Detective Sergeant Karen Hutchings
Detective Sergeant Karen Hutchings has been with Essex Police for over 24 years. The first 6 years of her career were spent as a uniformed police constable, patrolling areas such as Basildon, Pitsea and Laindon. Karen decided she wished to become accredited as a detective, so made the move over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) covering Basildon and the surrounding areas. It was here where her experience as a detective constable began.
For a short period, Karen was part of a proactive burglary team before transferring across to the Adult Sexual Abuse Investigation Team in the North of the County. Karen spent three years investigating serious sexual offences, before being moved to the Essex Police Headquarters and onto a number of different teams involving the safeguarding of vulnerable adults, children at risk of sexual and criminal exploitation, and children at risk of abuse from their family or those in a position of trust. The latter team, as the Detective Sergeant for two years.
Following on from this, and on promotion to Detective Sergeant, Karen was posted to the Central Referral Unit, which dealt with the safeguarding of all high-risk domestic abuse cases, including Honour-Based Violence. This is why Karen has gleaned her knowledge and experience of managing high risk cases of honour-based abuse. This team has recently undergone some significant change in respect of remit and name, but those within the team are still used for tactical advice in relation to the safeguarding of any domestic or honour-based incident, irrespective of risk level. Karen provides the training on the Domestic Abuse Investigator’s Course and has provided inputs to the frontline uniformed officers, as well as to her fellow detective cadre.
