Case Studies

Police report summed up

by Mark Rowe

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s PEEL assessment on the effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy of police covers everything from dealing with anti-social behaviour to accountability to leadership.

From the beginning of the HMIC PEEL assessment of police in England and Wales, here is the summary of the 243-page report:

While measured crime has fallen dramatically in recent years, forces cannot afford to be complacent. The crime threat will continue to evolve and develop, and forces need to be at least keeping pace with it, through constant refreshing and improvement of their capabilities. In too many respects, they are failing in this. Cyber crime and cyber-enabled crime is not an emerging threat; it is the reality of crime now, and forces need to adapt quickly to meet that threat.

The sexual exploitation of children is far from new, but its prevalence in our society, and the ways in which it is and can be carried out using modern technology, are only now being discovered.

Even then, it is far from clear that the police and other agencies have a sound understanding of the magnitude or the capacity of either. The needs of victims will always be central to policing and justice. Although the rates of victim satisfaction are high across all police forces, in too many respects victims are still not central to police thinking and services. While there have been improvements, victim contact and support needs to improve.

The police are too focused on dealing with crimes with which they are familiar, rather than the crimes that victims today experience or report. The response to new and emerging crimes will not improve sufficiently unless the police place the victim’s experience at the centre of their service.

Austerity is set to continue. Forces need to move from surviving budget reductions to thriving in a world of sustained cost reduction. Efficiency is not something that forces should feel is imposed on them as a reluctant addition to policing. It should run through all policing

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