Stalking & Harassment

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/23/5274

Version Date: 16/08/2023

I want to know how Devon & Cornwall Constabulary investigates stalking and harassment. What is required in order to log a crime of this nature and what is the procedure for investigation.

See the link below to the Force website:

Stalking and harassment | Devon & Cornwall Police (devon-cornwall.police.uk)

See also the College of Policing authorised professional practice (APP) regarding stalking or harassment

Stalking or harassment | College of Policing

I also want to know how many cases have been logged for Plymouth specifically between 2018 to present (2023), and how many of these cases had been successful in a charge against perpetrators.

The Performance & Analysis Department have provided the following information.

Data Processing:                                                  

Crimes recorded on crime information system - UNIFI   

 'No crimes' included                                                          

Qlikview Report: Crime Lists                                                         

Filtered by date: January 1st 2018 to November 14th 2022   

Plymouth LPA                                                         

Charges: Charged and postal requisitioned                                 

Crimes recorded on crime information system - NICHE 

 'No crimes' included                                                          

Qlikview Report: Crime List                                                           

Filtered by date: November 15th 2022 to July 27th 2023   

Plymouth LPA                                                         

Charges: Charged                                                              

Data Limitations:                                                   

It is important to note that there may be more than one offender per crime and that a single person may be attached to more than one offence and may therefore be charged for more than one offence.            

For the purposes of this request, we have only counted the number of crimes and how many of those which resulted in a charge - regardless of how many individuals were charged.                                                     

We have recently migrated to a new records management system and as a result of this migration, (and other unforeseen factors), the data from November 15th 2022 onwards is not reliable.

The following table shows the number of offences in Plymouth which were stalking and/or harassment related and how many resulted in a charge.

*2022 data consists of January 1st to November 14th and not the complete year.

**2022 data consists of November 15th to December 31st and not the complete year.

***2023 data consists of January 1st to July 27th and not the complete year.

The number of charges are subject to change where investigations are ongoing