Speaker:

Jennie Read joined Essex Police in 2002 as a civilian member of staff and has worked in various roles. She started her current role as Gangs and County Lines Officer in August 2019 and prior to that worked within the Exploitation Team to safeguard primarily High risk victims of exploitation. Prior to that she worked within the Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Unit again working with High risk victims in order to safeguard them.

The input will include the following:

• Attractions, behaviours and the risk posed to children and young people regarding gang and county lines activity

• The grooming process and the gang structure explaining each tier.

• How Covid has had an impact along with the impact on the county in general.

• How drill music has an impact

• Girls and gangs

• An interactive section around terminology used by gangs.

• Cuckooing and how gangs target vulnerable people in order to use their properties as a base to distribute drugs

• How to report concerns regarding all of the above