Key Constituent
Agencies
West Yorkshire Police Service
2007/8
Police child protection investigations in the Leeds area are conducted by the Eastern Area Child and Public Protection Unit based at Weetwood Police Station. The Unit comprises of 2 Detective Inspectors, 5 Detective Sergeants and 24 Detective Constables as well as clerical support staff, covering both aspects of this area of work, namely Child Protection and Public Protection.
Between April 2007 and April 2008 the 4 Detective Sergeants and 18 Detective Constables within the child protection side at Weetwood dealt with 1689 referrals and conducted successful investigations into serious sexual and physical crimes against children. A number of these led to convictions and terms of imprisonment some of which were for periods in excess of ten years.
Over the year the unit continued to work with due regard the recommendations of the Climbié enquiry and was able to respond positively to a recent HMIC inspection of child protection provision receiving a “Good” grading.
The dissemination of abusive images of children on the internet is an increasing area of work for the Police and the unit continue to be the police lead in investigating such offences. Officers from the unit are currently engaged on a number of major enquiries into such offences within the Force area as part of both National and International operations. Work is being finalised to establish a dedicated team within the West Yorkshire Police Child and Public Protection Unit, staffed by experienced child protection officers, to further the Force's commitment to dealing with these crimes in the future and it is expected to fully Operational before the end of 2008.
Officers continue to receive training in advanced investigative and interview techniques to hone their skills in dealing with victims of abuse and for more effective interviewing and investigation of those suspected of such abuse. Their expertise has been recognised within the Force and has been utilised to good effect on a number of recent serious and high profile criminal investigations.
A crucial area of the unit's work to prevent harm to children is that of the public protection officers, responsible for supervising offenders subject to the provisions of sex offender registration and the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) process. The Force has continued to develop and modernise this area of work and this will lead in the near future to the addition of three new members of Police Support Staff bringing the establishment to 6 DC’s and 4 members of support staff. Additionally, at a Force level, a unit has been created to oversee the registration and management of sex offenders across the County.
The Unit are the Police lead in the MAPPA process for Leeds and assist in the management of serious sexual and violent offenders within this process, sharing Police information with partner agencies and feeding back intelligence and actions to Police colleagues in other Departments and Divisions within the Leeds district.
Additionally the Unit has responsibility to collate and feed Police information into the process of reviewing all sudden and unexpected deaths of children within the Leeds area, and to take part in any Serious Case Review processes that are identified within the district.
The Unit continues to be committed to working closely with all our partners in the field of protection of children and is fully committed to its role working within, and in support of, the Leeds LSCB.
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