A collection of news articles, reports, and publications available in the public domain, which are relevant to UK policing.
The Ministry of Justice has announced an independent review of the effectiveness of the statutory Multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). The terms of reference state that the review will make recommendations to strengthen the operation of the entire MAPPA framework for managing TACT and TACT-related offenders.
The review will apply to England and Wales and will be submitted to the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary.
Source: Gov.uk
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has announced a new investigation in child protection in religious organisation and settings, after more than one in ten survives of child sexual abuse who shared their accounts with the IICSA’s Truth Project reported sexual abuse in a religious institution.
Organisations falling under the remit of the investigations include: non-conformist Christian denominations, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism. The religious setting in scope include mosques, synagogues, churches and temples, as well as madrasses, Sunday schools, youth groups and camps. The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches are not included, as they are subject to different investigations by the IICSA.
Child sex offenders typically spend weeks or even months grooming their victims, seeking out vulnerable, isolated youngsters and offering them support and friendship before compelling them to engage in other acts. However, in instances where the motive is child abduction, such techniques are less likely to prove successful, according to new research from the University of Portsmouth. Instead, the more violent and prepared a would-be child abductor is, the more likely it is they will successfully snatch their intended victim.
Most attempted abductions involve minimal physical contact. Instead, abductors rely on lures or incentives and try to trick their way into getting children to comply rather than using force. However, these manipulative abductors were found to be less likely to complete their attempted abduction. Aggressive abductors, who displayed violence and threatening behaviour, were most likely to complete an abduction. In cases where children attempted to resist, this would often lead to an escalation in violence as the potential abductors had already committed to using a level of physical violence. The research also found that offenders were capable of shifting from a manipulative to aggressive approach, and in 70.5 of time in these circumstances, the child was abducted.
Most young children are taught not to talk to strangers, but educating children against aggressive, potentially weapon-wielding abductors presents a far greater challenge.
Source: Police Professional
Justice Secretary David Gauke today announced the national roll out of new GPS tags which will provide 24/7 location monitoring of offenders. This will help strengthen supervision, enforce exclusion zones and give victims greater peace of mind.
If a tagged domestic abuser or stalker enters a banned area or a gang member is found somewhere they should not be, this new capability will issue an automatic alert and their whereabouts will be known. Victims can now feel safer in the knowledge that any breach of an exclusion zone will result in an immediate alert. The tags also provide a tougher option for community sentences which can be used alongside requirements like alcohol or drug treatment programmes.
Source: Gov.uk
2017-2018 MAPPA reports for each area were published at the end of October. They contain brief descriptions of what MAPPA entail as well as localised MAPPA statistics which include the total number of RSOs, a breakdown of numbers per MAPPA category and level as well as the number of restrictive orders, numbers of level 2 and 3 offenders returned to custody and the total number of RSOs per 100,000 population. The report specifically for Thames Valley can be found here.
Source: Gov.uk
Max Hill QC recently issued his final annual report in his now ended capacity as an Independent Reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation. It covers a review of the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006 as well as the Terrorism prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIM) Act 2011 and the Terrorist Asset Freezing Act (TAFA) 2010 and addresses the following:
In the same week the Joint Committee on Human Rights proposed significant amendments to the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Bill including, amongst other things:
The High Court has dismissed a damages claim against police by the daughters of Ms Griffiths, who was murdered by a man, John McFarlane, after calling the police. The daughters claimed that the call should have been graded as emergency, triggering an immediate police response, due to their mother’s previous complaint to police of harassment from McFarlane. The court also dismissed a claim against mental health professionals for not having detained the man in hospital three days prior to Ms Griffiths’ death. Mr Justice Ouseley ruled that medical staff had been under no duty to warn the police and Ms Griffiths that the man posed a danger.
Source: LexisNexis [available with sign-up]
The IOPC have made recommendations to Hampshire Constabulary for organisational learning, in regards to the management of registered sex offenders.
These include:
The Education and Employment strategy sets out new measures to boost prisoners’ skills while in custody and improve their chances of securing work on release. This includes:
Source: Ministry of Justice
Quarterly and annual statistics relating to those: coming to the UK; extending their stay (temporarily or permanently); gaining citizenship; applying for asylum; and being detained or removed, as well as immigration for work, study and family reasons.
Source: Gov.uk
Police Horizon Scanning 