1,000 South Yorkshire sex offenders tracked

TEAM set up to manage serious offenders in the community is helping to make South Yorkshire a safer place, according to a new report.

MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement) teams in England and Wales were established eight years ago to provide more robust management of serious offenders in communities, for example those on licence having been released from prison.

The teams are made up of police, probation, prison service and other relevant agencies working together to effectively manage risk to the public.

Senior officers said that the South Yorkshire team's 2008/09 report had concluded that agencies across the county were working together well to manage more than 1,000 serious offenders.

South Yorkshire Chief Probation Officer Roz Brown said: "The results highlighted by this year's MAPPA report show that agencies in South Yorkshire are working together effectively to protect the public."

Det Supt Adrian Teague, South Yorkshire Police's lead officer on Intelligence and Public Protection, said: "The protection of the public in South Yorkshire is the number one priority for South Yorkshire Police.

"We take this responsibility extremely seriously and have invested in MAPPA to ensure that trained and skilled resources are devoted to this sensitive and complex area of policing.

"The record of MAPPA in South Yorkshire is a good one, with the risks that exist being managed through effective collaboration between the key agencies, 24/7.

"That said, there is clearly never any room for complacency and as such South Yorkshire Police will continue to play our part to ensure that our communities are safe and protected."

Evidence from the report on the successes of the arrangements includes the increase in the number of Sexual Offender Prevention Orders (SOPOs) imposed.

These orders are designed as a deterrent to violent or sexual offenders, prohibiting them from entering specific places (for example, loitering around playgrounds), with a maximum of five years' imprisonment if the orders are breached.

South Yorkshire sex offender numbers up.