The Acquisitive Crime project was commissioned in 2020 to deliver on the government’s ambition to reduce neighbourhood crime and target the burglars, robbers and thieves who have high rates of reoffending, coupled with low rates of detection and prosecution. A substantial programme of GPS trail monitoring for adults on probation convicted of acquisitive crimes was introduced to continuously monitor the individual’s movements, utilising technology with the aim of reducing further offending, protecting the public and using the monitoring data to support the police to investigate acquisitive crimes. The project brought together colleagues from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and operational policy, probation, police, prisons and the EM Service providers to develop innovative ways to use the tag’s location data to achieve these goals, rolling out the initiative to nearly half the country.
Clarasys supported in two key areas:
- Designed capabilities for probation and police to best utilise the electronic monitoring data. For probation, a self-service portal was designed and implemented allowing probation practitioners to proactively monitor offenders’ whereabouts, facilitating their ability to provide a more enhanced level of probation support and rehabilitation. We also contributed to the design and launch of a crime mapping service for the police, which identified whether any tagged individuals were in the vicinity of an acquisitive crime, supporting and increasing efficiency of police investigative efforts.
- Designed and implemented tailored stakeholder engagement strategies. We established cross-agency champion working groups who informed the design of the end-to-end service to ensure it met their needs and requirements, engaging in a test-and-learn approach to iterate future developments to the capabilities based upon direct stakeholder feedback.
- Implemented a first-of-its-kind acquisitive crime tagging service in six months, delivering iterative enhancements based upon stakeholder feedback
- Embedded a new tool within probation practice (including training over 1,000 users), giving them valuable insight into offender behaviour to help them rehabilitate and protect the public
- Data from the tags is mapped against further crimes, this has supported police investigations and led to criminal convictions for those found guilty of reoffending
