Hello,

Last week, I joined Sussex Police and partners to celebrate 10 years of Veritas Justice, a unique, Sussex-based organisation providing support, advocacy and advice for individuals affected by stalking as well as training for professionals.

The day was a great opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Veritas, highlighting that, when I first supported the organisation in 2014, Veritas had expected their pilot would help around 40 local people in its first year when, in fact, they actually helped 220.

I'm delighted to continue to financially support the service which has now provided stalking advocacy to over 6,500 people. The conference was host to a variety of speakers including:

• Sussex Police, who highlighted the work of their specialist Complex Domestic Abuse and Stalking Unit.
• Interventions Alliance presented information about their Stalking Perpetrator Programme, funded by my office, explaining the need for perpetrators to understand their obsessive actions through 12 x one-to-one sessions, resulting in reduced risks for victims.
• Buddi tags, who demonstrated how the tagging of stalking perpetrators works and how beneficial the tags can be in allowing the police to have regular updates on an offender’s locations as well as giving victims peace of mind, knowing their stalker is not nearby.

We also heard from two survivors of stalking who courageously spoke about the life-changing support provided by Veritas. One survivor finished her talk by acknowledging that, whilst good work is ongoing, there are still “systemic issues when it comes to tackling stalking” adding that “with the right support, survivors can regain control of their lives.”

The survivors comments were very timely as, earlier this week, the Government announced new measures to help survivors re-gain that control. You can read more about this below and you can watch a video about the conference on my website.

On Wednesday, the Government announced new measures to better protect victims of stalking.

They will now have the ‘Right to Know’, meaning police will be able to release the identity of an online stalker at the earliest opportunity. Before, victims of online stalking did not know their stalker’s identity due to the anonymity afforded by the online space. This meant that a stalker might, for example, sit next to their victim on public transport or work with them - and the victim wouldn't know.

Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) will also become more widely available, banning stalkers from going within a certain distance of their victims or contacting them. This is a measure that is not new to Sussex - it's been nearly five years since Sussex Police secured the very first SPO in the country and we've continued to implement this protocol as a default in relevant cases. 

I know from personal experience that stalking is a pernicious crime. I’ve said before, we can’t expect positive change if we keep doing the same things so I welcome the new measures announced by Government to help victims feel protected and to assist them in re-gaining control of their lives.

I spoke about the new measures with ITV's Kit Bradshaw on Tuesday, you can watch the interview on X.

Katy Bourne OBE
Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner