More than 130,000 officers and staff complete non-contact sexual offence training
More than 130,000 police officers and staff have completed specialist training on non-contact sexual offences, as the College of Policing seeks to improve how forces recognise offending patterns, assess risk and support victims.
The one-hour e-learning course has now been completed by more than half of the policing workforce, making it one of the College’s most widely used digital learning programmes.
The milestone was marked by a national learning event organised jointly by the College and the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, attended by more than 600 registered participants.
The training focuses on understanding the impact of offences such as indecent exposure and other forms of non-contact sexual offending, which can be wrongly regarded as less serious than contact offences.
It draws on behavioural science and lessons from the Angiolini Inquiry, emphasising a victim-centred approach, understanding offender behaviour and identifying potential risks of further offending.
At the event, British Transport Police Detective Sergeant Ed Salusbury-Trelawny described how a victim’s account helped officers identify a wider pattern of offending and ultimately led to the identification of a dangerous sexual predator who was later jailed for 17 years for an unrelated offence.
The victim, identified as Dorothea, told delegates that the fact an offender had not physically touched her did not mean the experience was not violating.
The College is encouraging officers and staff who have not completed the course to access it through College Learn.
The training was developed following concerns that the impact of non-contact sexual offences had been underestimated, with the College seeking to improve investigative standards and the police response to victims.