Leicestershire Police ‘outstanding’ at tackling serious and organised crime, says HMICFRS

The force was reviewed as part of a wider inspection of the East Midlands regional response to SOC by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

Inspectors praised Leicestershire Police’s integrated approach to effectively managing SOC, an approach that “stems from an executive level through to frontline policing”.

While the five-force East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) was deemed “inadequate” overall at tackling SOC, HMICFRS found Leicestershire Police:

• Uses analytical work to achieve successful outcomes;
• Has lead responsible officers who effectively manage and coordinate work to tackle serious organised crime;
• Is innovative in identifying and tackling foreign national offenders;
• Effectively pursues organised criminals by targeting their assets;
• Has designed the ‘Are You Listening?’ campaign to raise awareness of child criminal exploitation and improve how it works with partners to identify and safeguard vulnerable children; and
• Works closely with partners to prevent people from being drawn into organised crime.

Further recognition was given to how the force was able to secure convictions against organised crime groups on several operations using only the analysis of telecommunications data.

In commenting on the force’s work to identify and tackle foreign national offenders, the report also detailed the force’s development of Operation Orbis Linea to perform bulk data searches and analysis – and using this to find vehicles used by foreign national offenders. Since October 2020, the operation has resulted in 801 vehicles stopped, 520 vehicles seized and 209 individuals arrested. In addition approximately £9 million in criminal assets have been seized, 90 European arrest warrants sought and ten high-risk sex offenders from overseas identified and under investigation.

It was also recognised how the force has established a dedicated protect officer and police community support officer within the Economic Crime Unit to tackle the issue of people being exploited to launder money on another person’s behalf and to find and support vulnerable victims of economic crime.

The force has also established an online eBay account to dispose of criminal property that is forfeited. The money this approach raises is returned to the force through the Government’s asset recovery incentivisation scheme.

The force’s ‘Are you Listening?’ campaign, which aims to help people spot the signs of child criminal exploitation, was also recognised.

In November 2020, the force released a film across social media platforms and ran workshops with trusted adults. Evaluation carried out 12 months on from the release date showed the film had been viewed by 4.8 million people, the workshops were attended by 2,300 trusted adults and referrals to child criminal exploitation teams had tripled.

In December 2021, the film received the Royal Television Society Midlands Award for Best Promotional Content and the campaign has now been adopted by other forces. Leicestershire Police said it continues to develop this campaign.

Chief Constable Rob Nixon said: “We are delighted to see the hard work and dedication of all of our officers and staff to tackle serious organised crime has been recognised in this way by HMICFRS.

“As the report has highlighted, a huge amount of work is carried out across all levels in force to both prevent and detect serious organised crime and to raise awareness of it. Thank you to every member of our team who is part of this work – your work really does make a difference!

“Of course, our work doesn’t stop here and as a force our commitment to develop, learn and improve in this area continues. We remain dedicated to further tackling this crime fully protecting our communities.”

Commenting on the report, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland police and crime commissioner Rupert Matthews said: “This is an excellent achievement and proof that Leicestershire Police is among the best forces nationally for identifying and driving out serious and organised criminals.

“I know an incredible amount of commitment and hard work has got us to this point and I would like to pay tribute to every member of the team whose contribution in making the streets of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland is invaluable.

“This independent assessment by HMICFRS will boost trust and confidence in policing locally and provide the workforce with further motivation and encouragement to succeed.

“As the Chief Constable Rob Nixon has already said, the good work doesn’t end here and further opportunity awaits to disrupt the criminal activities that threaten the lives of vulnerable people and impact peace and safety in our communities. I look forward to further success in the future.”

In its report published on Thursday (March 2), HMICFRS said the EMSOU was “overly focused on traditional SOC threats” such as drugs and firearms rather than new criminal threats, including organised immigration crime.

Of the other four forces that make up the unit, inspectors rated Derbyshire Constabulary, Nottinghamshire Police and Northamptonshire Police as ‘adequate’ while Lincolnshire Police ‘requires improvement’.

See https://www.policeprofessional.com/news/emsou-inadequate-at-tackling-organised-crime-report-finds/