Agenda item

The Panel received a report which provided members with an overview of Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s approach to Operation Soteria, the Police and Crown Prosecution Service programme to transform the investigation and prosecution of rape and improve outcomes. The report was in response to further information being requested by the Panel at the meeting in September.  The Panel made comment, asked questions, and received responses from the Commissioner and his staff regarding the report, which included:

1.     Councillor Barkham asked whether Operation Soteria included both male and female victims.  The Commissioner replied that males and females who reported having been the victims of rape or a serious sexual offence would receive equity of response from the Police.  In response to a follow-up question as to the respective number of live rape investigations in Cambridgeshire of male and female victims the Commissioner said that he would come back to the Panel with the information.  He had previously been made aware that around 25% of reports to Police of having been the victims of alleged domestic abuse were by males.  There was however a national strategic policing priority of violence against women and girls as women were much more likely to be subject to domestic abuse and sexual violence and with catastrophic results.

2.     Council Wilson asked whether there was anything more Panel members could do in this area.  The Commissioner recommended that communities’ representatives should always encourage victims to report crimes of this nature.  The response received was much better than in the past.  Ms Edwards advised of the OPCC’s Rape Engagement Project which lasted 14 months and was done in collaboration with a national company called Lime Culture a sexual violence training and consultancy organisation.  The OPCC had worked with the Constabulary seeking to gain feedback at various key points from people who had reported an experience of rape to police and their experience through the criminal justice system.  The feedback of their experiences had helped to change police processes as it happened.  The Project had also looked at the experiences of accessing support services and quality check how the services were being delivered.  New information had been obtained on how to commission.  The Project had subsequently been replicated across the country.

3.     Mr Leigh referred to a recent study which had been carried out in Australia, UK and US.    Only the Australian report had been published so far, ‘Identifying and understanding child sexual offending behaviour and attitudes among Australian men’.  The study related to the propensity to commit sexual violence against children and Mr Leigh commented that the statistics were shocking and were much higher than generally recognised.  The lack of focus on just how many sex offenders were in society contributed to victim prejudice and victim blaming. It was necessary to change public attitudes towards this, including via policy making where necessary. 

The Commissioner responded that whilst he had not seen the report, he was not shocked as he had worked within a police child abuse investigation team and had seen the impact of abhorrent images on the internet.  He stated that child sexual abuse was a national threat set out in the Strategic Policing Requirement.  There had been significant investment, with the involvement of the National Crime Agency and Regional Organised Crime Units, plus the Constabulary to take action against child sexual exploitation.  It was the case that most of the crimes would be committed in familiar environments to the child and as a society it was necessary to seek to deal with the problem head on.

4.     In response to a question from Councillor Varkey on digital forensics through new technology, the Commissioner replied that almost all crimes have a digital footprint which was a massive issue to policing and the criminal justice system given the data and encryption involved.  Victim’s phones could now be returned in most cases within 24 hours but not all cases.  There were some suspect cases where evidence was found and the police would keep the mobile phones under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

5.     The Commissioner mentioned that the challenges in relation to reported sexual offences went beyond lack of resources.  They were complex and an evidential criteria threshold met for the Crown Prosecution Service to take a case on.  Requiring a verdict of ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ potentially made it very difficult for a jury to convict.

6.     The Commissioner also recommended that there was more scope for early intervention and education taking place for young people, primarily young boys, on healthy relationships.

7.     Councillor Ferguson asked for clarification on paragraph 4.3 of the report that ‘the rape detection rate in September was 8% and the rolling average as of November 6th is 6.2%’.  The Commissioner advised that the ‘detection rate’ was Home Office terminology including where there was a charge, a caution or an out of court conclusion of the case.

8.     The report stated that Cambridgeshire was fourth in the country in relation to ‘Improvements in digital forensics through new technology – victim’s phones can now be returned in most cases within 24 hours’.  Councillor Jones asked what more other areas could do to improve.  The Commissioner referred to what the county was doing well including supporting victims throughout the process, a professionally qualified team to deal with rape investigations, dedicated police teams (a child abuse investigation team had won team of the year at the Constabulary awards), more resource in the area per size of county and population and a good relationship with the Crown Prosecution Service.

9.     The Commissioner informed the Panel that Operation Soteria was one of the leading workstrands that the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners focussed on.  It would remain a priority for the OPCC (as it would the Constabulary in Cambridgeshire) with a lot of the grants obtained and commissioning in response to the issue of serious sexual crimes.  There also had to be national conversations around the capacity of the criminal justice system, including crown court backlog.

ACTION

The Panel NOTED the report.