Devon and Cornwall Police must make urgent improvements after it
was found to be inadequate in several areas, the police
inspectorate has said.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue
Services (HMICFRS) graded Devon and Cornwall
Police’s performance across nine areas of
policing and found the force was ‘inadequate’
in three areas, ‘requires improvement’ in two areas, ‘adequate’
in two areas and ‘good’ in two areas.
HMICFRS said the inadequate areas included recording data about
crime, responding to the public and managing offenders.
In October 2022, HMICFRS placed Devon and Cornwall Police into
its enhanced monitoring stage, Engage.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams
said:
“I have concerns about Devon and Cornwall Police’s performance in
keeping people safe and reducing crime - particularly about the
accuracy of its crime recording, its response to the public, and
its management of sexual and violent offenders.
“The force doesn’t always record crimes against vulnerable
victims, particularly violent or behavioural crimes, and
anti-social behaviour. Failure to record a crime often results in
victims not being properly safeguarded and no investigation
taking place.
“Our inspection also found that the force is not adequately
assessing or managing the risks posed by registered sexual and
violent offenders.
“However, we did find good examples of the force working well
with other organisations to prioritise the prevention and
deterrence of crime. We also found that members of the workforce
are well supported to do their jobs.
“Last year, in view of these findings, we moved Devon and
Cornwall Police into our enhanced monitoring process, which
provides additional scrutiny and support. I have also been in
regular contact with the chief constable to monitor the force’s
progress against these important and necessary changes.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- HMICFRS placed Devon and Cornwall Police into its enhanced
monitoring stage, Engage, in October 2022.
- We move police forces into our enhanced level of monitoring,
known as Engage, when a force is not responding to our concerns,
or if it is not managing, mitigating or eradicating these
concerns. The Engage process provides additional scrutiny and
support.
- Devon and Cornwall Police were moved into the Engage phase
because:
-
- the force’s crime recording had deteriorated since our
last inspection;
- the force does not answer, or respond to, emergency or
non-emergency calls within adequate timeframes; and
- the force was unable to adequately manage registered
sexual and violent offenders.
- The Devon and Cornwall Police PEEL 2021/22
report (police effectiveness, efficiency
and legitimacy) will be published on
the HMICFRS
website at 00:01 on Thursday 2 February 2023.
- 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 and this year has seen
the most significant changes yet.
- We are moving to a more intelligence-led, continual
assessment approach, rather than the annualPEEL 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.
- We have also expanded our previous four-tier system of
judgments to five tiers. As a result, we can state more precisely
where we consider improvement is needed and highlight more
effectively the best ways of doing things.
- However, these changes mean that it isn’t possible to make
direct comparisons between the grades awarded this year with
those from previous PEEL inspections. A reduction in grade,
particularly from good to adequate, does not necessarily mean
that there has been a reduction in performance, unless we say so
in the report
