Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Background

During 2006 two Domestic Violence Enforcement Campaigns (DVECs) were coordinated by the Police and Crime Standards Directorate of the Home Office with the aim of improving Police responses to Domestic Abuse (DA). The Lessons Learned from those campaigns were published in October that year and circulated to all police forces and local police units (BCUs). These campaigns were concentrated in areas of the Tackling Violent Crime Programme (TVCP) and many forces did not have the opportunity to directly participate and identify their own effective practice in using DVEC tactics.

Data from forces showed that the period of Christmas and the New Year was a peak time for offences and therefore a further DVEC was held from 14 December 2007 to 6 January 2008 with all forces invited to participate with at least one BCU taking part. The aim of the campaign was again to identify effective practice and to enable the police service to improve its organisational understanding of the service delivery needs towards this wide ranging crime type.

The issues highlighted below are the key emerging issues from the 2007/8 campaign they should be considered in addition to the lessons learned from the 2006 campaign and not as a replacement. This document should also be read in conjunction with the NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency) Guidance on investigating Domestic Abuse available through the Genesis database PDF . 

Use of Data and Intelligence

Prior to commencement of the campaign participating BCUs were required to complete a National Intelligence Model (NIM) problem profile relating to the domestic abuse issues in their area. The aim of this was to ensure BCUs utilised intelligence led business processes in responding to issues of DA during the period of the campaign.

Problem profiles that were submitted consisted almost entirely of police data and rarely utilised potential data from third sector organisations or other statutory partners such as Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). Relying heavily on police data will not give the fullest possible picture and may lead to resources being targeted based only on demand. ACPO have been attempting to drive forward DA information sharing for several years and the recent legislative changes from the Police and Justice Act 2006 and associated guidance should drive partnerships towards improved information sharing in order to meet the "intelligence led business processes" hallmark of effective practice.

Analysts noted that the accuracy of their report relied upon the accuracy of a manual "flagging" process which several considered unreliable. Not all police incident and intelligence databases are able to automatically flag incidents appropriately and changes to these IT systems are expensive and take time. In the meantime officers and supervisors must take care when flagging incidents as either domestic abuse, child abuse, elder abuse and the like, in order that the correct level of response and appropriate inter agency working is applied to the crime report and in the long term to the people involved.

Problem profiles were mainly used to identify when and where DA crimes were likely to happen and to ensure that sufficient resources, either specialist DA investigators or additional response staff, were available at these times. In some areas this was the first DA specific problem profile completed in an area and this was found to be useful in identifying trends and focussing the efforts of police and partners.

Most areas also identified their "Top 10" DA offenders through analysis of offending in recent months and through previous incidents at the time of year. Offenders in these lists were made aware that the police were increasing their activity during the campaign and were monitoring the situation within the relationship as an ongoing police action. Several local areas undertook regular contact with the more prolific offenders identified in their area; this was done to ensure the offenders were reminded of the likely consequences to their actions and to ensure the victims felt supported at this time of the year. Dependent on the level of perceived risk posed by each offender, tactics for this contact ranged from letters, to phone calls to text messages as well as personal visits.

Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs)

MARACs have been identified as effective partnership working for some time and the use of these arrangements is considered crucial in providing an all round service to support victims through investigation and post incident periods

Several areas undertook specific MARACs prior to the commencement of this DVEC. This enabled the partners in the area to have effective management plans and helped focus multi agency partners on the importance of their roles in the process. The process of undertaking a specific seasonal MARAC had not been trialled before but some areas indicated this was felt to be positive and that they would consider using this process again in advance of peaks such as Easter and School summer holidays or other potential peaks such as sporting or social events relative to the locality

Tactical use of specialist resources

Specialist DA police officers were used in a number of ways during the DVEC by different BCUs:

• Specialist prisoner interviewers and case investigators; this was perceived as improving the investigation at the critical interview stage and increasing the perception of domestic abuse as a crime within the eyes of perpetrators.

• Obtaining statements from victims and other witnesses in order to provide investigative support. DA officers were used particularly where it was necessary to obtain statements containing complex historical details of abuse

• Briefing response and neighbourhood officers at team or shift briefings in order to inform them of the campaign and the importance of conducting an effective and comprehensive investigation in cases of DA.

• As investigative consultants, available via telephone or radio to assist response officers with their investigation where the BCU had a large geographic area and attendance at incidents was not practicable.

