BCUs to target prolific offenders in new project

Basic Command Units (BCUs) across the country are this week expected to begin targeting the most prolific offenders within their areas under a new multi-agency initiative focusing on the 0.5 per cent of criminals thought to be responsible for one in ten crimes.

The Prolific and other Priority Offender (PPO) scheme was announced earlier this year by Prime Minister Tony Blair, and is based on three key strands of action – to prevent and deter, to catch and convict, and to rehabilitate and resettle.

The strategy, which replaces the persistent offender scheme, will be led by the 376 local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs). While the chairs of CDRPs will take overall accountability for the schemes, chief constables will also be expected to provide ‘effective co-ordination and communications’ between the Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJBs) and each of the CDRPs.

Smaller CDRP areas – those which cover only a single BCU – will be expected to target a minimum of 15-20 PPOs, although guidance on the scheme issued by the Home Office suggest that those areas with significant levels of crime should ensure the numbers of PPOs is ‘adjusted upwards accordingly’. CDRPs covering two or more BCUs (such as those in urban areas) will be expected to target much larger numbers of offenders under the scheme, possibly up to 100.

While the prevent and deter strand – to stop people (overwhelmingly young people) engaging in offending behaviours and graduating into prolific offenders – and the rehabilitate and resettle strand (working with identified prolific offenders to stop their offending by offering a range of supportive interventions) will have implications for BCUs, it will be the focus on the catch and convict element of the scheme which will have the most impact on policing.

The selection of criminals as targets under the scheme will be based upon the nature and volume of the crimes they are committing or harm they are causing, and the impact they have on local communities.

BCUs will be responsible for co-ordinating the intelligence gathering on PPOs, all of whom are expected to be incorporated into the National Intelligence Model (NIM) in all forces, and should also be among the BCU Control Strategy Targets.

The Home Office guidance on the scheme also states: “Ideally, PPO schemes would comprise of, at least, a dedicated team of police and Probation officers, co-located preferably within intelligence units in police stations and working closely with the prison service. This is not a mandatory requirement, as resource constraints or local circumstances may call for alternative arrangements.”

In a joint letter sent out earlier this year by the Home Office and the Criminal Justice Performance Directorate, ACPO and the APA were told that, by September 6, the minimum requirements were:

• a scheme to cover every CDRP area;

• multi-agency working arrangements, including data sharing protocols, to be agreed;

• the first group of PPOs identified;

• a Local Implementation Checklist to be created for every LCJB area.

There is, however, no additional funding at present to establish the PPO scheme; the Government claims that the general principle of the strategy in terms of benefits through reduced offending will lead to savings across a number of existing funding streams.

Further information on the scheme is available from the Home Office website at (www.crimereduction.gov.uk/ppo).