FOI 168/25 County Line Arrests

Enquiry Reference:  FOI 168-25                                                                               

I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request.  Below is your request and our response.

Statistics for the Cleveland area from the year 2022 to current on County Lines including, arrests, victims (including age and gender if possible)

1. a) Number of nominals with a county lines flag. Broken down by effective from date (the date the flag was applied to the nominal).

1. a) Number of nominals with a county lines flag by age at the time of the flag being applied to the nominal

1. a) Number of nominals with a county lines flag by gender. Note Unknown and blanks removed.

Policies put in place to prevent county lines.

1. a) No policies just guidance.

Does Cleveland police actively inform institutions such as schools on awareness of county lines and how to spot at risk children.

1. a) We report on a quarterly basis to the region in relation to County Lines and our activities.

There is ongoing daily analytical work to identify county lines as well as victims and perpetrators.

County Lines feature in the Serious Organised Crime local profiles which are shared with partners.  In addition, we share information via Police National Database and have a dissemination process in place for any intelligence with partners. 

Local partners including education and health are invited to attend monthly Tasking and Coordination Groups

Separate Child and Adult Missing Persons forum chaired by Police and best practice, good news and how to guides explored bi-monthly where exploitation concerns are discussed within.

Missing From Home (MFH) Coordinator Team regularly visit Local Care Homes to deliver inputs to Staff/Managers on MFH/exploitation concerns alongside Philomena compliance.

Presentations delivered by MFH Coordinator Team & Child Exploitation Team to a variety of agencies as part of multiple ongoing forums where required.

The HOTH (Harm Outside The Home) team meet daily to discuss children subject of county lines intelligence where a multi-agency approach is adopted, from here any identified actions or disruptions are then recorded and allocated out to the appropriate team.

Having made enquiries within the Force above is all the information we hold.

Please note that all statistical data supplied in relation to Freedom of Information requests is a snapshot of data held at the time the request was received by the Freedom of Information office and is subject to constant change/updates.

The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.

If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Decision Maker