Feedback from response officers, many of whom are young in service, stated that they appreciated the ready access to advice through having the specialist officers available during peak times of DA crime recording. The advice being available during peak times was also noted as an important step by shift Inspectors and supervisors who valued the clear instruction and contributions to shift briefings and incidents in directing a robust level of policing.

Victims commented on the presence of the 'detectives' at their incident as being an indication that they were being treated as a priority, thus building confidence in the criminal justice process and personal contacts made by DA staff with victims were maintained throughout the justice process.

In some areas the DA officers have altered their shift patterns throughout the rest of the year in order to provide cover into late evenings and at weekends in order to match their availability to the peaks of service requirement, this is seen as an important step forward in providing a service linked to the demands of this type of crime.

In addition to specialist DA Response team, officers were identified and trained as shift 'DA champions'. They were in close liaison with the local specialist DA staff during the campaign and were able to enhance the service provided to victims. DA champions were able to give information regarding local service provision and to ensure the necessary evidence was gathered with the aim of moving forward prosecutions where the victim was reluctant to proceed.

Use of Specialist Response Vehicles (DVEC Car)

One of the key aspects of DVEC was to ensure an initial response to crimes and incidents including officers who are specialist DA investigators or officers who have received additional training and are designated as DA champions within their response team.

A specialist response car was typically equipped with evidence gathering equipment, digital cameras, digital video camera or body worn video units. Early evidence packs for reports of sexual offences and local domestic abuse services information leaflets and contact details.

The use of such specialist officers either as first response, shortly after first responders or as consultants available to provide phone or radio advice to officers or victims has again been perceived as an effective use of resources and a way in which the service can provide a high level of support to victims and their families.

Feedback from BCUs involved in the campaign highlighted the following positive reports in respect of the deployment of the vehicle and staff

• "the victim was more open and forthcoming about the events of that night and any history of domestic abuse leading to enhanced statements and better evidence"

• having two officers available at key times specifically for domestic abuse provided reassurance and support to their colleagues

• the DA specific unit was able to conduct curfew/ bail checks on known and persistent offenders when general response units may not have had the time to undertake this role

• the DVEC car provided immediate reassurance to survivors within 30 minutes of the arrest of the perpetrator

• Specialist officers were able to change the survivors mind on providing a statement against the offender, by providing accurate information regarding support services and court procedures

• Response in slow time immediately after the offender had been removed lead to a more measured and quality response overall

A few areas have reported that they will try and mainstream this type of response for specific events in the locality or where they are able to predict through effective analysis that there is a likelihood of increased levels of domestic abuse. Other areas now indicate that their specialist DA staff are more readily contactable or that they have changed shift systems in order to be available to provide response, advice and support at peak times of offending.

Improving the Investigation

The NPIA Guidance on Investigating Domestic Abuse (Available as PDF file through the Genesis website) provides a detailed resource into the issues and actions that need to be taken in investigating domestic abuse and all supervisors must be aware of the contents of this manual in order to ensure that cases reported to the police receive an appropriate and prompt response and are effectively investigated and supervised.

During the campaign some areas increased the level of supervision and monitoring toward domestic crimes and incidents. Some areas undertook that crimes, where 'no further action' (NFA) was taken, could only be filed by police officer of Inspector rank. This action was taken in order to ensure a robust monitoring system by divisional management, to drive up performance and ensure compliance with both force policy and the positive action requirements of national guidance.

Other areas ensured that the specialist domestic violence officers had input into all DA investigations regardless of the level of current or previous incidents relating to the victim or offender involved. This ensures quality assurance of the evidence and where appropriate to advise uniform officers of further evidence to be obtained before liaising with CPS (Crown Prosecution Service).

DA is by its nature a long term and progressive issue, in many cases involving the use of fear and control over a protracted time. For many victims taking the step to involve the police is a huge leap and the police should where possible attempt to resolve the investigation whilst the suspect is in custody for the first time in order that the victim and other potential witnesses can have their evidence secured and feel protected through the swift application of criminal justice.

12.4% of offences during this DVEC were initially resulted as the offender being released on 'police bail'. This is less use of bail than in the first DVEC where 20% of offenders were bailed prior to charge. It is not clear whether any of these bail decisions were made due to statutory charging requirements in consultation with the CPS and data is not available to show the length of custody time used in these cases but it is worth considering the necessity for using police bail within DA cases and where at all possible conducting enquiries whilst the offender is in custody. This will protect the victim from potential pressure to withdraw their support for investigations.

