Cheshire Police respond to super-complaint on police response to stalking
Recommendations have been made to improve the response to victims
Cheshire Police is outlining how it will improve its response to stalking - after the findings of a stalking super-complaint were made public.
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust submitted the super-complaint in 2022, on behalf of the National Stalking Consortium, after collating evidence that suggested deep-rooted issues in police forces are putting victims at risk.
Every force has until today (22 November) to publish its response to the findings and recommendations, which include:
- By 27 March 2025, take steps to improve the quality of stalking investigations by taking a victim centred, suspect focussed and context led approach
- By, 27 March 2025, take steps to improve how their force effectively recognises and responds to online elements of stalking
- By 27 March 2025, implement a mechanism for early screening of crimes to improve the identification, recording and management of all stalking cases.
- By 27 March 2025, review and update their learning and training provision relating to stalking
Cheshire Police has the highest stalking charge rate in the country and in the last three months, the force's Harm Reduction Unit (HRU) investigation team has a 70% charge rate, but the force still accepts that it can still do more to improve its response.
Detective Chief Inspector Dani Knox, VAWG tactical lead for Cheshire Police, said:
"We're really grateful for the recommendations that have been sent through from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. The work that we do here in Cheshire around stalking, we believe, is some of the best in the country.
"We invest resources from not only our own, but also our partner agencies to have our Harm Reduction Unit, who are a multi-agency team, reviewing stalking cases on a daily basis to ensure that we are providing the best level of service to victims across Cheshire and across other forces as well.
"We have a team of dedicated officers who will deal with the most serious stalking (cases) that we have, which provides fantastic results in terms of the charges that we have been able to achieve and the learning that we've taken from that process has been shared across the organisation to ensure that every part of the organisation in terms of where a stalking investigation is managed, that we have a first-class service for victims throughout.
"It's rally important to continually improve"
"Some of the parts (of the recommendations) that we want to work on is around some of our flagging of cyber-stalking. We recognise that some of our processes in place could be improved and that's absolutely why we welcome the recommendations - we think it's really important to continually improve in this particular area of business.
"Some of the other parts is around our governance structure for stalking to align that to the other strands of vulnerability that we've got within our force, to ensure that we have that appropriate scrutiny and strategic oversight for stalking - which not only takes on board national recommendations, but also improves local processes to ensure that throughout the organisation, no matter where you were a victim of crime within Cheshire, that we have that intensive scrutiny over those investigations that are being managed.
"Some of the other parts that we've taken from the recommendations is around some of the online training, which is relatively new from the College of Policing to ensure that we are making that mandatory for all of our staff - that they will all undergo that training so they're fully sighted on all the concerns around stalking, how to investigate it, and the signs and indicators that they ned to be looking out for."