The Performance Committee, at its September 2020 meeting, recently reviewed the Policing Plan measures in regards to Domestic Abuse. In relation to the Reducing Offending in Partnership (ROP) model Members wish to ask the Chief Constable for an update on the PSNI review of their role in reducing offending and how it manages repeat offenders?
The Reducing Offending in Partnership (ROP) programme is now part of the newly formed Community Safety Department (CSD) within the Police Service. This move was instigated to bring the governance & operational management of how repeat offenders are managed across PSNI under a single line management structure, bringing consistency & cohesion to offender management.
ROP is one of 3 broad strands of offender management within the Police Service, with the other two being managed within Support Hubs, and the Public Protection Arrangements for Northern Ireland (PPANI).
We assess that ROP has a number of strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:
- Strong partnership/collaborative working
- Recognised Criminal Justice agency partnership
- Strong operational relationships between partners – information sharing and problem solving.
Weaknesses:
- Lack of involvement from non criminal justice agencies
- Some disconnect between PSNI ROP (strategic partnership management) and PSNI Reducing Offending Unit (ROU) (internal operational delivery)
- Overlap between other areas of wider criminal justice business – safer communities, reducing offending directorate
- No integrated management of offenders internally (PSNI)
- Police officers undertaking roles and responsibilities of external agencies.
It is recognised that the ROP structures have remained broadly the same for a number of years, however crime trends and evidence bases to offender management have changed over the same time period. It was therefore felt an internal PSNI review of ROP was timely, with the following terms of reference:
- Review the role of the Reducing Offender Unit (ROU) in terms of the scoring matrix used to determine persons incorporated within the ROU cohort and make recommendations as to how this could be amended to better reflect current PSNI priorities.
- Further to 1 above, seek to implement the use of Recent, Frequency and Severity as a means to calculate a score for any prospective ROU nominal.
- Further to 1 and 2 above specifically examine the offences ROU will consider in terms of accepting into the ROU cohort.
- Further to 1,2 & 3 above, determine if Domestic Abuse offenders should be considered within the ROU cohort, or if these would be better managed within an extended PPANI arrangements.
- Review the linkages & gaps within the ROU and PPANI models, and how synergy could be improved under the broader governance of PSNI Integrated Offender Management (IOM) arrangements.
- Review the performance structures within ROU and make recommendations as to how these can be measured/monitored at both Service and Area based levels.
- Review the rationale as to why specifically adults are not included within the Prevent and Deter strand and make recommendations on same.
- Review the current partnership arrangements within ROU and make recommendations based on the findings from above as to how this can improved/strengthened.
- Ensure best practice from GB and further afield is incorporated into this review.
- Further to the out working of points 1-9 above, consider a revised resourcing and finance model for ROU within PSNI.
The review was required as the PSNI have a number of mechanisms for managing offenders, including Reducing Offenders Units, Offender Management Units and Public Protection Team under Public Protection arrangements for NI.
Having undertaken a short pilot within L District reviewing repeat perpetrators of domestic abuse, there was a desire to review the different management and tactical options available and assess the feasibility of creating an Integrated Offender Management Model (IOM) which would include those prolific offenders within volume and serious crime, domestic abuse setting and Violent and Registered Sex Offenders as outlined under (PPANI) under Community Safety Department Governance Structure
There was also a desire to assess the current scoring matrix within ROU and how applying Recency, Frequency and Severity would impact on the cohort who would be managed within the process
This review will be overseen by Detective Chief Superintendent McNally, Head of Public Protection Branch, reporting to Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan.
Upon completion of this internal review it is envisaged options for change will be presented to the Senior Executive Team for consideration, with external consultation with ROP partners to follow. It is anticipated the internal review will be completed by end of November 2020.