Some areas issued both their DVEC car and response teams with a specific DA investigation pack. Packs contained all internal forms required for the investigation, letters and leaflets for victims. This was generally well received as a tactic for reminding officers of their responsibilities and the victim being advised of services available, however, some officers are required to carry a number of investigation packs for other offences e.g. burglary or robbery and as such there is a limit to the level of 'packs' that can be reasonably carried by patrolling officers. Managers should consider this wider issue around bureaucracy and paperwork for frontline staff.

Several BCUs ensured that they took positive action towards offenders who had left the scene by handing the case over to the next team on duty, in order that the momentum of the enquiry was not reliant upon the officer who first attended and their shift pattern. This is particularly relevant where the officer may attend on late or night shift and may therefore be away from work on rest days for the few days immediately after the event. The objective is believed to ensure that the suspect is detained and dealt with as soon as practicable and therefore sends a strong message about the seriousness of the offence.

During this DVEC in 78% of the reported crimes a suspect was arrested and 87% of those arrests were made within 48 hours of the offence being reported this is a significant improvement on previous campaigns and a clear application of the ACPO policy of taking positive action towards DA offenders. BCUs must aim to maintain this level of performance and then ensure that where evidence can be obtained the offender is brought to justice.

Use of Digital Images and head Cameras

The police use of body worn video devices was one of the key positive outcomes from the 2006 DVECs and again officers mainly found that that the use of digital imaging, whether moving or still, is an enhancement to the investigation. It enables compelling evidence that may otherwise have been problematic to be captured and placed before CPS and the courts as effective corroboration for the victim and other witnesses.

The majority of officers reported that the presence of body worn video at an incident had a calming effect on suspects as they realised they would have their behaviour displayed in court.

There were however some reports to the contrary where officers indicated that the suspects were aggressive in the presence of the camera and officers felt it had an inflammatory impact on the incident. There were also some officers who did not consider the equipment was particularly user friendly and that it created a barrier to dealing with suspects. This type of technology is still relatively new and as its usage develops it is believed that many of these issues will be overcome.

One area provided digital stills cameras for response officers and these were used to negate the need for scenes of crime attendance this provided a much better service to the victims who no longer needed to wait for scenes of crime staff. The cameras are being mainstreamed following the campaign.

Digital stills cameras are readily available in many BCUs at reasonable cost and can be used with minimum training to obtain evidence in the immediate aftermath of the offence to record injuries, damage or other visual evidence as such these enhance opportunities for prosecutions to take place by corroborating the evidence from witnesses. Consideration should also be taken to follow up photographs of injuries in subsequent days and weeks to provide evidence on the emotional effects of any assault.

Further guidance on Body Worn Video

Use of Risk assessment

The use of DA risk assessment processes is now widespread across the police service. It is important due to the partnership nature of DA responses that partner agencies

• also adopt the use of risk identification, assessment and management tools in line with and in support of MARAC
• ensure that staff at all agencies are able to identify similar risk factors
• are able to agree on the level of risk faced by victims and their families.

Data from the campaign indicates that in cases that were assessed as high or very high risk there were higher proportions of offenders charged than in cases assessed as low or moderate risk. The risk assessment and management process should include an aspect of decision making based on the level of subsequent risk to the victim.

Where possible Custody Sergeants and CPS decision makers should refer to the victim risk assessment before making disposal decisions and in the event of bail being granted the risk assessment should be utilised to identify the type of conditions appropriate to the case.

Use of ‘Cautioning' as a disposal

The NPIA Guidance on Investigating Domestic Abuse states that cautions are rarely appropriate in domestic abuse cases. Yet during the campaign there were a significant proportion of cases where the offender received a caution (19% in this campaign compared to 15% in 2006). Whilst the definition of domestic abuse covers the full range of familial relationships in cases of partner or ex-partner violence the preferred course of action where the evidential threshold is reached will always be to charge the offender.

All DA crimes must be reported to the CPS for charging decisions under the statutory charging scheme that has been implemented since the previous DVECs. This factor may have impacted on the proportion of offences cautioned and further work is being undertaken with CPS to determine if this is the case.

Publicity

One of the aspects essential to the success of this or other crime reduction campaigns is the use of the local media to publicise the efforts being made to combat the local issues and the services available to help victims and offenders.

