Family Liaison Officer
Family liaison officers (FLOs) are now involved in almost every high-profile police investigation and most people would have heard mention of them in news reports. But how many people actually know what these highly-specialised officers do? Neil Franklin spoke to a Cambridgeshire police FLO to find out.
It's a job few of us would envy - entering a grief-stricken family desperately trying to come to terms with the death of a loved one.
But the part played by the family liaison officer (FLO) is considered crucial to most major inquiries by police forces nationwide. So what makes a role that would have seemed alien, and possibly even pointless, to police officers working only a decade ago so significant?
DC Kim Bowen, who has been a FLO for seven of her 17 years as a police officer, has seen first-hand the importance of the role in cases including the July 7 London bombings, the accidental death of a man in Fenstanton earlier this year and the killing of Gary Graham in Peterborough in June last year.
The 36-year-old detective said it was not just about comforting words and building bridges, but also gathering information that could prove instrumental to solving an investigation.
Not pink and fluffy
Kim, who has worked in Peterborough and Cambridge but spent the past two years in the major investigations team at force headquarters, said: "The family is always vital to any investigation. Before FLOs existed, there was a lot of information that would fall by the wayside, but it is now an exchange of information.
"It is not pink and fluffy - it's about helping the family through their trauma. When you are being trained you are told it is a, 'big I for Investigation and a little s for support', as we are not trained counsellors. However we are able to put families in contact with specialist agencies which can provide support."
The gravity of the role is clear in Kim's introduction to the family - "We are police officers, we are investigators, we are here to work as a link between you and the inquiry and we are here to gather information."
Focusing on the victim
This information will centre on the victim - their lifestyle, who they associated with, hobbies, if they had any concerns or problems and why they were at the location at the time of the incident.
Kim continued: "Then we give them (the family) the information as we know it. You have to choose your words very carefully because the family will listen to every word. We have to be honest and upfront, but we can't always tell them everything or we may not know all of the information.
"Withholding information from the family is unusual and is only done following careful consideration by the senior investigating officer."
Other issues which may need addressing immediately include the formal identification of the victim - and who will carry this out - and possible media interest - the family will be kept informed of all press releases.
FLOs try to get the information to the family before anything is released to the media, which can be difficult if something is broadcast on the local radio.
Kim said initial reactions from families varied but were generally positive.
"For a time I was a FLO on cold case reviews in Northern Ireland. They had cases that were 30 years old and yet some families had never had a police officer come to their house and explain what was happening.
"The feelings and emotions were like it happened yesterday. Some were very positive because they wanted information but there were others who were still very hostile.
"Whenever a FLO is deployed, you are entering a family at the worst possible time. They are in a distressed state and can be in shock. They have just had a loved one taken away and we start asking all these questions. But they still welcome you in, in the majority of cases, because they are so eager to find out what happened."
Dealing with the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings
Not all cases involve victims who have died. Just after the July 7 London bombings, Kim and DC Kevin Beaumont, another FLO, were assigned to a man from Peterborough who believed his wife had been a victim of the attack and was in a London hospital but had not been traced.
"In the end we managed to track her down because we discovered she owned a Mazda car and she had a Mazda key ring in her possession. We spent the next 24 hours with him trying to identify his wife. We talked about what she would do every day, what she would wear and details about her lifestyle because our aim was to gather as much information as possible in order to identify her. She had been badly injured but survived."
Despite the emotive nature of many jobs, Kim said it was important to stay detached. An FLO can often be with a family for long periods, taking in all the significant milestones of a case, including formal identification, the funeral, and any court proceedings or inquest.
She added: "You become an important part of the family. That is why the exit strategy at the end of a case can be difficult but is very important.
"It is hard work to always be meeting the needs of the inquiry and the family, and it can affect your family life because of the long hours, but it is always rewarding in the end."