At the National Police Chief Council summit, Sara Thornton, Chair of NPCC, called for her service to focus on ‘core policing’ rather than recording incidents.  She stated, ‘I want us to solve more burglaries and bear down on violence before we make more records of incidents that are not crimes.’

 

For the National Stalking Consortium, whilst we recognise the necessity for hard choices in policing, we find this sentiment is very alarming.  For the people we support through stalking episodes, many of the initial behaviours they experience are not crimes within themselves.  It is not a crime to send an email, stand on a street corner or send gifts.  However, when these incidents create a pattern of behaviour and engender alarm or distress, they amount to stalking.

 

Stalking is a serious crime with serious consequences.  Gift giving, contact and surveillance can escalate into violence in 30%-40% of stalking cases, whilst a study by University of Gloucestershire, published by Suzy Lamplugh Trust in 2017, found 94% of femicides featured stalking in the year prior to the victim being killed.  Sara Thornton wants officers to focus on violent crime and core policing, but by investigating incidents and responding to concerns, policing can help prevent incidents reaching levels of physical violence and murder.

 

We call on the National Police Chief Council to acknowledge the link between reported incidents and crime and to commit to recording and investigating these incidents before they escalate to physical violence.

 

Signed by members of the National Stalking Consortium:

 

Alice Ruggles Trust

Aurora New Dawn

Black Country Women’s Aid

National Centre for Cyberstalking Research

Protection Against Stalking

Suzy Lamplugh Trust

Stalking NI

Veritas

Hamish Brown

Helen Clutton

Dr Frank Farnham

Tracey Morgan