Cambs police improve how they manage risks posed by sex offenders following damning report

After being labelled ‘inadequate’ at dealing with registered sex offenders – Cambridgeshire Constabulary has demonstrated rapid improvements, according to a recent re-inspection.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) previously said it had concerns the force wasn’t “effectively managing risks posed by registered sex offenders in the community”.

In particular, the report, published on March 12 this year, said police personnel could be “vulnerable to grooming’ themselves if meeting sex offenders on their own – and pointed to a backlog of cases.

But in a letter sent to chief constable Nick Dean on Tuesday this week (December 9) – His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher acknowledged the force had since made “significant changes” to bring about “sustained improvements to help keep victims safe”. He has now officially closed HMICFRS’ ‘cause for concern’.

The Damning Report

In the report published in March, the inspector said they found “a number of problems” – including supervisor reviews of registered sex offender cases being “poor”.

"There were missed opportunities to assess registered sex offenders,” the report read. “And when the constabulary did intelligence checks, it only used police systems. It didn’t examine other platforms like social media.”

The following example was given: “Our audit identified a case of a registered sex offender with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. This allowed the constabulary to install monitoring software on their electronic devices. But it didn’t do so and gave no clear reason for this decision.”

Another excerpt from the report gave an indication of the sheer number of sex offender cases the force handles at any one time, and subsequent pressures on police staff.

“We found that supervisors managed large teams and usually handled cases involving about 500 registered sex offenders,” the report read. “They told us they found this number difficult to manage. It meant that they couldn’t support their teams with visits to registered sex offenders, especially when personnel are covering for colleagues on leave.”

The report went on: “The constabulary told us that offender managers also have large workloads. They usually deal with 50 to 60 offenders each, with around 72 live investigations. To manage this, the constabulary tells managers to do many of these visits on their own.”

Personnel working on MOSOVO teams (management of sexual offenders and violent offenders) also told inspectors at the time that their welfare wasn’t taken seriously by senior leaders.

The inspector added: “The constabulary told us about one officer reviewing 175,000 images from an offender’s phone. They had already spent two full working days on this, with two more to go. Despite this, the officer received no welfare support from the constabulary.”

The report published in March had recommended the force should, within three months, “develop a performance framework that helps it understand whether visits by one individual to registered sex offenders are appropriate; and what is included in its backlog of work, such as how overdue visits are and the risk level of the offenders involved”.

Since March, the force has successfully made “significant improvements”.

‘Significant Progress’

In his letter to chief constable Nick Dean this week, Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher concluded: “I am pleased that Cambridgeshire Constabulary has made significant progress in this area since we raised this cause of concern.

“During our reinspection work, we found that the constabulary is now making sure visits to registered sex offenders are carried out jointly by two officers. It is managing case backlogs in MOSOVO and the online child abuse safeguarding team in an appropriate and timely way. Overdue visits to registered sex offenders are prioritised in terms of risk and checked by supervisors.

“The constabulary has invested in more resources to help manage demand in MOSOVO and the online child abuse safeguarding team. It has an improved performance management framework and senior leaders now have a better understanding of risk within this area. Workloads are manageable and there is a clear process to inform senior leaders if workloads increase.

“The changes you have overseen in this area as Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary have resulted in sustained improvements to help keep victims safe. I am pleased to officially close this cause of concern.”

‘Delighted’ the improvements have been recognised

Commenting on the positive outcome, Chief Constable Nick Dean said: “I’m delighted the hard work put in since the inspection and the improvements made in this area have been recognised by HMICFRS.

“The original feedback was difficult to hear but we have taken it on board, adapted our processes and increased resourcing to improve the way we manage registered sex offenders.

“The team of officers dealing with online child abuse has also expanded to help manage workloads.

“This is an incredibly important area of policing and child protection is right at the forefront of our work to protect the vulnerable.

“The HMICFRS recognised our commitment to keeping victims safe and we will continue to do all we can to safeguard children and bring perpetrators of abuse to justice.

“I would like to praise everyone involved in improving performance across these areas – an excellent response which has been rightly recognised.”