Child sexual exploitation research lands Danielle Williams international accolade

Danielle Williams, crime intelligence analyst at Rochdale Police Station

Danielle Williams, a Greater Manchester Police intelligence analyst, has been presented with national and international awards for her work in profiling child sexual exploitation.

Ms Williams, crime intelligence analyst at Rochdale Police Station, received the commendation at the Association of Crime and Intelligence Analysts Conference in Manchester in February for outstanding achievements and innovative development in the field of crime and intelligence analysis for her work around identifying incidents of CSE.

She won the national award for her work in problem profiling child sexual exploitation in Rochdale. This accolade has led to her winning the IALEIA Award for Excellence, which she will be formally recognised for at a presentation on 7 May at the IALEIA/LEIU conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

Speaking about the award, Ms Williams said: “I was delighted to have won, especially because of the outstanding calibre of nominations. To receive the international award too was such a shock but it was amazing news and a great achievement.

“I am astounded that the work that I have carried out in Rochdale has now been recognised on a global level. The analysis I have undertaken has established Rochdale as a centre of best practice when dealing with the issue of CSE means that we are now identifying children at risk much earlier and hopefully preventing some problems before they arise.”

The work carried out by Ms Williams resulted in the development of a Rochdale Division problem profile. It is being used as a template for the Force and is hoped to improve learning and consistency even further, beyond what has already been achieved by Project Phoenix.

The problem profile for Rochdale was the first of its kind, containing a 108-page report with toolkits for assessing victims and vulnerable people and disruption and prevention tactics. It was delivered to the Rochdale Safeguarding Board and a number of recommendations were adopted as a result.

Ms Williams added: “These awards are a great recognition of some of the ground-breaking work that has been carried out by GMP into identifying victims and perpetrators. This is through simple tactics such as understanding risk factors and common associations which allow us to be able to flag concerns around individuals and locations sooner.

“There have been significant changes and learning made since the analysis was carried out and I am immensely proud of everything we have achieved. Mistakes were made in the past but this work is proof of how much we have evolved and we will always strive to look for new opportunities to improve even further. Children and young people are at the heart of everything that we do because every child deserves a childhood - and safeguarding children is everybody’s business.”

GMP Sergeant Michael Rees, intelligence coordinator based at Rochdale Division said: “Needless to say we are all immensely proud of Danielle and her achievements and she is now in great demand to speak at other conferences around the country.”

Following on from her win Ms Williams will collect the award and present her findings at the International Conference in Arizona, United States in April.

The news comes as Sunrise - the dedicated CSE team in Rochdale - receives the Unsung Hero Award for Working Together. The award, one of four awarded on the evening of 18 March 2015 recognised and rewarded the team for a significant, on-going contribution to tackling child sexual exploitation and acknowledged the multi-agency approach to achieving positive change.