A DETECTIVE hopes the publicity of his team being nominated for an international policing award will help highlight the issue of human trafficking and modern slavery.

The East Lancashire Exploitation Team narrowly missed out on a prize at the 2019 World Class Policing Awards held at The Grosvenor Hotel in London.

The team of seven were nominated for their outstanding and innovative investigation into modern slavery and human trafficking, with their work aimed at tackling sex trafficking via proactive welfare checks on sex workers in brothels across East Lancashire to ensure their safety.

Operations Ludlow and Magician saw 16 men and one woman, collectively jailed for a total of 76 years. Following that sentencing police released extracts of a diary compiled by one of the victims, which told harrowing tale of life working as a prostitute.

Det Sgt Stu Peall, who leads the exploitation team, said: “It was nice for us to get recognition. Whether we had won or not, the main thing for me is the publicity that just being nominated for the award brings to the work we are doing. Hopefully it can help highlight the fect there are women all over the country being exploited, who need to be identified and supported.

“It was nice to be nominated. What I said to the team was when you look at the across the board we were the smallest team nominated and the only one nominated for human trafficking. For me that says we are the best in the country at what we do.

“What was highlighted at the award was the innovative way we run our investigations. Where a lot of forces react to women coming forward and saying they are being exploited we actively seek it out. Even if the victims don’t react and say they are being exploited we still prosecute the offenders.”

Det Sgt Peall thanked his team for their constant hard work and the force's senior management for backing their innovative ideas.

Chief Constable Andy Rhodes, who attended the award ceremony with the exploitation team, said: “I commend the staff in the East Lancashire Exploitation Team who worked so diligently to ensure that the people responsible for the crimes identified in these operations were brought to justice.”

Police and crime commissioner Clive Grunshaw added: “I am proud of the team for making a significant impact in tackling this type of exploitation in Lancashire.”

Among the winners were Bedfordshire Police for a highly-complex and successful three-year cyber-investigation; New Zealand Police for their Mobility Project that has cut bureaucracy; Norfolk Constabulary for Operation Moonshot which used ANPR and other intelligence tools to disrupt criminality and prevent crime; Queensland Police for its tactical first aid training programme that has trained 11,000 frontline officers; Wiltshire Police for their response to the unprecedented Novichock attack on residents; and Devon and Cornwall Police for Operation Encompass that seeks to support children by ensuring schools are aware when a pupil has been exposed to domestic abuse.