Cleveland Police officers shortlisted for awards for helping to prevent Violence Against Women and Girls

Cleveland Police officers have been shortlisted in two categories for their work in helping to prevent Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).

Detective Superintendent Helen Barker was shortlisted as VAWG lead for Cleveland Police, which she champions alongside her work as Force lead on rape investigations and child abuse investigations.

Three officers who organised Operation Beech, an initiative aimed at safeguarding sex workers and gathering intelligence around sex work, were also shortlisted out of 140 nominations received nationally.

Chief Inspector Wendy Tinkler, Detective Inspector Dan Cook and Detective Constable Libby Malcolm commenced the operation in the Middlesbrough area in January alongside local charity A WAY OUT, leading to more than forty women being supported and a reduction in calls.  

Over the course of Operation Beech, officers identified over 70 sex buyers or those associated with offending against sex workers, 44 sex workers were engaged with, and officers saw women begin to flag down officers in the street to share their concerns. Calls into the Force Control Room relating to sex work in the Middlesbrough area also decreased.

Detective Superintendent Barker provides an input at various regional and national panels which look to progress vital VAWG work and as part of this developed the Force’s VAWG action plan.

There have been bespoke listening circles set up to glean experiences from victims to help support and shape VAWG initiatives across the Force and a successful regional VAWG conference which took place in January with a range of speakers. A VAWG week of action was carried out to tackle perpetrators and support victims, with 83 arrests made in connection with VAWG related offences.

Cleveland Police Deputy Chief Constable Victoria Fuller said: “Cleveland is a challenging area to police with various social and economical factors which influence the crimes here. Detective Superintendent Barker, Chief Inspector Tinkler, Detective Inspector Cook and Detective Constable Malcolm have managed to come up with creative initiatives which help us tackle some of the main issues affecting our communities. Their amazing work has been acknowledged at a national level and I’d like to congratulate them all in being shortlisted for these awards.

“We are seeing progress in our work in tackling violence against women and girls, which remains one of our priorities, and by working closely with our key partners and working with victims to shape how we deal with VAWG incidents as a whole, we continue to tackle these key issues head on.”

An event will be held in September where winners will be announced.