Recommendation 1
IOPC recommendationThe IOPC Recommends that North Yorkshire Police (NYP) should review current policy and guidance in relation to safeguarding of victims of crime to ensure that, where more than one force is involved, safeguarding responsibilities are appropriately agreed between the forces, and officers involved are clear on who has responsibility
This follows an IOPC investigation where a vulnerable member of the public reported a crime to NYP, as they lived within the NYP area; however, as the crime occurred in a location covered by West Yorkshire Police (WYP), the incident was passed to WYP for investigation. Ongoing safeguarding was required for the victim, however WYP thought NYP would continue the safeguarding for the victim as they resided in their area, but this did not happen. The current policies do not cover cross-boarder safeguarding. The victim was later reported missing and found deceased having been murdered by the alleged offender of the prior allegation being investigated by WYP.
NYP have since created a bulletin to be sent out of staff reminding them that ‘…it is the responsibility of the original officer within NYP to agree with the foreign force the victim safeguarding strategy. This should include which force will take primacy for the safeguarding and an agreement between both forces as to the agreed actions, ownership of actions and regular updates…’.
NYP are also liaising with Superintendents to review the information and policies regarding domestic violence, serious sexual assault and rape and missing from home.
Whilst the IOPC acknowledges that NYP have taken some steps to address this matter, we consider that it is important that the responsibility is clear in policy.
Recommendation accepted:
On receipt of your recommendation, I shared this broadly with strategic leads across NYP. Having consulted with them, I took it to the force Ops Board which sits monthly and we take progress against control strategy priorities, and other key pieces of work. I raised this, and it is being tracked through this board. The next meeting in fact is this week 10th February. I have drafted a force policy which sits above all of our procedures, setting out how ownership of risk must be accepted and absolute clarity is required. I have attached this draft, but it remains in draft whilst the practical activity to achieve this is put in place. I have asked our Chief Inspector in customer contact to look at how this can be automated within the incident management systems, and also maintained once an incident is moved from STORM into Niche.
Additionally, I have liaised with Odette Robson at North Yorkshire County Council who has been managing a multiagency serious case review into this. They cannot share the final outcome yet, as it is going through final checks, but this IOPC recommendation also sits as an action in the report, and as such will receive tracking through that process. The serious case review covers all agencies, not just NYP.
As you put in your letter, this was shared as a lesson learned through force communications, but the next steps as set out above, are there to put the policy and processes in place. Once I have confidence that the automated processes will work, the policy can be launched.