Participating BCUs conducted radio and newspaper interviews in order to ensure that a wide audience were aware of the campaign and to ensure that offenders were aware of the consequences of offending and victims were aware of the support they would receive if making a complaint of crime. Locally BCUs have undertaken media releases after the campaign to ensure the positive messages relating to the type of crime are publicised

Radio advertising was also utilised to raise awareness of the DA issue throughout the Christmas period, it has not been possible to evaluate the effectiveness of this campaign but it is always beneficial to ensure that the services available for both victims and offenders are widely advertised to the public.

One local partnership arranged for the local bus company to carry an awareness message on the back of their bus tickets as a method of getting information to people in need. This type of advertising was highlighted in the 2006 campaigns and the use of other 'every-day items' such as car park tickets, bus tickets, till receipts etc may be useful in enabling victims to retain help line numbers in a less obvious manner than business cards or direct leaflets.

Some areas commissioned posters specific to the time of year to raise awareness of local domestic violence services. These included specific posters for minority groups and foreign language versions targeted at new communities such as eastern European nations where communities have grown over the last few years.

Where posters were utilised partnerships identified female centric locations such as pub and club toilets, shop or sports changing rooms and hairdressers as locations where specific messages could be displayed. Other areas targeted male facilities with posters designed to discourage offending or to encourage peer pressure against friends who may be offenders.

Support to Victims

The focus of the DVEC has been on enforcement, as the police role in the DA partnership approach is primarily focussed on the investigation and the manner in which the police deal with offenders. It is recognised that partners must support victims though investigations and the court process in order for police activity to be successful and for positive outcomes at court. Police must play an active part in the support of the victim through regular updates of case progression and the effective use of a risk identification, assessment and management tool.

DVEC cars with specialist staff undertook unannounced visits to repeat victims deemed to be at high risk of suffering further offending for reassurance purposes and to ensure that perpetrators were adhering to their current bail, ASBO or injunction conditions. Generally these were positive and gave the necessary reassurance to victims and in one case a high risk victim felt able to report the offender for breaching his conditions and he was dealt with and imprisoned.

In other areas neighbourhood policing staff were tasked to undertake visits to low or medium risk victims who had reported more than one incident. Some victims were provided with door alarms and a pack containing other advice this enabled the neighbourhood teams to make effective contact with the most vulnerable individuals in their area and to ensure that victims received higher levels of support.

Specialist DA officers identified that having an expeditious follow-up response and by prioritising 're-visits' to victims where there had initially been 'no complaint', or the incident had been resulted as 'victim unsupportive of police action' subsequently resulted in positive statements of complaint being obtained and offenders either charged or cautioned which, otherwise, would have resulted in no action being taken against the offender.

In another area DA staff compiled specific briefing packs of their ‘critical 10' (highest risk victims within the BCU). This process ensured that frontline officers were more aware of those at high risk. Whilst the DA staff had always ensured that the high risk victims were brought to the attention of staff this enabled them to achieve this in a more structured way during the campaign. This process will now continue within the BCU. Other BCUs have now incorporated specific briefing items into their daily bulletin for patrolling officers and PCSOs.

Competing priorities

The data gathered prior to the campaign and amongst many BCUs indicates there is a peak of offending over the Christmas period which requires an additional level of policing and partnership response. During the campaign it was identified that the highest volume of crime reports within the campaign dates were received in the first 4 hours after midnight on 1st January.

There are a number of other competing peaks in demand for police and their partners during the campaign period of December and January (e.g. shoplifting, drink driving and night-time public order). The campaign period also has a demand for staff time off and there are additional costs associated with staffing on bank holidays resulting in a premium period of resources versus demand on all organisations. This meant that in some areas staff could not be identified or limited resources were available. Feedback was also received that where officers were given a choice they preferred to undertake overtime working in other police tasks (e.g. night time economy) ahead of domestic abuse patrols.

Whilst the formal notification to forces of the campaign may have been after some other resourcing for the period had been confirmed, it is important for forces and partnerships to consider that there will be seasonal peaks of DA linked to events either in the locality or nationally. DA is a serious issue for partnerships and the police and as such must attract appropriate levels of staff and other resources.

Raising Officer Awareness

There were several areas that indicated that their participation in the campaign had a positive impact on the officers within the BCU both specialist officers and response staff who were focussed through the campaign on providing a ‘premium service' to DA incidents attended during the period. Because of the impact of the campaign on performance areas are considering introducing their own similar actions through local funding when calls for service are expected to be high.

Last update: Tuesday, August 19, 2008