Cumbria Constabulary are highlighting their unseen police work to protect vulnerable people in the community.

The focus of the ongoing Operation MOVIE 2 campaign has moved to the invaluable work of the Constabulary’s MOSOVO department.

MOSOVO - standing for Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent offenders - is a specialist department within the Public Protection Unit.

Comprised of police officers, detectives and police staff investigators, they are responsible for the robust and complex management of registered sex offenders (RSO) and violent offenders (VO) in the community.

The focus has also moved to MAPPA (multi-agency public protection arrangements), that manages the most complex and high-risk offenders in the community.

MAPPA meetings are held regularly to ensure an offender is consistently and robustly monitored across all agencies.

Risk Assessments are carried out and a coordinated Risk Management Plan is created or reviewed with input from all agencies, which the police and probation offender managers ensure is being delivered.

All registered sex offenders, managed by MOSOVO, are subject to several Notification Requirements by law, for as long as they remain registerable, such as informing the police of all foreign travel, and if they've ben in a house with a child for over 12 hours.

Last year in Cumbria, 17 MOSOVO managed offenders were cautioned or convicted for failing to comply with an element of their agreed notification requirements.

Detective Inspector Martin Hodgson said: “The required level of monitoring isn’t a job that can be done by one service alone.

"It is only through providers from every aspect of a person’s life, being involved, and feeding information into MAPPA, that we can, so effectively, manage our offenders.

“Our partner agencies help us to make reoffending both difficult and unappealing.

“There are offenders who break the conditions of their court order or their Notification Requirements, but they are monitored so closely, that when we find out about it, we put that offender back before the courts.

“Thankfully, the majority of offenders under MOSOVO do not go on to reoffend.”

Lisa Thornton, Head of Probation, Cumbria, said: “The partnership work between police, probation and other critical agencies in Cumbria is impressive in its approach and culture.

"The teams work consistently and collaboratively, to join up their work to protect the public, and to make sure that the people we supervise are robustly managed on release and supported to engage in meaningful rehabilitation.

"This campaign and its focus on the work of these teams, is positive for allowing the public the opportunity to see the work we do to protect them.”