How we do it
Our Faculty Approach
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is part of UK law enforcement and as such can apply the full range of policing powers in tackling the sexual abuse of children. But the organisation is very different in its set up not least because of the high volume of specialists who work alongside police officers but also because of the faculty approach that underpins our structure.
The Intelligence Faculty manages the flow of information across the organisation and to external agencies such as local UK forces or international authorities. Such intelligence is translated into assessment reports in line with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. and then disseminated as appropriate.
But there is much more than assessment and dissemination. Intelligence is researched and developed and specialist units are working with local and international forces to manage the risk posed by sex offenders.
Similarly the CEOP Centre works to locate perpetrators and track registered offenders who have failed to comply with their notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
This includes tracking offenders who travel abroad by either disrupting or preventing their travel, disseminating intelligence to international forces and specifically targeting offenders while they remain overseas.
The Harm Reduction Faculty is multi faceted. A Safer-by-Design focus works to deliver market intelligence, liaising with the technological industry and fine-tuning guidelines that look to minimise the possibility of present and future technology increasing the risk of sexual abuse to children.
At the same time, raining, education and public awareness specialists work together to raise the knowledge, skills and understanding of parents, children, young people and a wide and diverse stakeholder community including dedicated skills training for those working with sex offenders.
The international team takes the overall approach on to a much wider stage, working with overseas authorities and specialist agencies to share good practice, enhance tracking capabilities and minimise the risk caused by the global internet.
The Operations Faculty breaks the mould of traditional policing working with forces to minimise volumes, risk and impact and providing a law enforcement response that seamlessly connects the online and offline environments.
Specialist policing focus is placed on issues such as organised crime profiteering from the publishing or distribution of images, support for local forces in areas such as computer forensics and covert investigations as well as working with international authorities to maximise policing powers.
The Operations Faculty also incorporates the UK's only national victim identification programme which works solely to focus on identifying child victims of online abuse backed up by a sophisticated database and cutting edge software to support investigators in sharing any intelligence that can be gathered from seized images.