New guidance for officers on sharing information with Immigration Enforcement

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Immigration Crime, Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer, said: “We have recently set out a clear position on exchanging information about victims of crime with immigration enforcement to encourage a consistent approach across the country.  Chief constables have endorsed this position and are amending local policies accordingly.

“When someone reports a crime police will always, first and foremost, treat them as a victim.

“There are occasions when officers will need to carry out police database checks on people involved in reporting a crime. This can be for a number of reasons like informing officers on how best to protect a victim or to help progress an investigation. Police will never check a database only to establish a victim’s immigration status.

“If an officer becomes aware that a victim of crime is suspected of being an illegal immigrant it is right that they should raise this with immigration enforcement officers and not take any immigration enforcement action themselves. Throughout the police should treat them as a victim of crime.

“The police priority is to protect victims and investigate crime, and we are extremely careful about doing anything to deter victims from reporting to us.”