Police 'must improve' exploitation investigations

A police force must improve how it investigates child sexual and criminal exploitation and train more officers, the police inspectorate has said.

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said Lincolnshire Police was "failing to effectively investigate" when children are at risk of, or have been harmed by criminal or sexual exploitation.

Inspector Roy Wilsher said: "I urge the force to implement our recommendations as a matter of urgency so it can protect children from harm."

Chief Constable Paul Gibson said: "We fully accept the findings of this inspection and have taken immediate action to address the issues identified."

Two accelerated causes of concern have been issued to the force with recommendations of how they can address them.

This includes producing a plan to meet its trained officer capacity "as quickly as possible", correctly identifying children who are at risk, and allocating exploitation investigations to trained officers who have the appropriate knowledge and skills.

Mr Wilsher said Lincolnshire Police's standards for investigating child exploitation "fall significantly below what we would expect".

He said: "The force doesn't correctly identify child exploitation or understand the effect it can have on children.

"Supervision of investigations is poor, and not all reasonable lines of enquiry are being pursued.

"There are also not enough trained officers to investigate child abuse and exploitation effectively. For example, there is only one accredited child abuse officer."

Mr Wilsher said the inspectorate would "closely monitor the force's progress" in making improvements.

Mr Gibson added: "If we are not providing the level of service that keeps vulnerable children safe, we will do everything in our power to make sure we take appropriate steps to make changes, as swiftly as possible, and that's what we have done.

"We know it will take time to implement these changes and make improvements, but we are fully committed to doing so."

Mr Gibson also said that specialist training courses were being planned into next year to "bolster our numbers of appropriately trained staff who can deal with child abuse and exploitation".

"Additional investment" would be needed to make the improvements, and a "sustainable financial solution" was under discussion with officials, Mr Gibson said.

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