Policing vulnerability: learning from the Sex Worker Liaison Officer role in West Yorkshire Police

What we did

The study comprised the following strands:

• Co-production workshops with online and street sex workers as well as a sex worker collective, to support development of research tools and analysis of findings
• Analysis of National Ugly Mugs (NUM) self-report scheme data for Leeds
• Analysis of West Yorkshire Police data on outcomes in SWLO cases
• Interviews and focus groups with 20 key informant stakeholders including police officers, sex work support professionals and representatives of community groups
• Interviews with ten sex workers who identified as female including indoor, street and migrant sex workers
• Ethnographic insights generated through shadowing of SWLO, diary-keeping by the SWLO and regular meetings with stakeholders
• Arts-based workshops with around 15 to 20 sex workers, gathering views on the SWLO role and co-producing resources to highlight key findings. This element was undertaken in partnership with Basis Yorkshire and artist Lucy Barker.

Key findings

• The role of SWLO has major benefits in how sex workers’ vulnerability to crime can be mitigated by local police forces.
• The SWLO plays a vital role in building trust with sex workers and ensuring more crimes committed against this group enter the criminal justice system, although considerable barriers to reporting remain.
• If approached with due care and consideration of sex workers’ perspectives, the role provides significant ‘intelligence value’ for investigating serious crimes, offering an alternative approach to resource-intensive surface-level displacement of anti-social behaviour.
• Increased reporting is an important first step, but in terms of delivering ‘good outcomes’ for sex workers in the criminal justice system, the SWLO’s role is limited without similar improvement in investigations and prosecutions. At present, most crime reports result in ‘no further action’.

• Whilst beneficial in certain respects, concentration of good practice in responding to sex workers could also be limiting, with sustainability a key risk where that good practice is centred on one officer.
• The effectiveness of the SWLO role is highly dependent on the local and national blend of enforcement against sex workers and support for this group as victims of crime. The role offers a useful model for police responses to those who are vulnerable to crime and also positioned in law as criminal.
• There were benefits in the purpose and duties of the SWLO role being approached flexibly, but core tasks, priorities, responsibilities, and outcomes could be standardised further to enhance effectiveness.
• Concerns about street sex work often drive SWLO priorities. Resourcing and governance arrangements should enable the role to operate in ways that are aligned with the evidence base on sex worker vulnerability.

Note: images used

The project images here with quotes were co-produced with sex workers and interdisciplinary artist Lucy Barker. These images are available for police use and adaptation, please contact Kate Brown or Sharon Grace. Please feel free to get in touch with us for further information on any aspect of the project or associated documentation.