Mapping out the ‘future state’ for investigating rape crime
The Police Digital Service (PDS) brought together key stakeholders working across policing and prosecution, to build a shared understanding of what the future should look like, for conducting investigations into rape and serious sexual assault offences.
The event was organised by the PDS’s Digital Evidence Project (DEP) Team, which is seeking to establish common standards and methods for using digital evidence to investigate rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO).
The day’s purpose was to kick off a process to create a future digital evidence operating model for RASSO investigations that covered a range of elements including, for example: victims’ and suspects’ experience; culture and ways of working; organisations and partners involved, technology and systems used.
The event involved a range of delegates that included policing lead representation for Chief Constable, Sarah Crew, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Lead for Adult Sexual Offences and Assistant Chief Constable, Stuart Murray, National CJ Recovery Programme; and Tony Blaker QPM, Interim Director of Service Delivery, PDS. Colleagues from Operation Soteria Bluestone*, police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and representatives from PDS- alongside DEP, this included the new Digital Forensics Programme (DF) – which is working to develop and deploy digital forensic capabilities to policing and leave a lasting capability within PDS to support digital evidence initiatives.
Stakeholders involved walked through how RASSO investigations are conducted, looking at and providing feedback and comment on each element in detail, to then collectively build a one-page initial view of the existing working model, before then moving on to look at what the future should ideally look like.
The day covered a range of perspectives that worked across the criminal justice system. It marked the first point in a sequence of future work to develop a future operating model, which supports the Government’s key objective (set out in the ‘end to end rape review’), “to develop a national operating model (created through an evidence based collaborative project) for better and faster rape investigations that can be taken up by forces and CPS areas from 2023”.
PDS will continue to keep policing and criminal justice partners updated on progress throughout the course of the model’s development.
Notes
*DEP works in partnership with Operation Soteria Bluestone, which was launched as a response to the Government’s End-to-End Rape Review, and the Home Office pledge to increase the number of rape cases making it to court.
