Diary entry: Corporate Comms out with Modern Slavery teams

What a lot of people might not realise is police forces across the UK have a Corporate Communications Unit and one part of our job is showcasing the work all the different departments do across our force from the neighbourhood policing teams to the criminal investigation department, the major crime team, protecting vulnerable people teams, domestic abuse and safeguarding teams to the dog unit, and everything in between.

Last week we spent the day with the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking teams (MSHT) who are a niche and specialist department sitting within our Protecting Vulnerable People Unit.

They often deal with offences hidden in plain sight, and Thursday afternoon the team were out and about in Grimsby conducting a day of action alongside police officers and police community support officers from the local neighbourhood policing team.

Routinely, the MSHT teams conduct disruption and intervention visits at businesses like car washes and nail bars. Sometimes, they visit these premises based on information, concerns or suspicions that may come into the team from local officers, the modern day slavery partnership, partners, or members of the community, but often it’s the teams prerogative to proactively engage with owners alongside partners from charities, local authorities, education, and health establishments to build relationships, and ensure everything is how it should be, rather than just simple arresting and enforcing.

Here's a run down of how the day of action went and what we learnt about how it all works when it comes to tackling modern slavery and human trafficking.

Read more.