Cambridgeshire Constabulary has launched its first podcast series to encourage crime reporting and raise awareness of lesser understood offences.

Cambridgeshire wanted to follow other forces and “experiment with using podcasts to communicate with the public”. 

Cambs Cops: Our Stories, hosted by a member of the force’s Corporate Communications team Tim Goddard, covers subjects such as slavery, domestic abuse, serious sexual offences and the management of registered sex offenders.

It aims to encourage reporting of under-reported crimes such as domestic abuse and serious sexual assaults by using first-hand stories from survivors.

A Cambridgeshire spokesperson also said the force knows there are some areas covered in the series that they haven’t talked about extensively before and there is “probably a gap in public knowledge”, such as management of registered sex offenders or modern day slavery.

Deputy Head of Corporate Communications Shelley Spratt said: “By providing an open and honest insight into the force’s work and the complex issues it deals with, we hope to reach new audiences and inspire people to report crimes and information.

“A number of episodes cover areas we have never previously talked about and we hope, as a result, people have a greater understanding of those areas of work.

“We also tackle some particularly sensitive topics where we hear first-hand the impact crimes have had on victims, with some really inspirational survivor stories.

“We hope that by hearing these, people who have faced similar situations and not felt able or willing to report their crimes, will be encouraged to do so."

She added: “Episodes are around ten minutes and provide a snapshot of force life in a way listeners can access at an opportunity convenient to them.”

West Mercia and West Midlands also use podcasts to communicate to the public.

All episodes are now live on the force’s website and YouTube channel and are also available on Podbean, Google and Apple.

The force say they will complete an evaluation of the series to understand who their audience is and get feedback on each episode.

If the series proves popular with the public they’ll consider doing a second one.

The force will also track its impact in terms of levels of reported crime and intelligence and views on the supportive pages of their website.