Case Study - Coventry

Arrest protocol targets fly-tippers

The Fly-Tipping Arrest Protocol is a partnership between Coventry Council and the West Midlands Police to bring fly-tippers to justice. It sends a strong message to suspects that fly-tipping is a serious offence, and will deter them from committing offences.

The development of the protocol has fostered good relations, as the police not only assist with fly-tipping but now have a stronger understanding of environmental crime. The protocol has also supported their Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership working.

The protocol involves a regular case review with the police, allowing officers to trace the background history of the offender. This reduces health and safety risks to council officers, and allows the police and local authority to work together if offenders are wanted for other offences. The police take the prosecution along with other offences, if they have sufficient evidence to do so.

In normal circumstances the local authority takes prosecutions and if the police are taking action against the other persons then they will add our case on.

A successful test case

The protocol sends out a message that fly-tipping is not acceptable and people invited for interview are always told they will be arrested if they do not attend.

"The team has the ability to target the offenders who evade prosecution by ignoring invites to interview from local authority officers. The team has already gained sufficient evidence for prosecution on the first test case of the protocol" - Joy Adams, a Principal Environmental Health Officer

So far the protocol has gathered sufficient evidence for one prosecution and it is hoped that this will deter the person from repeating the offence. Another prosecution is in the pipeline.

Encourages enforcement

Thanks to the partnership, the team has been able to interview more people regarding the offences and through the long-term implementation of the project it is hoped that fly-tipping in Coventry will actively be reduced. The protocol also increases the local authority BV199d score as it encourages more enforcement action.

"By developing our relations with the police we have been able to gain support on other initiatives. For example, our team has provided training to the PCSOs to issue fixed penalty tickets for littering. We have also enabled the team to circulate information through street-based staff regarding environmental crime, for example fly-tipping tyres and suspect vehicles" - Joy Adams

Initiating the scheme

The last few years have seen a change in the law regarding the disposal of waste products. In addition, there have been significant legislative changes in respect of police powers of arrest without warrant.

Public protection staff engaged in any joint operations will have received training in health and safety, conflict resolution and familiarisation with custody procedures.

The Fly-Tipping Arrest Protocol involves police intervention at a stage when sufficient evidence has been gathered and when several other attempts at communication with the suspect have proved fruitless. If the police consider it necessary to do so, they can therefore now arrest and interview the suspected offender.

Problems in the past

"Historically problems have been encountered when council officials have tried to interview those suspected of committing such offences. It is now felt that the recently amended power to arrest could be of considerable assistance in this regard" - Joy Adams

Persons ‘other than a constable’ also have a power of arrest, but the circumstances in which such an arrest would be appropriate are relatively limited. It would be best practice to involve a constable at the earliest opportunity so that he or she could carry out the arrest and assume responsibility for proceedings thereafter.

In view of the new legislation and its effect on powers of arrest, Joy has found it apparent that police intervention is a valuable asset in the detection and apprehension of offenders for the offences of fly-tipping.

Expanding the scheme

The project will be reviewed after a year with a view to being implemented with other local authorities throughout the West Midlands. The scheme could also be expanded to other environmental crimes.

"We are hoping to share the information on the results of this year’s pilot, and encourage other local authorities in the West Midlands and throughout the country to adopt similar working relationships with the police" - Joy Adams

Coventry Council can provide case study material and workshops to explain the benefits of partnership working with your local police, as well as an insight into other working practices with the police such as their street-based personal/police tasking programme.

The protocol will be subject to a joint review on a yearly basis.

For more information, please contact Joy Adams at joy.adams@coventry.gov.uk