PW_4_2021

Professional Development

Lincoln Award 2021 : managing violent offenders on St. Helena Jonathan Clark , Durham Branch In 2011 I joined Durham Constabulary as a Special Constable working in Bishop Auckland, where I became an IPA member. After a few years, in 2014, I began considering options for the next stage of my career. I emailed several British Overseas Territory police services to see if they had any vacancies as a Police Constable. After a few days the Deputy Chief of Police for St Helena emailed me, and within three weeks I had a successful telephone interview. A t the end of May I flew to Ascension Island from RAF Brize Norton. After a week on the island, I got on the RMS St Helena (one of the last Royal Mail Ships in the world) which took three days to Whilst in Durham I completed training within the Offender Management Unit. I attended home visits with the Offender Managers, seeing how they ensure offenders are not committing further offences, or had issues in their life that might lead to further offending.

reach St Helena. I began on St Helena as a Constable, working shifts on the sub-tropical island, then after three years I moved to CID. I then took the opportunity to become Manager of Violent and Sexual Offenders for the island. The training for my new role was completed with Cleveland Police in early 2019, which was the first time I had been back to the UK since leaving in 2014. As the Manager of Violent and Sexual Offenders, I work to mitigate the risk posed by convicted sexual and violent offenders. Even with a population of just 4500; child abuse, sexual exploitation and domestic violence are an issue we deal with far too often. I applied for, and was given, the Lincoln Award in early 2021, to attend a work-related conference, and gain experience about my role within a UK Police Service. In July 2021 I gained valuable experience with Durham Constabulary’s Offender Management Unit. In August I attended the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders (IATSO) conference (via video link) which was held in Germany.

As a result of the training, I recommended new software to assist the police on St Helena, along with implementing current best practice in my own work. My virtual attendance at the IATSO conference gave me further insight into the different types of offenders, offences, their causes and the effects on victims and society. There were a number of seminars that were particularly useful to me, these included but were not limited to, Distorted Beliefs linked to Sexual Offending by Ross M. Bartels, Sexual Offending in Adolescent Males: Effects of Parental Attachment, Social Experiences, and Sexuality by Michael H. Miner and Self-control Training for Consumers of Child Pornography by Thorsten Klemm, all of which will assist me in my role as the Offender Manager on St Helena in the coming years.

The Lincoln Award gave me the funds to support my attendance and development in two crucial areas to my policing role. I can’t recommend applying for it highly enough. Lincoln Award 2021/2022 Martin Turner , Vice President (Professional) Jonathan’s engaging article about his role on the island of St Helena, and how the Lincoln Award benefitted him, is a timely reminder that you can apply for financial support towards self-development as an IPA member. T he Lincoln Award allows members to apply for up to £1000 in funding towards a course, seminar, training package or similar. This can be personal or professional development, and is paid upon completion of the development and submission of an article for Police World and social media usage. Please see the relevant section of the Members Area on our website or email me with any questions – vpturner@ipa-uk.org

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POLICE WORLD Vol 66 No.4, 2021