Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary is good at protecting
vulnerable people, but it must continue to improve how quickly it
responds emergency and non-emergency calls, the police
inspectorate has said.
His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue
Services (HMICFRS) graded Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Constabulary's performance across eight areas of policing. It
found the constabulary was ‘good' in two areas and ‘adequate' in
six areas.
HMICFRS said that the constabulary is good at protecting vulnerable people and
works well with partners within the multi-agency safeguarding hub to
keep those at risk safe. Inspectors highlighted the
constabulary's innovative safeguarding training, which is
provided to both staff and partners and has been assessed as best
practice by the College of Policing.
Since the constabulary's last inspection, it has also taken steps
to improve how it communicates with communities to identify
problems and gather intelligence. As well
as this, it is working effectively in partnership with a wide
range of other organisations on problem-solving, crime prevention
and early intervention.
Inspectors found that the constabulary had improved the quality
of its investigations. This has resulted in thorough
investigations where investigators look for opportunities to
bring offenders to justice, even when victims are unwilling
to proceed. However, the number of crimes solved following
investigations remains low and there is still more to do to
achieve positive outcomes for victims.
The inspectorate also found that the constabulary doesn't always
answer calls or attend calls for service as quickly as it should,
which can cause victims to lose confidence and disengage with the
process. However, inspectors noted that the constabulary had made
significant sustainable improvements to its call answering since
its previous inspection.
His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher
said:
“I am pleased with some aspects of Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Constabulary's performance in keeping people safe, reducing crime
and providing victims with an effective service, although there
are areas where it can improve.
“The constabulary works effectively with other organisations to
keep vulnerable people safe and tackle the behaviour of
perpetrators. It uses innovative digital processes that help
identify risk to vulnerable people who are victims at the
earliest opportunity.
“While the constabulary's move to a new area model has resulted
in better focus and control of staff and assets at a local level,
key areas such as response, neighbourhood and investigative
policing have been severely stretched at times. Although, I was
pleased to find that the constabulary was effective at building,
supporting and protecting its workforce.
“I hope that the operational changes the constabulary is making
will help it better meet the needs of the public and its
workforce and I will be monitoring its progress closely.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary
PEEL 2023/25 report (police effectiveness, efficiency
and legitimacy) will be published on
the HMICFRS
website at 00:01 on Thursday 24 July.
- In 2014, we introduced our police effectiveness, efficiency
and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance
of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have
been continuously adapting our approach.
- We have continued our intelligence-led, continual assessment
approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in
previous years.
- We have also changed our approach to graded judgments. We now
assess forces against the characteristics of good
performance, and we more clearly link our judgments to
causes of concern and areas for improvement.
- It isn't possible to make direct comparisons between the
grades awarded in this PEEL inspection and those from the
previous cycle of PEEL inspections. This is because we have
increased our focus on making sure forces are achieving
appropriate outcomes for the public, and in some cases, we have
changed the aspects of policing we inspect.
- More information about the PEEL assessment
framework 2023-2025 is available on our website.
