Police performance shows room for improvement

23 Oct 03
Home Office ministers and senior police officers have admitted that more work needs to be done to improve police performance, following the publication of indicators that showed falling detection and prosecution rates.

24 October 2003

Home Office ministers and senior police officers have admitted that more work needs to be done to improve police performance, following the publication of indicators that showed falling detection and prosecution rates.

According to the latest police performance monitoring data, 32 of England and Wales' 43 forces recorded a fall in detection rates over the last year, with a drop of more than 20% in two cases. Similarly, 33 forces experienced reductions in the number of offences brought to justice compared with the previous year.

But Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said the number of recorded crimes had increased and stressed that, in absolute terms, more crimes were being solved, increasing by 8% nationally.

She acknowledged that the data made it clear that there were some forces that were 'struggling with issues' but said the performance monitors were helpful in identifying these, as well as helping the public judge the relative performance of their local police.

Blears said work was in progress to produce indicators for gun crime and domestic violence.

Essex chief constable David Stevens, spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers on performance, said: 'None of us would sit back and be satisfied with these figures.'

He added that work was going on across all criminal justice agencies to address problems.

Stevens said he looked forward to a more sophisticated performance model, and added that tackling crime made up only one third of police work – something that should be reflected in monitoring data.

PFoct2003

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