Response to Stalking super complaint

In September 2024, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published a report in response to the Suzy Lamplugh Super-Complaint making recommendations to the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council, Chief Constables, Police and Crime Commissioners (or equivalents), the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, the Ministry of Justice, and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Ahead of the publication of this report, at the start of 2023 Thames Valley Police (TVP) worked closely with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.  The charity completed a review and appraisal of our approach to stalking, alongside providing key members of staff additional training.  This resulted in the development of our own Stalking Action Plan and internal audit. TVP have already taken a number of positive steps to improve our response to stalking, but well aware there are priorities within our strategy which remain incomplete. 

The HMICFRS made 29 recommendations which centre around three core priorities; 14 of which are relevant for Chief Constables and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).  These have an expectation to be delivered by March 2025.

1. Providing a better foundation for policing to create a good service for stalking:

Stalking is a priority for TVP and supports our strategy in our drive against Violence Against Women and Girls.  It is an offence which falls under our Crime Management Framework, which means it has more oversight, support and scrutiny than ever before. 

We appreciate at times Stalking legislation can cause confusion with other offences such as harassment and malicious communications. 

We have already taken steps to avoid this confusion and worked with our Crime Registrars to crime stalking and harassment separately, where they were originally classified together under one offence. 

Whilst this move was underway, we implemented a new stalking structure to oversee reported crime, support investigative leads and front line supervisors.  We also reviewed each counties approach in stalking cases and visited a variety of other police forces.  This created opportunities to identify best practice and learning from case studies.  The foundations of this research was then incorporated into our revised Stalking Operation Guidance.  Training was revamped and delivered to all new officers/staff, specialist departments, front line staff, supervisors and call takers. 

Following national changes to the way in which stalking, harassment and coercive controlling behaviour are recorded by police forces, we are reviewing how these offences can be fully searchable on our systems where they are reported alongside other offences. Whilst this is in motion, we continue to review our operational guidance to ensure it captures all recommendations laid out within the Super-Complaint report.

2. Meeting expected standards now and doing the fundamentals well:

In late 2022, we secured the services of Aurora New Dawn which was kindly funded by the OPCC.  This is funded until March 2025 and made a huge difference in supporting victims of stalking.  The Aurora team have a close relationship with victims and our stalking leads, alongside offering support to officers and staff leading the investigation.  Aurora New Dawn provide commendable support to each and every victim from initial reporting through to trial.  This move has enhanced the service provided to victims.  This has been further supported with the implementation of victim safety plans and multi-agency working. 

We have many mechanisms in place in reviewing our stalking performance in providing an understanding of the scale and types of stalking behaviour.  We continue to assess the quality of our investigations and outcome rates. 

We hold monthly Stalking Panels in each county which review live investigations.  This provides opportunities to review risk, support enquiries, assess the support provided to victims and assist in obtaining arrests for outstanding offenders.  We are keen to build on the consistency of these meetings and ensure they are in place in every area.

We are also looking at ways in improving how we deal with victims of stalking and looking at a variety of ways in receiving feedback. 

3. Implement what works, spreading promising practice and encouraging information:

We hold strong oversight in identifying stalking behaviour which is recorded through domestic risk assessments if domestic relationship, or complete a Stalking Risk Assessment, if a non-domestic relationship.  However, we are always on the lookout on how to improve this and are currently assessing the implementation of the Stalking Screening Tool which is used in other forces.  We continue to roll out training to all relevant departments and have introduced Stalking Tactical Leads to support officers and staff. 

TVP have also developed our relationship with courts, partners and legal teams in order to prioritise Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs).  These have significantly increased in recent years which is really positive to see.  TVP are still seeking ways in gaining more consistency and oversight of proactively managing breaches to these orders.  Alongside SPOs, TVP work closely with probation, in implementing the Compulsive and Obsessive Behaviour Intervention programme (COBI) as one of the many conditions we can add to SPOs for perpetrators.  This helps reduce re-offending and demonstrates to perpetrators the impact of their behaviour.  This, like Aurora New Dawn, has been funded by the OPCC until March 2025. 

Within our stalking panels we continue to share what works and share best practice, giving more consistency across the Force and the victims we manage.  We are also looking at ways in which TVP can work with AI to enhance our approach in cases, alongside developing initiatives around online stalking which we feel will rise over the coming years as technology continues to improve.