Annual Equality Report 2023

Violence Against Women and Girls

Devon and Cornwall Police, alongside the Serious Violence Prevention Programme and other partners, will be developing a Walk & Talk project that it is intended to launch in 2024. Walk & Talk is a preventative initiative which has been adopted by a number of police forces. The project will enable women to meet with female officers to discuss public spaces where they feel unsafe.  These interactions will last approximately 30 minutes and will be available in the following locations:

• Barnstaple
• Exeter
• Exmouth
• Falmouth
• Newton Abbot
• Paignton
• Plymouth
• Torquay
• Truro

Project NightEye

Project NightEye is an approach to policing the evening and night-time economy to make them a hostile environment for men intent on harassment, sexual or physical violence. It works by identifying predatory male sexual behaviour, whether that be individually or within groups including:

• Persistent unwanted contact towards women.
• Attempting to isolate women from their friends.
• Following women whether on foot or in a vehicle.

Identification can be through local CCTV operators, venue or security staff who have specifically been trained to identify predatory sexual behaviour or partners. Specifically trained police officers (either in plain clothes or uniform) patrol outside bars and clubs, between specific times and in places identified. In doing so, those involved are able to intervene earlier to prevent it escalating to an offence and increasing the likelihood of incidents and crimes being reported.

NightEye was used in selected locations this summer, and learning from these deployments will be assessed and used to refine the project prior to it being used in even more locations across Devon and Cornwall.

Operation Soteria Bluestone

This is a national Home Office funded research and change programme bringing together police forces with academics and policy leads. It uses evidence and insight to enable forces to transform their response to rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO).

The research initially involved five forces, who were joined in November 2022, by a further fourteen of which Devon and Cornwall Police was one. These were known as ‘expansion’ forces. The role of an expansion force is to test approaches developed in response to the research and in preparation for a new National Operating Model, which was adopted in force Autumn 2023.

The National Operating Model identified six pillars of activity below:

1. Suspect focused investigation
2. Repeat offenders / suspects
3. Procedural justice approach to victim engagement
4. Officer learning and well-being
5. Effective use of data
6. Digital forensics

The Model provides a framework or ‘ethos’ for a whole Criminal Justice approach.

Within Devon and Cornwall, we have:

• Developed a First Response to Rape booklet to guide officers/members of police staff/Special Constabulary through their initial response including the required referrals, risk assessment and safeguarding (victim-centred).
• Provided additional guidance to frontline officers on the use of early evidence recovery kits.
• Redesigned our processes for frontline officers, so that they now cover cases reported in or out of hours, with adult or child victims and those identified as acute or non-acute.
• Created a specific programme of continuous professional development for investigators.

The ethos is applicable to all relationship-based crime, so is relevant and applicable to Domestic Abuse and Child Sexual Abuse investigations.

Our priorities for 2024 will be to incorporate the findings of the National Rape and Serious Sexual Offences victim experience survey with local findings from the experiences of victims collated by those providing the independent Sexual Violence Advocates within Devon and Cornwall. We will continue to support and engage with the newly established Lived Experience Forum along with our partners, and key specialist providers. This work will help us better understand why victims may disengage from an investigation and what steps Devon and Cornwall Police can take to prevent this from happening.