Notts Police took five days to respond to a report a 13-year-old boy was being sexually groomed, an inspection report has found.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary also found that sex offender suspects were known to have access to children as potential victims, but the force failed to act to reduce the risk of harm of the children.
The force responded by saying it is committed to making improvements in the areas highlighted.
HMIC also found that frontline officers with no specialist training were dealing with sexual abuse reports.
On another occasion the investigation of a computer used to groom a 10-year-old girl for indecent images was not carried out for ten weeks because the officer did not understand the evidence procedure – meaning the suspect was able to close their Facebook account, deleting potential evidence.
In four cases of rape, indecent images or grooming, children were at ‘significant risk’ according to the findings.
significant delay before a suspect was arrested
An investigation into a sexual relationship between a 14-year-old girl and a 21-year-old man found it took six months for the initial investigation to be completed.
Zoë Billingham, HM Inspector of Constabulary said: “[There was] significant delay before the suspect was arrested. During this period, two further offences relating to the suspect, involving the exchange of indecent images with other teenage children, were reported to other forces.”
After reconsiderations in February 2015, HMIC said the force had taken steps to ensure that children were not detained in custody under the Mental Health Act, but had not reduced the number of minors ‘detained unnecessarily overnight.’
However, Inspector Billingham said: “Nottinghamshire Police has made a clear commitment to improving the services it provides to children. In particular, it has improved procedures for considering children’s welfare when attending domestic abuse incidents, and improved the supervision of missing children cases.”
Inspectors say they expect the force to give full consideration to conducting reviews of children in custody.
Improvements already made by Notts Police:
- The way it protects children
- Their response to domestic abuse incidents
- Supervision of incidents where children have been reported missing from home
- Speed of response to child protection referrals
- Taken steps to ensure no children are detained under the mental health act
Notts Police Chief Constable Chris Eyre said: “There’s acknowledgement in the report of some great progress the team have been making in the area of child protection and they highlight some areas where we need to do more.
“There are some parts of the HMIC’s recommendations that we would not agree with, but in the main the commitment is there from both us and HMIC to make sure we continue to improve.
“We’ve invested more resources in child protection and in our specialist work around adult protection as well. We’ve got more staff going in there despite the fact that our budgets this year are being cut by another £12m.”
