Education, Children and Young People Committee
Police Scotland submission for Drink and Needle Spiking Inquiry
Submission from Police Scotland
Police Scotland
26 January 2022
Drink and Needle Spiking Incidents
1. Background
1.1 Reports of spiking are not new and typically increase slightly during the month of September. This is attributed to University and Colleges commencing their first term and in particular coincides with Fresher’s Week. Incidents of suspected spiking are recorded as either drugging or administering a substance for sexual purposes and until recently, have involved the spiking of drinks only.
1.2 In mid-October 2021, following reports in the media and social media of spiking by injection, public concern understandably increased. This resulted in an increase in reporting to police services across the UK, including Police Scotland.
1.3 This increased public concern and reporting has come in the midst of a national discussion in respect of women’s safety and calls for more to be done to keep women and girls safe. The Police Scotland message focuses on the importance for women and girls to both feel safe and be safe, when in public spaces.
1.4 Given the increased public concern, Police Scotland implemented a Gold Command structure led by Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie under the name Operation Precept. The purpose of this was to effectively co-ordinate activity across Scotland, to engage with strategic partners and to contribute to the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) Gold Command structure (DCC Jason Harwin, NPCC Drugs Lead) and response, from a Scottish perspective.
1.5 Weekly Gold Group meetings are chaired by ACC Ritchie comprising key internal partners, to allow for up to date information and intelligence to be shared between business areas.
1.6 Weekly Silver Group meetings are attended by key internal partners as well as Scottish Ambulance Service, Public Health Scotland and NHS24, allowing for up to date information to be shared between these agencies.
1.7 A wider partnership meeting also forms part of the command structure and draws membership from across the licensed trade and night time economy, student representation from the National Union of Students and third sector representation from Victim Support Scotland, Rape Crisis and Crew2000. This meeting provides a platform for information sharing, consistent messaging and for members to raise concerns, which facilitates an improved holistic understanding of the scale and impact of spiking, ultimately informing how best to respond both as individual agencies/organisations and collectively.
2. Size and Scale of The Issue
2.1 Since mid-October 2021, Police Scotland have introduced a bespoke Incident tagging system for all suspected spiking incidents. This is maintained by the Contact, Command and Control (C3) business area and facilitates appropriate identification, review and management of reported incidents of spiking.
2.2 Advice and guidance has been sought and obtained from Crime Registrars with regards to crime recording and this has been circulated to all Police staff. If a spiking crime is confirmed, a Crime Report will be raised and a detailed investigation is undertaken led by a Senior Investigating Officer. Following investigation, it may be that officers are able to confirm that no crime has taken place, resulting in the Crime Report being marked as such.
2.3 As a result, the numbers of both incidents and crimes change on a daily basis and it is therefore challenging to provide accurate statistics for either on a day to day basis.
2.4 Significant analytical work has been undertaken on a weekly basis in an effort to understand the situation and emerging issue. This has revealed the following:
• Police Scotland received its highest report over the Halloween weekend;
• Reports have week on week significantly reduced since then;
• The majority of reports have been in the larger cities, namely Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh (significant night time economies and student populations);
• The majority of victims are young women, aged between 18-26 years;
• A large proportion involve alcohol;
• Voluntary consumption of illicit drugs is also a factor;
• Very few cases involve secondary offending, either sexual or acquisitive crime;
• Very little intelligence is known regarding the offender profile;
• The motivation of such instances remains unknown.
2.5 The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is also analysing national information with the help of a National Crime Agency (NCA) Criminal Psychologist, to try and understand the motivations behind this phenomenon. As previously described, Police Scotland is a member of the NPCC and involved in meetings relating to VAWG and Spiking, enabling us to gain best insights and good practice, as well as share knowledge.
2.6 Of note, NPCC analysis across England and Wales is showing a similar reduction in crimes and incidents as seen by Police Scotland, including similar locus and victim profiles and lack of information regarding offenders and motivation.
2.7 The ‘NPCC Drink Spiking Meeting’ for partners, chaired by DCC Rachel Kearton (Suffolk Constabulary), comprises membership from Police Forces throughout the country, the licensed trade and night time economy, Public Health England and third sector representatives. This meeting focusses on prevention measures, police updates and consistent communications messaging. The Police Scotland Communications Toolkit was recently shared with the Secretariat to disseminate to members. Another meeting of this group will be scheduled in early January.
3. Police Scotland Response
3.1 Under the Gold Command structure, Police Scotland co-ordinates its response to ensure consistent, high quality and timely investigations with quality controls to enhance our ability to identify patterns of reporting and offending. The structure encompasses both investigative and prevention strategies.
3.2 Of particular focus is the delivery of sensitive and appropriate prevention activity and communications. This focusses on safer spaces and perpetrator behaviour, rather than placing the focus and onus on potential victims. A Corporate Communications toolkit has been shared with Divisional Commanders, for them to disseminate as they see fit externally, to provide consistency and support to partners, including licensed premises, with the ability to signpost to third party organisations. The toolkit has also been shared with the Partner’s meeting group to promote consistency in messaging (Appendix A) for dissemination as members see fit.
3.3 Wider engagement has been led by the Partnerships Prevention and Community Wellbeing (PPCW) portfolio. This has included work with health partnerships to ensure wider understanding of the issue and support evidence recovery. Links have also been made with other key partners including higher education, the licensing trade and Local Authorities, as well as the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. There has also been a refresh and reinvigoration of the ByStander Awareness work. PPCW Division and Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU) worked together to add information specific to spiking to the current ByStander Awareness Package.
3.4 The Partners meeting outlined above is also held to promote continued engagement with relevant stakeholders, to complement the Gold and Silver meetings. The Partner’s meeting allows Police Scotland to respond to concerns raised by stakeholders. An example being concern raised by students that a victim of spiking may be hesitant to report the incident if they had voluntarily taken recreational drugs prior to being spiked, for fear of this being discovered during the course of an investigation. A document was prepared by Police Scotland and shared with the National Union of Students, which reassures potential victims that their report will be taken seriously, investigated fully and that Police will be investigating the crime they are reporting (Appendix B).
3.5 Forensic expertise, guidance and prioritisation via SPA Forensic Services has provided the opportunity to expedite the analysis of specimens and develop a better understanding of the drugs involved, to review and enable appropriate response and prevention activities. This work will also be incorporated into the wider Police Scotland Violence Reduction Strategy.
3.6 It is recognised that all genders may be affected by drink spiking or spiking by injection and the Project Vigilant framework has been adapted accordingly.
3.7 Scottish Government previously held round table discussions with stakeholders, Universities and representatives from the Night Time Economies to consider wider policy and ways to create safer spaces, in which Police Scotland fully participated.
4. Conclusion
4.1 Police Scotland takes the recent increase in reports of spiking very seriously and recognises the impact this can have on our communities. The establishment of a Gold Command structure and the activity outlined above, is designed to reinforce a professional, victim focused, investigative response, whilst providing consistent messaging and reassurance to report such incidents. Police Scotland will continue to engage with partners to understand the full impact of spiking and to address concerns, ensuring that a preventative message continues throughout the year and is reiterated in advance of Freshers’ Week 2022.