What difference does it make?

The CIT’s office at Bloxwich. Usually there are more doughnuts in it than when this picture was taken. Other than eat, what does the CIT do though and how are they different from CID?

Because we’re totally down wid da kidz and up to speed on all the latest trends such as Pokemon, Tamagotchis and pop band JLS, the Walsall Criminal Investigation Team (CIT) on which I am based now has its very own Twitter account.

Because I accept that our love of acronyms may lead to some confusion between the CIT and the CID (who also happen to be on Twitter), I thought a little overview of what we do may be useful by way of explanation.

As such I will explain.

Each of our ten ‘divisions’ or Local Police Units in the West Midlands has its own CIT, they range in size with ours in Walsall having around sixty or so officers working across three shifts under the direction of an inspector.

The CIT has three main responsibilities which can be neatly outlined as follows –

1) Prisoner handling

First things first there are response officers who cruise around in our fancy new Insignias hunting for criminals and attending the 999 calls that come through the control room.

If they arrest someone, it tends to be the case that they’ll do the initial bits and pieces – take statements, seize evidence and the like – and then hand over a ‘package’ with which the officers on the CIT will then interview the prisoner.

The benefit of this is that with the prisoner sitting in the cells feeling glum and the CIT taking over the case, the response officers are free to hit the streets again and stomp on more crime.

2) Secondary investigation

Coming back to the response officers again, sometimes they’ll go to calls where there are more enquiries to do that can’t be done then and there at the scene.

Take an assault in the town centre as an example, response will take a statement from the victim and then an officer on the CIT will take on the crime report and check CCTV etc to try and identify the offender.

Handing on reports to the CIT again means that response officers aren’t committed with non-urgent enquiries and are free to chase people across rooftops and drive their cars through oddly-placed piles of boxes.

3) Scheduled response AKA ‘diary car’

The final ‘calling’ of the CIT team is making sure that the diary appointments booked by our control room are attended.

Rather than dispatching officers immediately to every call, the control room arrange a time and date for them to come out as this often works better for both parties.

This is obviously where it’s appropriate (no ‘You’ve been kidnapped? We’ll come a see you at 16:00 next Tuesday?’) and where officers complete crime reports, they then hold onto them and investigate them as far as they can.

The difference between CIT and CID is mainly the type of work that we do with CID tending to investigate the more serious crimes and not having a diary car responsibility.

To give examples of the work CID would likely take on, they take on most house burglaries, robberies and vehicle crime whereas the CIT take on what we call ‘volume’ crime.

A further distinction is that CID is staffed by officers with a detective qualification (they all wear deerstalkers) whereas most officers on the CIT will have done further investigative training but not to the level at which they are accredited ‘dees’ or detective constables.

So there in a nutshell is a little overview of what the CIT do and how it’s different from the CID.

Any questions, please feel free to ask but I think all that remains is for you to go and investigate the Walsall investigation team yourself by following them on Twitter and seeing what they’re up to!

P.S. Apologies for the lack of blogs over the past few weeks, has been a busy period but will endeavour to get a few more written and on this here internet when I’m able.

Breezeblocks…

Super blocks are coming! This is the proposed site of the new custody facilities in West Bromwich.

Add the word ‘super’ to anything and it’s a universally accepted truth that it makes that thing better.

‘Soaker’, ‘man’, ‘market’ – it’s a little word that makes whatever follows it just a little more awesome.

Taking this universally accepted truth, our force head honchos have sat down and drawn up a list of words that they could add the prefix to, the idea being to see how they could improve the service that we offer to the public.

The full list is a closely guarded secret, although rumour is words such as ‘handcuffs’, ‘doughnuts’ and ‘trousers’ all featured, none really seemed to benefit a great deal from being super-sized other than doughnuts and with impending fitness tests, that proposal had to be parked.

One word that did emerge from the flip chart-intensive brainstorming sessions was ‘block’, as in custody block.

‘We’ve got cell blocks around the force’ the thinking would likely have been, ‘does it make sense to have lots of little blocks dotted around the force or might things be a bit more efficient if we clustered them together?’.

The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘it probably would’ hence the word ‘super’ was inserted in front of the word ‘block’ and we end up where we are now with the term ‘super block’ and the blog you are reading right now giving an overview of them.

The idea is to build two large scale custody suites, one on Bromford Lane in West Bromwich and the other, eventually, in Perry Barr on Holford Drive.

Larger than any of our current custody blocks, the facilities will have room to accommodate up to sixty ‘guests’ along with all of the necessary interview rooms, medical bays and whatnot else required alongside.

Existing custody suites would then begin to close, including our ‘living history’ Victorian cells at Steelhouse Lane, with prisoners being taken to the centralised blocks instead.

Aside being a more efficient way of working, it’s also forecast to be a great deal cheaper with the estates program initially costing £26m but saving £17m over the first five years alone.

The cell block plans are part of a wider plan under which the force is looking at some strategic ‘rejiggling’ and asking whether it is making the best use of the buildings and facilities that it has.

Sandwell Council have already approved planning for the Bromford Lane site and our Police and Crime Commissioner, Bob Jones, has said he’d like to see the diggers moving in “as soon as possible”.

I’ll keep you updated on both facilities and other changes to our estates as soon as I hear the latest, in the mean time you can check out the details of the West Bromwich super block by having a browse of the planning application as follows –

• Super block planning application (DC/13/55480) on Sandwell Council’s website
• Overview of application including schematics and usage
• Site plan

Young ones shouldn’t be afraid…

The court system may not always provide the best fit for young witnesses, what provisions does the law give to make the process of giving evidence easier?

The story today about the disparaging comments apparently made by a CPS barrister regarding a young sexual abuse victim has raised concerns from charities and pressure groups about the way cases involving young people are dealt with by the courts.

At the best of times the courts are not the most friendly places, a trial can be a frightening process and uncomfortable too.

To provide a fair trial, the evidence forming the case has to be tested and when it comes to witnesses, the way this is done will be by cross examination with attempts made to find weaknesses in the credibility and reliability of those testifying.

For adults alone, this challenging of their evidence and of their character may be a stressful experience.

Even for police officers experienced in the court process and the giving of evidence, stepping into ‘the box’ is not something to look forward to.

For children then, it’s understandable that the prospect of a criminal trial would cause some real fear.

This isn’t only an issue leading up to a trial, concerns about participation in the judicial system may well put someone off approaching the police in the first place, the preference being to let things be rather than risk having to go to court.

To make things easier for young and vulnerable victims, the law provides a number of ‘special measures‘ designed to make people feel more at ease with the trial system.

Rather than asking young people to stand up in court to give their account, the law presumes that all young people will have their evidence videoed and this video be played at court.

Furthermore, there is an assumption that at court, young people will qualify for special arrangements designed to make the giving of evidence a less daunting experience.

One possibility is using a video link so that they don’t have to face the accused, another is in-court screens for the same purpose.

Further options include asking the court staff to remove their wigs and gowns to make the trial feel a little less formal, also clearing the court so that there is less of an audience to speak in front of.

Special measures are designed to make the trial process seem a little less hostile, to help bolster the confidence of those giving evidence.

Despite the measures though, a great deal of courage is still required hence acting as a witness is a respectable, commendable thing to do.

On the whole, the courts do well in encouraging such confidence – stories such as today’s don’t help but at the same time, aren’t representative of the system as a whole.