Report says West Mercia Police 'requires improvement'

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services today published its report on police effectiveness for West Mercia Police. It follows an inspection in September last year.

HMICFRS found that West Mercia Police:

- Requires improvement - at preventing crime and tackling anti-social behaviour
- Is good at investigating crime and reducing re-offending
- Requires improvement at protecting vulnerable people
- Is inadequate at tackling serious and organised crime

HM Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams said: “West Mercia Police has been assessed as requiring improvement in respect of how effective it is at keeping people safe and reducing crime. Disappointingly, this contrasts with last year’s assessment, when we judged the force to be good.

“The workforce understands the force’s vision to protect the most vulnerable and there are well-established channels of communication in place with different communities. However, the use of structured problem-solving techniques to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour is not widespread within neighbourhood teams and the force’s understanding of its communities is insufficiently advanced.

“The workforce displays a strong understanding of the signs of vulnerability. However, the force needs to improve its initial response to incidents involving vulnerable people, particularly victims of domestic abuse. Although the force generally investigates crimes involving vulnerable people to a good standard, it needs to ensure that investigators’ workloads are manageable and effectively supervised. The scheduled replacement of outdated ICT systems in the control room is anticipated to improve how the force recognises and responds to the needs of vulnerable people.

“The force’s approach to serious and organised crime is a cause of concern. There are weaknesses in the way it assesses the risks posed by organised crime groups, and its processes for scrutinising the use of tactics and interventions are under development. It is failing to assess the impact of its efforts to disrupt the activities of organised crime groups in accordance with national guidelines. The force needs to ensure that the prevention of serious and organised crime is based on a comprehensive understanding of the threats posed. It also needs to work more closely with its partner organisations to understand and prevent this type of criminality.”

Disappointed
Commenting on the assessment, West Mercia Police Chief Constable Anthony Bangham, said: "West Mercia Police is committed to ensuring we are a highly effective police force and we clearly accept there are areas where we can strengthen our approach.

"Although we are disappointed that HMICFRS felt we had not responded well enough to previous recommendations, there were several examples in the inspection of positive work ongoing across the force area. This included recognition for the force's work to understand the signs of vulnerability and our investigations involving vulnerable people. We are pleased to see this, as it clearly reflects the force's aim to focus on protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities.

"Accepting as an organisation we were not where we should have been last year in respect to the areas inspected, I am confident that significant focus has been given to addressing the areas highlighted by HMICFRS.

"We police a large geographic area with a diverse range of issues and concerns affecting our communities. Tackling and preventing crime can only be achieved by working in partnership with local people and partners. Therefore we have particularly focused our attention on strengthening this during the last six months, such as through the establishment of Serious Organised Crime Joint Action Groups. We now have much better partnership structures in place focused on identifying the specific issues in each community, working with the appropriate partners and addressing these using a range of approaches and tactics to disrupt and reduce criminal activity.

"In April this year, the force will introduce a refreshed policing model which will ensure a better alignment of our officers and staff to the times of highest demand for our services, ensuring we have the right people available, at the right time to deliver the best possible protection to our communities. This new model ensures clear focus on identifying criminal activity, arresting the offenders and protecting vulnerable victims. We will continue to work closely with all our communities to ensure we understand and prioritise the issues which concern them most.

"In addition, since our inspection, the force has also implemented new technology and systems, which ensure our officers and staff are better equipped with the best information to prevent and detect crime.

"We fully acknowledge that these are all areas identified by HMICFRS as requiring our focus and this is exactly what we have done. With the progress we have already made I am confident that we are comprehensively addressing all the HMICFRS's recommendations."

Read the report: PEEL: Police effectiveness 2017 – West Mercia Police