Suffolk Probation Area is due to tap into a national database designed to protect the public from the country’s most high risk offenders.
The Violent offender and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) is a national database aimed at enabling probation, police and prison services to share information, risk assessments and intelligence about high risk offenders.
The database has been installed at Suffolk Probation. Public protection staff are being trained to use it, with the aim of going live by Spring.
Information accessible on the database includes colour photographs of offenders and records of identifying marks, such as tattoos.
It is the first time all agencies have shared an IT system. It should improve Suffolk Probation Area’s ability to respond more effectively to changes in circumstances that impact on an offender’s risk assessment and will inform decisions about how to manage that risk.
ViSOR will support the existing Suffolk Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) in place to manage the county’s most high risk offenders.
Suffolk MAPPA manager Tim Sykes, of Suffolk Probation Area, said: “Bringing probation, police and prison together with one common database to manage high risk offenders should make us more effective and enhance protection of the public.”
Suffolk Probation Area has appointed a ViSOR administrator to keep the database up-to-date with information about offenders managed in Suffolk.
