THE SUB GROUPS: CRITICAL INCIDENTS

The police and other related agencies have recognised the immense value of independent advice in critical incidents. The Critical Incidents (CI) sub group has provided independent advice to the police on community sensitive issues in a number of high-profile cases. This has proved to be vital in community and family confidence in the response of the police service. The involvement of community advisors lends credibility and transparency to the investigation, as well as providing an opportunity for independent scrutiny.

WHAT WE DO

The Metropolitan Police Service defines a Critical Incident as:

‘Any incident where the effectiveness of the police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of: the victim, their family and/or the community.’

The work of the Critical Incidents Sub Group therefore focuses on the strategic implications of incidents that relate to murder, serious crime, disaster, public disorder, linked incidents, internal (within the Police Service) discrimination and incidents that have a wide impact on Community confidence.

We primarily give advice on LGBT-related issues that arise from each specific case.
This may include advice on:

who to involve locally

cultural and language issues

family liaison issues

community reaction and responses

community knowledge of other incidents that could be linked

options open to the police

We have been involved in a number of high-profile cases. While those cases have primarily involved the murder of an LGBT person, a few of the cases have involved systematic harassment or violent attack. Our remit is very broad, media or public attention is not the basis for involving an independent advisor. We are usually involved at a strategic level, rather than at an operational or tactical level. This means that we do not take part in the day to day investigation of a case. We also do not become directly involved with witnesses, victims or their families.

LATEST PROJECTS

In previous years the Critical Incidents (CI) sub group has usually allocated a single member to advise Police officers investigating serious incidents.

However during 2004 we have taken a different approach by allocating a team of three to four advisors to incidents. This ensures that we not only give appropriate advice to officers but also develop our own media and community engagement strategy and keep a careful eye on confidentiality, disclosure, information sharing and legal issues.

When an incident is identified a team drawn from the CI sub group will offer independent advice and assistance to the case. This may include:

identifying Local LGBT groups who can assist;

identifying Local LGBT groups that can provide casework;

deployment of Non Police Reporting mechanisms;

appropriate language and advice on press releases;

community impact assessments;

liaising with the Community;

intelligence gathering;

good practice;

facilitating the development of ongoing partnerships

The teams will ensure that information that can be disclosed is disseminated to the full Advisory Group, community organisations through the Community Representation sub group and relevant media. They will also ensure that no information that may damage any police investigation or potential court proceedings is disclosed by the LGBT AG.

The deployment of teams also enables us to bring a wider range of options and advice to the table, as well as enabling a greater level of consistency and effective use of advisors.

We were involved in a number of critical incidents during 2004, however there is still a significant drop-off in the amount of CI’s that are notified to the LGBT AG or to New Scotland Yard. This may still be due to an increased use of Local Advisory Groups.

While our active involvement is not always required, the CI sub group believes it is important that we are kept informed of the level and nature of homophobic and transphobic incidents across the capital. The CI sub group has some concerns about the fact that we usually hear about incidents from our own community sources rather than through police channels.

We will therefore be focussing on developing workable procedures during 2005 that will enable us to keep better informed about critical incidents and their overall community impact.

During 2004 there was a significant increase in the reporting of incidents to the police and non-police reporting agencies. It should also be noted that reports increased further during a number of highly publicised incidents during the year. This does not necessarily show a trend towards increased attacks but rather a greater level of confidence and willingness to report incidents.

Last year’s Annual Report stated that a log would be introduced by the police for advisors to record advice given and actions taken. Unfortunately this did not happen; therefore the CI sub group will work on producing a log that our advisors can use during this year’s work programme.

Family Liaison Officers

The Advisory Group continues to work closely with the MPS Family Liaison Officer (FLO) Team. We deliver a training module to the FLO’s around LGBT issues every two to three weeks at Hendon Police Crime Academy.

The Advisory Group continues to deliver a two hour module on the week-long courses covering five areas:

investigation of LGBT related crimes;

community Trust and Confidence issues;

appropriate language;

issues and sensitivities concerning LGBT people being ‘out’ or not;

the concept of ‘family’ in the LGBT context

However over the last year we have updated the input to include, the Civil Partnerships Act 2004, the Gender Recognition Act 2004, the Employment Equality Regulations 2003 and the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004.

Much of this new legislation impacts on the role of Family Liaison Officers with particular regard to our ‘next of kin’ status. The Acts have also led to major changes in policy, guidance and law around housing, children, coroners, inheritance, family law, information disclosure and gender and relationship recognition.

In addition, the Gender Recognition Act has led to internal policy changes within the MPS in relation to transgender people as police officers and as citizens within the Criminal Justice System.

The aim of the training is to enable FLO’s to go into any situation involving LGBT people and deliver a service that is professional, appropriate and sensitive to the needs of LGBT people.

The module is open, encourages participants to ask questions and allows prejudices and stereotypes to be explored. The modules continue to be popular and highly successful with good feedback being received from participants and trainers alike.

Critical Incident Training

The police run a number of different courses to train their officers how to deal with Critical Incidents.

Most of the courses run a scenario around a Critical Incident and Advisors are invited to engage with the officers throughout and provide advice as if dealing with a real case. By doing this officers are able to learn how to work with communities and the importance of forging their alliances with community groups before problems begin rather than in response.

LGBT AG advisors have not been used for such training during 2004.

Case Closure Review

Advisors have participated in reviews of past cases where leads appear to have been exhausted. The Advisor role in this process includes:

advice on family liaison issues;

identifying community confidence issues;

assisting community impact assessment of the case;

identifying potential community impact of decisions made;

highlighting old and new areas of concern;

advice on potential sources of new leads;

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