourced and progressed, and whether officers involved complied with their training, force policy and relevant national guidance.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary has already made a number of improvements to its handling of domestic abuse cases since 2015, in line with recommendations made by the IOPC at the conclusion of the Lisa Winn investigation. These include:

• updating their domestic abuse procedural guidance to make clear when officers should complete a DASH risk assessment;
• making sure local guidance and national protocols are consistent; and
• ending a practice of downgrading DASH risk assessments when victims have been referred to MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference).

Catrin Evans, the IOPC Director with responsibility for Avon and Somerset, said: “This area of policing needs constant vigilance; domestic abuse has a range of characteristics and police officers need regular updates to make sure that they are alert to them all.

Source: IOPC

Cybercrime Report Scotland

The Scottish Government have published a new report into cybercrime in Scotland. To inform this on-going strategic work, a number of analytical workstreams are being undertaken across a range of organisations and this evidence review marks the Scottish Government’s contribution to the initial phase of developing an evidence base.

Structured according to recorded crime groups, the review summarises key evidence from a number of existing Scottish and UK sources. It focuses on how cyber-crime is measured, the nature and extent of cyber-crime, apparent evidence gaps and potential evidence sources going forward. The review firstly considers crimes impacting individuals before turning attention to businesses.

Source: Gov.scot

Record number of modern slavery victims

The National Referral Mechanism Annual Summary 2017 has revealed that more than 5,000 potential victims of modern slavery and trafficking were referred to UK authorities last year.

The National Crime Agency said British nationals made up the highest number of cases for the first time, followed by people from Albania and Vietnam. The number of children thought to be victims rose by 66% from 2016. The agency said the increase in referrals was “driven by greater awareness” of the problem.

Source: BBC

HMICFRS Police Effectiveness 2017

Most police forces are maintaining a good standard of service to the public, despite dramatic increases in demand and ongoing financial pressures, but cracks are beginning to show, according to a report published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

Source: HMICFRS

Modern Slavery Annual Report

The modern slavery police transformation unit (MSPTU) has released its first annual report.

The report demonstrates the significant increase in the number of modern slavery operations being led by the police, with the number of live operations tripling since 2015, when the Modern Slavery Act 2015 became law.

Launched in April 2017, MSPTU provides dedicated specialist teams to support all 43 police forces in England and Wales, to transform the police response to modern slavery.

The unit is designed to deliver improvements in the efficiency and the effectiveness of the police response, filling gaps identified by the National Policing Lead and summarised by Caroline Haughey (2016) who reviewed the operation of the Modern Slavery Act on behalf of the Home Office.

Source: NPCC

Online Crime Reporting

Demonstrations of an online crime reporting system have taken place at the National Police Chiefs’ Council Conference.

As part of the police-led programme on digital policing, Thames Valley and Hampshire have worked with the Met to develop a new platform for public contact which can meet the needs of all forces. Each force website will retain its distinctive force identity but will have common ways for the public to report crime or traffic incidents.

The Met is already taking reports of over ten per cent of crimes online and in Thames Valley and Hampshire they have found that in the first few weeks over 30 per cent of traffic collisions are being reported online – much more convenient for the public and more efficient for police forces. All who saw the demonstrations were enthusiastic and keen to sign up.

Source: NPCC

Workforce Transformation in the Police Service

The College of Policing is working in partnership with the National Police Chiefs’ Council on a broad range of co-ordinated national initiatives supporting workforce transformation in policing.

The Workforce Transformation in the Police Service document, and the timeline within which it is framed, outlines a series of programmes, services, reforms and initiatives which will support delivery of the Policing Vision 2025.

Source: College of Policing

Sections of the Special Demonstration Squad Tradecraft Manual published in full

Full sections of a Scotland Yard undercover manual advising how to infiltrate protest groups have be published by the Inquiry into Undercover Policing. A heavily redacted version of the 1995 manual had previously been published three years ago.

The manual details advice over how officers should pick undercover identities from death registers, and how to proceed with sexual relationships with protesters.

The manual was written by former deputy police and crime commissioner and former Metropolitan Police officer Andy Coles, who infiltrated animal rights groups in the 1990s posing as “Andy Davey”.

Source: BBC