South Yorkshire police is one of just seven police forces in the UK to have a dedicated stalking officer.
Stalking Awareness Week runs from 22 to 28 April, led by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.
This year the trust is focusing on multi-agency working and is calling for all agencies in the criminal justice system to work together so ‘victims are supported from the point of disclosure to beyond the conviction of the perpetrator’.
To better understand the challenges faced when receiving a stalking conviction, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust sent FOI requests to all 43 police forces in the UK.
Fflur Jones, Policy and Campaigns Officer for Suzy Lamplugh Trust, said: “We were shocked to find that despite the complexity of stalking as a crime. Police forces across the country really lack the in-house expertise to be dealing with these cases.”
The trust discovered that just seven police forces across the UK, including South Yorkshire Police, have dedicated stalking officers.
Chief Inspector Helen Lewis is the force lead for stalking over dedicated teams in each district of South Yorkshire. Her role is to ensure ‘victims of stalking are safeguarded and perpetrators are brought to justice’.
Chief Insp Lewis said: “Stalking is a serious crime and is not something anyone should have to live with. It has profound long-term harm on victims and in the most serious cases, it can tragically end in the death of victims.”
Just 1.7% of stalking cases result in a conviction of the perpetrator, but the National Stalking Consortium have found gaps in data which can improve criminal justice accountability.
Ms Jones said: “The real issue is there are massive gaps in data produced by criminal agencies, which hinders our ability to adequately scrutinise the criminal justice system.”
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust advises victims ‘particularly in a traumatised state’ to call the National Stalking Helpline to speak to specially trained advocates.
To raise more awareness and prevent stalking Jones said all the relevant professionals need to ‘undertake independent specialist stalking training so that they can identify stalking when a victim is disclosing it to them’.
Contact South Yorkshire Police on 101 if you have information about someone being stalked or carrying out stalking, 999 in an emergency and the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0300.