Our Priorities » Serious Crime and Protection
Protective Services
In collaboration with our regional partners we will target serious and organised criminality and the threat of terrorism. The phrase ‘protective services' describes the resources and specialists that are required to tackle:
- terrorism and extremism
- serious organised and cross border crime
- civil contingencies and emergency planning
- critical incident management
- homicide and other serious violence
- significant public order incidents
- strategic roads policing.
Leicestershire Constabulary and the four other East Midlands police forces and police authorities will continue to lead the way nationally in developing a collaborative approach to the provision of protective services. For further information on collaboration please see the Organisational Management page.
The development of protective services remains an important priority for the force and a programme of work will be undertaken to deliver a service improvement plan. This work will ensure that the Force continues to develop capability and capacity in line with the ACPO national standards
Serious Crime
Leicestershire Constabulary's Crime Support Department offers support in tackling organised crime groups and makes a major contribution to public safety through the work of specialist teams.
The Major Crime Investigation Section will continue to provide a cohesive and coordinated response to the investigation of major crime within Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Major crime includes:
- Murder and attempted murder
- Kidnapping and extortion
- Other homicides and manslaughter
- Serious crime and incidents
To ensure the effective investigation of these serious crimes we will continue to develop individual officers to achieve and maintain the appropriate skills supported through their PDR (Personal Development Review) .
Reducing serious violence continues to be a high priority for the Force particularly offences where firearms and weapons are used. We will monitor our existing investigative procedures to ensure that the correct level of resources are allocated to the more serious offences.
The Special Operations Unit will continue to deliver proactive investigations to disrupt and dismantle organised crime groups who present a significant threat to our communities. We will continue the enhancements of high-level witness protection and this work will be underpinned by an increased regional intelligence and surveillance capability.
The Economic Crime Unit target criminals where it hurts - in the pocket. Using the powers given to the police under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), we will, through the courts, continue to target drug traffickers and other criminals who are living beyond their legitimate means.
We will also increase responsiveness and visibility for POCA operations at a local level demonstrating "crime does not pay". Incentivisation will allow money to be returned to local communities taking the profit out of crime. This positive and visible action will be embedded throughout all levels of criminality.
Protection of Vulnerable People
The protection of vulnerable people (PVP) is an area of police activity which seeks to protect those who are the most vulnerable in our society and includes:
- Victims of domestic abuse
- Safeguarding vulnerable adults
- Victims of ‘Honour-based' violence
- Overseeing child protection and links to prostitution
- Management of sexual and dangerous offenders
We will continue to work towards a fully integrated police and partner agency response to the protection of vulnerable people through locally based specialist teams.
The Solace unit will continue to provide a dedicated response to victims of rape and serious sexual assaults providing support to victims and bringing offenders to justice.
The Paedophile On-Line Investigation Team (POLIT) will continue to investigate internet abuse and to work closely with the Child Exploitation and On-line Protection (CEOP) agency, which co-ordinates internet abuse nationally.
Our Child Abuse Investigation Unit, working in partnership with other agencies, specialises in investigating crimes of neglect, physical and sexual abuse against children. The department is also the lead for coordinating our response and activity to the ‘Every Child Matters' agenda.
We will continue to support the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). This board is an inter-agency forum which agrees how different services and professional groups should co-operate to safeguard children in their local area.
We have established dedicated locally based Public Protection Units (PPUs) who will manage low and medium risk sex offenders. A central PPU manages more serious cases. Work is being undertaken to agree working practices with our partners in this arena.
Operational Support
Public Order
The Constabulary remains committed to ensure that suitably trained Officers area available to deal with both planned and spontaneous public order and Chemical Biological, Radiation, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) incidents. Our capacity and capability in this area of business will not only be necessary to resolve local demand but also to support regional and national mutual aid commitments. This will be achieved by ensuring that we conduct annual threat and risk assessments that take into account community tensions, major events and national and international activity likely to affect demand.
Search
The Constabulary currently has an extensive search capability which enables us to carry out searches of crime scenes, searches for Missing Persons from Homes and Counter Terrorism incidents. These searches can be conducted in a wide range of environs including confined spaces, at height and on water.
The Constabulary will seek to maintain this capability and work with Regional colleagues to meet our mutual aid commitments.
Dogs
The Constabulary has a specialist Dog Unit which provides support to a wide range of operational activity. Each animal and their handler is subject to ongoing training with regular re-licensing. There are General Purpose Dogs attend violent and firearms incidents and crimes in progress. In addition to this there are Explosive and Drugs Dogs that are able to offer more specialised support to both spontaneous and planned policing operations.
Firearms
The Firearms Department provides a range of specialist Firearms and non-lethal resolution options to deal with violent confrontational situations where there is maybe a threat to life. The objective is to resolve the incident in a way which reduces the risk to the public, Police Officers and offenders.
2009 will see the issue of Taser to an additional number of specialist Units further increasing the Leicestershire Constabulary's ability to protect the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland in circumstances where the use of such equipment is proportionate and justified.
Civil Contingency
Leicestershire Constabulary will continue to deliver Integrated Emergency Management (I.E.M.) to ensure that the Force and its partners are able to respond to a Major Incident. We will continue to produce Contingency and Emergency Plans which are either Police specific or in partnership with the Local Resilience Forum (LRF). These plans are underpinned by a comprehensive multi agency training and exercising strategy at Gold (strategic), Silver (tactical) and Bronze (operational) levels.
A recent Home Office inspection of Leicestershire Constabulary in relation to Civil Contingencies showed us in a very positive light and a high state of preparedness both in a regional and national level. Our work with Partners, including the LRF was highly praised including the Multi Agency Training that continues to take place. This Inspection highlighted that there was still work which needed to be completed and the Constabulary remains committed to develop and build upon this sound platform.
Business Continuity
Our Business Continuity Management (BCM) Strategy will ensure that service to the public and public safety is maintained during any unscheduled event or emergency. We will maintain sufficient capability and resilience to meet our legislative requirements under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. This will be achieved by extending the framework of business continuity to all of our critical business functions and exercising and testing our response to internal failure and crisis. Over the next three years the resilience of our IT network and infrastructure will be upgraded and enhanced to ensure that we have a robust disaster recovery plan in place.
A risk management strategy is also in place which sets out the framework and structure to actively manage the risk exposures of the force. This is facilitated by the Force Electronic Risk Register.
The Force will also remain at the forefront of the Local Resilience Forum, working within a multi-agency environment with other lead emergency responders to provide a cohesive approach to civil protection.
Scenes Of Crime
The work of our Scientific Support Department is central to our success in bringing offenders to justice and, over the next three years, we will further develop collaboration opportunities with regional forces exploring opportunities in the arena of high tech crime, fingerprint laboratory work and forensic imaging. We will continue to maximize new technology and improve the skills of our staff to meet changing and growing demands whilst increasing our resilience and capability to meet national demands like major disasters and terrorist acts.