HMICFRS rates ROCUWM ‘adequate’ at tackling serious organised crime
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The Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands Region (ROCUWM) has been rated ‘adequate’ at tackling serious organised crime, with a new report highlighting its specialist capabilities and work pursuing some of the region’s most dangerous offenders.
The Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands Region (ROCUWM) has been rated ‘adequate’ at tackling serious organised crime, with a new report highlighting its specialist capabilities and work pursuing some of the region’s most dangerous offenders.
The report published today (14 May 2024) followed an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) into the effectiveness of the regional organised crime unit’s (ROCU) disruption of organised crime across the West Midlands region of England.
Between April 2023 and April 2024, the specialist unit led 2493 ‘disruptions’ against serious organised crime threats.
ROCUWM says a huge amount of its work is “covert and intentionally unseen by the public until it ultimately results in activity such as warrants, arrests and other forms of disruption against those involved in serious and organised crime”.
In 2023 alone, ROCUWM investigations led to over 1700 years of jail sentences being handed to some of the region’s most dangerous criminals. It also supported forces on a significant number of their own investigations.
Inspectors acknowledged ROCUWM makes effective use of its specialist capabilities and promoted these to personnel from the ROCU and regional forces.
ROCUWM focusses on tackling vulnerability, finding that safeguarding vulnerable people was a high priority during operational activity.
The report noted that ROCUWM had shown innovation in developing their own technical capabilities by producing software to analyse mobile phone location data. Such development has resulted in saving regional forces time and money by reducing the need to buy expensive licences for other software products.
Inspectors also referenced innovative projects designed to protect covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) and others designed to manage concerns about public protection.
The report recognised innovative practice in how the undercover online team (UCOL) was trying to protect children. UCOL officers were engaging with potential sex offenders who were targeting children online. They had developed a process to divert potential offenders to third party organisations who then offered them support to prevent them from offending. If this was unsuccessful, the individuals would then be investigated further.
Head of ROCUWM, Chief Superintendent Caroline Marsh said: “We welcome today’s report from HMICFRS as it’s an opportunity for us to reflect on the service we provide, celebrate what we are doing well, and look at what we need to improve to provide an even better service tackling serious and organised crime in the West Midlands region”.
“We have a plan in place and are committed to addressing issues that need improving. We will continue to work closely with the police forces in the West Midlands of England around the threat of organised crime and ensure our communities are safe from dangerous offenders such as drugs and firearms dealers, fraudsters, cyber criminals and many more.”
The West Midlands region consists of four forces – Staffordshire Police, Warwickshire Police, West Mercia Police and West Midland Police.
Individually, the forces’ response to serious and organised crime are:
- Staffordshire Police has been graded as requires improvement;
- Warwickshire Police has been graded as requires improvement;
- West Mercia Police has been graded as inadequate; and
- West Midlands Police has been graded as adequate.