Investigating County
Lines Criminality
CPD online Conference
14-15 October 2020
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New date announced! This event will be held online via Microsoft Teams
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A two-day virtual conference to provide investigators with current challenges, trends, research and best practice around County Lines
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Our event will feature top experts from law enforcement, academia, government, charities and leading authorities in County Lines who will present current thinking around this challenging area
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Online attendance at the event will help broaden and deeper your understanding of this complex issue and help inform your investigations
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The conference will also provide a valuable forum for debate and the sharing of ideas and best practice.
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Certificate of CPD available for delegates
The Investigator is hosting a conference to provide best practice and operational advice around the growing scourge of county lines criminality.
Aimed at investigators of all ranks, it aims to provide best practice, highlight current challenges and provide a forum for debate among UK forces and other interested agencies.
County lines crime relates to the supply of Class A drugs, primarily crack cocaine and heroin, from urban cities to market towns, coastal areas and rural locations by young people, using a branded mobile phone line.
Criminal networks use violence and intimidation to establish and maintain markets, with practices including forcing vulnerable people from their homes to establish a base to sell drugs.
The county lines model involves modern day slavery and exploitation of children and vulnerable adults alongside drugs supply and violent crime.
The Silver lead of the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre, Tim Champion is to headline our Investigating County Lines criminality conference on 14 and 15 October.
National County Lines Co-ordination Centre head to open conference
Mr Champion, a former Met Det Supt with 32 years’ service will outline all the latest developments, best practice and operational challenges around the investigation of County Lines criminality.
He will also explain how the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre can support your investigation and provide valuable advice.
He will be joined by an impressive line-up of experts from policing, The Government, other agencies and established experts in the field who will provide expert best practice that you won’t find elsewhere.
Agenda:
Day One
9.30am-9.40am: Welcome and introduction, Carol Jenkins, The Investigator
Session One: The national landscape, best practice, operational challenges
9.40am-10.50am: National update, current best practice and operational challenges, Tim Champion, Silver lead, National County Lines Co-ordination Centre
10.50am-11.40am: Results of the ‘County Lines – a national summary and emerging best practice research,’ Simon Ford Programme Director of the Home Office Violence and Vulnerability Unit
11.40am-12.20pm: Transforming county lines investigations through analysis and data sharing, Richard Helson, Chorus
12.20pm-12.50pm: Lunch break, engage with Chorus in virtual exhibition room
Session Two: Victim or offender? The complex nature of county lines investigations
12.50pm-1.40pm: Operational challenges resulting from the victim/offender conundrum, Det Supt Richard Agar, West Midlands Police
1.40pm-2.10pm: safeguarding issues for adults and young people, best practice in the South West, Tilia Lenz, lecturer practitioner consultant, Pan-Dorset and Wiltshire Social Work Teaching Partnership
2pm-2.15pm: Break
Session Three: Missing or on the move? Keeping track of young people and vulnerable adults
2.15pm-3.05pm: Identifying vulnerable young people who are travelling on the rail networks, DCI Brett Walker, British Transport Police
3.05pm-3.45pm: Using open source techniques to identify missing people engaged in county lines criminality: Neil Smith and David Grimstead, Locate International
4pm: Day one finishes
Day Two
9.50am-10am: Welcome and introduction, Carol Jenkins, The Investigator
Session One: Latest research to inform and operational activity
10am-10.50am: Exclusive! Results of second strategic assessment into county lines in London, Rescue and Response project, Megan Hatton, Operational Manager for the project. Brent Council.
10.55am-11.45am: County lines and the transformation of middle drug markets within a local organised crime context, Dr Paul Andell, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Suffolk
11.50am-12.20pm: Break
Session Two: Innovative multi-agency working
12.20pm-12.50pm: The National County Lines Co-ordination Centre approach to county lines in partnerships with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service A/DI Kelly Gray, regional co-ordinator for Eastern Region Organised Crime Unit (ERSOU)
1pm-1.50pm: multi-agency efforts project to prevent cuckooing in vulnerable communities using a raft of measures including Partial Closure Orders and an innovative approach to assessing vulnerable young people, Inspector James Humphries and Owen Miller, Problem Solving Analyst, Oxford Problem Solving Team, Thames Valley Police
Session Three: Operational best practice from the frontline
2pm-2.50pm: A local, regional and national four-point plan to tackling County Lines in Merseyside, Det Supt, Andrew O’Connor, Preventative Policing, Merseyside Police
3pm: Conference finishes
Topics to be discussed include:
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Is your force a net importer or an exporter? How an understanding of both terms is the key to successful investigation of County Lines offences
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How Partial Closure Orders can prevent addresses being cuckooed and protect victims and the wider community
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How to use open source intelligence to locate missing young people who might be involved in County Lines
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A comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between the status of an offender who could be a suspect and victim and how this can affect your investigation. PLUS: a look at how to effectively engage with young people and assess their vulnerability
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A valuable insight into the structure of County Lines, how they operate and how investigators can dismantle their activity
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Why prevention is as important as reactive investigations
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A look at County Lines as a wider society issue and the importance of seeing it within the context of modern slavery/human trafficking issues
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Latest research from the Home Office Violence and Vulnerability Unit and the Rescue and Response project
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County Lines and the transformation of middle drug markets within a local organised crime context
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Identifying young victims who are travelling on the rail network
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Transforming County Lines investigations through analysis and data sharing
HOW TO BOOK
Cost: £299.50 (GBP) per delegate
Timings: Each day will start at 10.00 (BST) and finish at 16.00 (BST)
Booking: Please send the delegates name(s), email address and purchase order to info@the-investigator.co.uk or telephone +44(0)844 660 8707 for further information.
Payment can be made by PayPal/debit/credit card (corporate card fees apply + 3%).
Important disclaimer
Please note, we respectfully ask that only delegates who have paid for a place are permitted to attend our virtual conference. If you would like to attend as a group of more than ten delegates from the same force then please contact us for group rates.
Please refer to the College of Police Code of Ethics 2014 for guidance. Please see page 11 section 7, which states: ‘I will treat information with respect, and access or disclose it only in the proper course of my duties’
HEADLINE SPONSOR
Chorus Intelligence (previously Create Intelligence) was founded in 2011 with the aim of delivering a cost effective solution to the tsunami of data that Analysts and Investigators face in today’s environment.
Often, Analysts and Investigators spend the majority of their time collating, formatting and aligning multiple data sources. Meaning that highly skilled resources are being inefficiently tasked by preparing data instead of proactively performing analysis to gain valuable insight and intelligence to help decision makers make informed decisions.
Our first product, Chorus Analyse, is now the number 1 data cleansing and analysis tool used by UK law enforcement. Since its introduction, it has helped forces and agencies across the country to solve high profile cases and keep our streets safe. Chorus now offers a full suite of products that give Investigators and front line officers the tools they need in order to do their jobs efficiently and effectively.
To this day, Chorus has been deployed across the globe in the fight against terrorism, serious and organised crime, the exploitation of at risk and vulnerable people, and sophisticated financial frauds.
