Managing dangerous people

How we manage dangerous people

Cheshire Police has created three specialist Public Protection Units which cover the whole county.

Each of these specialist units is led by a Detective Inspector who co-chairs regular meetings with the relevant officer from the Probation Service. They also have specialist officers who have responsibility for the management of registered sex offenders.

Additionally these units are supported by a centrally located Strategic Public Protection and Paedophile Unit. This has strategic responsibility across the force area for the management of sex offenders and violent offenders.

The operational arm of the unit investigate offenders who use the internet and other forms of communication to assault, groom, and share and distribute images in order to sexually abuse children.

How can dangerous people be managed?

Sexual Offences Prevention Orders, Notification Orders and Foreign Travel Orders are intervention tools that restrict the behaviour of offenders and can be applied for through the courts with the intention of preventing them committing serious further offences.

Sexual Offences Prevention Orders

This places prohibitions on behaviour and can be used where an offender with a conviction or caution for an offence listed in Schedule 3 or Schedule 5 is considered to pose a risk of serious sexual harm. It does not matter when the conviction or caution was received.

Notification Orders

This requires sexual offenders who have been convicted overseas to register with police, in order to protect the public in the UK from the risks that they pose.

Foreign Travel Orders

This prevents offenders with convictions for sexual offences against children from travelling abroad where it is necessary to do so to protect children from the risk of sexual harm.

A breach of these orders, without reasonable excuse, is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.