Other Community Engagement Activity
In addition to the targeted community engagement work undertaken by our Confidence Action Teams (CATs), members of staff regularly support a range of community events and meetings. This is all part of our commitment to raising public confidence in our service by talking to communities about what we do and what it is like to work for the Crown Prosecution Service.
Each year we support the Gay Pride festivals in Oxford and Reading. We use these events to speak to members of the public about our Homophobic Crime Policy and the work that we do. We also visit a number of schools across the region to talk to students about careers in the CPS and how prosecutors decide whether to prosecute criminal offences, which always provokes a lively debate.
Other initiatives include the 'Respect in the Community' project in Hertfordshire, run in conjunction with Hertfordshire Police, North Hertfordshire Homes and Crimestoppers in the spring of 2009 at two secondary schools in Letchworth and Hitchin, to combat anti-social behaviour.
A special presentation aimed at educating school children about the implications of carrying knives is being taken into schools across Hertfordshire. The programme has been devised by Peter Shaw (pictured), the junior Advocate responsible for prosecuting Operation Tunic. This was the tragic case of Steven Jeeves, a married father of seven children, who was attacked and stabbed following two different groups exchanging abusive phone messages to each other before meeting up.
As the evidence was heard and the trial unfolded Peters realised that the youngest of the defendants (a 16 year old schoolboy), was unaware of the implications of carrying and using a knife. Although it was too late for the defendants, Peter realised that there were other children who could still be educated about the dangers of carrying knives. So far the feedback from the schools has been very positive and Peter will continue to visit more schools across the region.
Examples of other community engagement includes visits to local Women's Refuges, the Chief Crown Prosecutors speaking at conferences addressing employment opportunities for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, and delivering training to community representatives and service providers on referring/reporting racist incidents.
Homophobic Hate Crime Seminar
On 26 May 2011, CPS and HALT jointly organised a successful Homophobic Hate Crime Seminar, which was hosted by Oxford Brooks University and held in the wonderful lecture theatre. The event was chaired throughout by Clive Dellow, HALT Co-ordinator.
CPS Speakers included Baljit Ubhey OBE, Chief Crown Prosecutor for Thames and Chiltern; Crown Advocate Clare Tucker and CPS hate Crime lead for Thames Valley, Susan Clegg.
Thames Valley Police participated widely in the seminar, with PC Jen Banfield grabbing everyone's attention at the start of the agenda with graphic and moving accounts of her own experiences of homophobic hate crime.
Other police speakers included Assistant Chief Constable for Thames Valley Police, Steve Rowell, Chief Inspector Hugh Matthews and Community and Diversity Officer, Mark Franklin. Staff officer Kelly Reed, who is also chair of the Gay Police Association for Thames Valley, helped to answer questions from the 40-strong audience.
Other speakers included Max Yaquoob, Hate Crime lead for Oxfordshire, and Cheryl Reeves, Shared Equality Officer for South Oxfordshire and Vale of the White Horse District Council.
People were able to network after the seminar and many experiences were aired and shared, both during and after the event. BBC Oxford TV attended the seminar and ran the event as the lead news item the following day.
Photo: Alina June Whiteman, HALT volunteer, with Delia Johnston and Zoe Evans, from Delia Trans Advisory.
