PROBATION and social services from Herefordshire and Worcestershire have joined up with West Mercia Police in a system to manage dangerous criminals who have served their sentences.

The new protocol builds on one which has been in place for two years.

The system is to deal with offenders who have served their sentence, but who are thought to still present a risk to themselves or others,

DCI Ray Groves said: "The risk management process involves regular meetings between senior representatives of these agencies and, in appropriate cases, the prison service. Those meetings assess the risk presented by a particular individual and draw up a plan to manage that risk."