(apologies to the BBC for my terrible pun)

It seems in Leeds we’re ahead of the game yet again. This will come as no shock to anyone living in this fine city of ours. The game in question is cat and mouse or, more accurately, cops and robbers.

I spent a day recently with a team of people called the ‘Offender Management Team’. West Yorkshire Police, and in particular our North East Leeds policing team has been working on a new scheme for a short while now to try to solve the problem of people the police call the Persistent and Prolific Offenders (PPOs). I have a different name for them. It’s unprintable though, as you’d expect.

For a long time now our excellent local police inspector has kept me informed when individual PPOs are about to be released from prison, so we can brace ourselves for a crime wave which will end only when our police force can catch them again, and they do well with over 40% of burglaries leading to conviction, well above the norm. These people are not misunderstood darlings who made a mistake and have seen the light, these are people who, if asked their vocation, would reply “Burglar” or “Car thief”, assuming they understood what ‘vocation’ meant.

We all know the problems with prison overcrowding and the pressure which has led to the Early Release Programme and shorter sentences. This means that the Police, to a degree, have to manage known criminals whilst they are in our midst. An extreme example I was told about is a man who was caught and prosecuted twice for burglary. When he was caught a third time, as part of a ‘deal’ with the courts, he confessed to a string of over 100 other offences. In exchange for this he received, believe it or not, a non-custodial sentence. Three strikes and you’re out… on the street again.

In response to these sorts of problems a team of officers was formed whose job it is to get under the skin of these PPOs and find out what makes them tick. They gather evidence of their behaviour patterns, usual whereabouts, their associates and their personal problems. This involves visiting them frequently, often on alternate days, knocking on the doors and trying to find out why they are doing what they are doing. Some people will not be for changing, and for these this work does an excellent job of letting them know they are being watched. For those who do want to get out of crime, often the first step is dealing with a drug addiction or getting a job. The latter can often be a near non-starter because of a criminal record and often an inability to read or write. For these people the officers refer the PPO to the DISK team - don’t ask me what this acronym stands for, my memory isn’t that good. The DISK team are experts in helping to get people onto courses or into rehabilitation and supporting them through it, trying to get them off the path to more crime and into work.

So why, I hear you ask, would we want to provide such a high level of support for a small number of offenders? The answer is simple. There are 80 PPOs in the NE Leeds policing area. Around 40 are in prison at any time. The other 40 are responsible for an estimated 40% of all recorded burglaries, robberies and car thefts, as well as drug offences and more. By my simple mathematics, if we can lock up another 5 by gathering evidence of their crimes from watching them closely, and help 5 more onto a course which helps them into a job, that’s a 10% drop in crime.

It’s this sort of scheme I really like. Not just dealing with the symptom i.e. solving crimes or putting up CCTV, but trying to cut them off before they happen. Oh, and if anyone reading this thinks that these poor darlings are being hounded by the police, think again. The way this works best is by the police speaking to them, not having them slam the door in the officer’s face. Officers cannot legally force their way into anyone’s house for a chat.

I suspect this Leeds initiative will soon be rolled out across the country. This is down to a very innovative Chief Inspector, a very supportive Chief Superintendent, a dedicated team of officers and a bit of vision. Unconventional? Yes. Logical? Undoubtedly. Effective? Only time will tell just how effective, but the initial results get a solid thumbs up.

Next time we’ll have a change from law and order, I may try to see if I can experience something new, like A&E on a Friday night. Might be interesting.

All the best

Matthew Lobley.