Chief: Victims received good service despite lack of record

CHIEF constable Rod Hansen said: “We welcome the scrutiny of the report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and like many other forces that received a similar grade or required improvement following their first inspection, are disappointed with the findings.

“We would like to reassure people that we have reviewed all the incidents raised in the report and can say that this is predominately a recording failure not a service failure. That means in many of the cases identified by the HMICFRS a good level of service was given to a victim, even though we didn’t create a crime report for it.

“It’s also important to explain that when you make contact with Gloucestershire Constabulary we always record what you tell us, we assess every call and deploy when you need us.

“Where we have let ourselves down is that we have not always complied with national recording standards by making a separate crime record where appropriate.

“This is not the same as letting down a victim or failing to safeguard them.

“In terms of context only about 24 per cent of all calls for service to us relate to crime – the rest are other important matters like collisions, missing people and mental health crisis incidents, where someone’s safety can be in jeopardy. Equally, some reports come to us which are not police specific so need rerouting to another agency to respond to – but that still takes time.

“The national rules around which incidents must be recorded as crimes run to over 100 pages and equipping a busy workforce to be compliant in every aspect is challenging.

“It took 12 inspectors 14 days to establish how we were doing as a relatively small constabulary, which gives some indication of the complexity of it.

“In 2014, I had four members of staff helping to ensure crime recording was at a high standard (acknowledged by the HMIC at the time) and due to austerity and a need to bolster the frontline we had to reduce that to one person – part-time, trying to audit the whole force.

“In May 2019, the constabulary was graded “good” across the board by HMICFRS, including its ability to investigate, tackle vulnerability and act in an ethical and legitimate way.

“We have tried hard to balance our investments and focused on investigation and frontline services. A consequence has been that we have underperformed in this area. This has been compounded by some technological shortcomings that cost a great deal of money to resolve.

“However I take responsibility for the constabulary’s need to improve in this area. I have commissioned a review to find out how we got into this position and what we can learn from that.

“A full plan to address these shortcomings has been prepared and much has already been implemented, including additional supervisors being put in post, specialist training for frontline staff starting next week and a staff member in our public protection bureau designated to recording third-party reports of crime.

“We have also started the recruitment process for a deputy Force Crime Registrar.

“In their PEEL report in May, HMICFRS praised our officers for understanding the importance of vulnerability and I am pleased to say that there were some positive findings by the Inspectorate in this report, including how we deal with victims during first contact and our work to record modern slavery offences.

“There has been a lack of understanding of the importance of crime recording but I want to stress we are fully committed to protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities and keeping everyone safe.

“We will investigate crimes and bring those who commit them to justice to the best of our ability.

“Our officers and staff understand the needs of the communities they serve and many go above and beyond the call of duty in sometimes very difficult circumstances.

“I am proud of them and the work they do, and I know that they will remain committed as we move forward.”