Nottingham Police Advise Dutch Officers On Dealing With Prostitution

3 April 2019, 14:10 | Updated: 5 April 2019, 14:05

Officers from Nottingham's Prostitution Task Force shared best practice and advice with overseas officers from Holland.

The task force welcomed partners from Assen - a city and municipality in the north east of Holland.

Assen's municipality has recently drafted a new policy in relation to unregulated sex work in their city, particularly in relation to residential properties being used as brothels, and wanted to see how our team in Nottingham deal with brothels and the issues relating to them.

Over the last few months the task force has been in e-mail contact with law enforcement officers and policy makers from Assen and this latest visit, hosted on Monday and Tuesday last week, was arranged as part of a broader, ongoing project.

The task force, which has been running since 2004, is made up of one sergeant, two police constables and a PCSO. Their aim is to crack down on the associated anti-social behaviour caused by sex work in the area, as well as safeguarding the sex workers and supporting them with the help of other agencies. 

Sergeant Paul Whitehead, from the task force, said: "It was a real privilege to be able to help and advise officers from overseas in how to implement their new way of working in Assen.

"Martin, their enforcement officer, followed our team's activities over two full evening shifts. We attended seven brothel premises with him and also took him to the Arboretum area on both evenings to give him an insight into the on-street sex trade here in Nottingham.　

"This kind of visit makes me extremely proud of what the team has achieved over the last two years while I have been the supervisor, given that other countries have heard about our work and best practice and want to visit us."　

He added: "The day after our Dutch friends had visited, we welcomed officers from Bedfordshire Police to the team. They were interested in our work following a discussion at this year’s NPCC conference in January and wanted to look at the work we do around on-street sex work and prostitution."

John Killick, the Bedfordshire Police sergeant visiting the team, said: "There's a lot to be discussed back in Luton and a lot of very good points to take back to our bosses. It was a great insight into the work of the team and the thoughts and feelings it has around the on and off-street sex trade."