Hi

As others say it is amazing the attitude / intruputation of the PPU to defined processes.

The last of my visits - end of last year- the accompanying officer who looks at my mobile and laptop (even though I have not any IT/internet etc offences) shows concern because of my "admin" habits built over 30 odd years as an IT consultant. 
I always clear my history on all devices including old messages and calls on my mobile for both security and operating purposes. However he is not happy and always drops a few words to see my reaction; which I ignore unless asked a direct question.
They have asked to do a software based check on my laptop and not to delete my history which after gaining a statement that they agree I do not have a legal requirement to do so, it is a one off and as a nicety statement "they promise they are not trying to catch me out". I agreed but also asked why do it then but gained no reply.

I say this not to humiliate the PPU who I believe have a horrendous role,  but really just to point out that their actions can give an air of positivity. In that they must have no other concerns so going to the extremes of searching OR their search of my laptop will show my behaviour to be better than the social normality and go on to support my case to have my SOPO/SOR discharged. 

Society suggests I must let go of all my expectations but I disagree, as whilst I have a voice, I have hope.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope is for tomorrow else what is left if you remove a mans hope.
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This forum supports these words, thank you Unlock and your contributors.

Although policing in general is all about catching and arresting people, I don't think that the PPUs are measured in the same manner. Their job is to prevent reoffending, by people who have already been caught. If a PPU officer were arresting more people, that would indicate a failure on their part, to prevent reoffending, which would arguably look bad for them. Whether they realise it or not, the PPU are employed to work with ex-offenders, to help those people manage their own risks.

Things that PPU are measured on, include the number of outstanding visits. Because of huge numbers on the register and big cuts to police numbers, most forces have built up a backlog of overdue visits. Reducing that backlog is now a priority for PPU teams and that is what will look good for them, at appraisal time.

do you really think they are trying to look good at appraisal time.?

If you are asking my opinion, rather than on the basis of cold hard facts. Yes. Yes I do. I have previously been involved in interfacing with the police (although not in the area of PPUs) and forces are so target driven that it is inevitable. Preventing an offence is notoriously hard to quantify and document and it looks exactly like doing nothing, but an arrest looks like they are doing something (whether or not it is justified) and which they can publicise, Each month I'd get presented with lovely charts of their activities, most of which had little effect on reducing crime. 

In the area of SHPO's the wording is usually so open to interpretation that a non-intent to offend easily becomes a gotcha, so you are at the mercy of individual officers rather than official policy, and the hugely divergent behaviours documented here show this to be the case. I don't think some of them can help themselves. The only slack I'll give them is that they only have to make one mistake and it's all over the papers.

Hi it is interesting how varied the actions of the PPO are across the country, I have been in three police areas, the first where I was sentenced and received my SOPO were very poor giving me an indefinite SOPO and restrictions not allowed for a internet only offence. However in the other two areas the PPO have been very pleasant inspecting my phone on one visit. Why is there such a difference across the country, do you really think they are trying to look good at appraisal time.?

Neil

Nearly at the half way point you mean?

I'm the same just under a year to go. 

Thanks for that.

I’m all new to this side of stuff, even though I’m almost over the halfway point of a 5 year SHPO.

I don’t even know much about my risk level, but I believe here the neighbourhood teams here are only managing low risk so I must be assessed as that.

I’ve never breached and they are always saying I’m doing great.

So was just very curious how different peoples experiences were.

I guess if they are not IT trained, they won't have access to the software. As for being offence related, I suppose it partly depends on that, partly on what your SHPO says you are not allowed to do and partly on the police's own level of concern about your risk.

Their biggest worry will be indications of the SHPO being breached, but they could also be fishing for clues as to any other offences that might have been committed.

Do these systems get used on everyone or just dependant on offence?

My offence was not related to images and I’ve never had any software mentioned to me.

I’m managed by the neighbourhood team so not even sure how much training they receive.

My laptop seems to get less attention than my mobile.

Monitoring software and ostriage are two seperate things. Monitoring software checks your device in real time and feeds things like screenshots back to the PPU, so if you typed in one of their watchwords, it would grab a screenshot of what you were doing at the time. It is very intrusive, because it is running in the background all the time. I offered to let them install it on my device but they said they only have a small number of licences, so they weren't going to bother.

Ostriage is basically taking a snapshot of what is on your device, at the time the PPU visit you. Sometimes they just do a manual check of my browsing history, but other times they insert a USB stick, which runs the ostriage software. As far as privacy is concerned, it probably comes under the very broad definition of checking or inspecting your devices, which is allowed by the SHPO.

It's intended for digital forensic investigators to use, when they arrest somebody and seize their devices. The idea is to let them inspect the device for anything naughty, on the spot, rather than having to take it to a lab.  The main focus is images (obviously), and certain keywords, but it hoovers up lots of other stuff which might be useful for an investigation. How much use it is to the PPU depends on their level of IT knowledge. Mine is only really interested in the images.

But by playing around with tools like osforensics, I was able to see what they see. It can be a real eye opener, to find out just how much data they can extract.