By Andrew Pring | 4 September 2014
The police watchdog in England and Wales has warned that people are being put at risk due to the differing responses to crimes from forces dependent on where they live.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary said that responses from forces to incidents varied across areas including the prevention of crime, investigations and the use of technology.
Today’s Core Business: an inspection into crime prevention, police attendance and the use of police time report found significant variation in the way which forces approach police attendance in response to calls from the public.
Although a small number of forces aim to attend all reports of crimes and incidents, most forces decide whether an officer will attend or the matter will be dealt with over the telephone, using set criteria.
Roger Baker, who led the inspection, said that this finding was concerning/ ‘This sort of postcode lottery has to stop and a consistent approach applied across England and Wales,’ he added.
‘It is only by fully understanding how they use their staff that police forces can ensure that they are efficient and responsive. We found that this vital element of evaluation and analysis is still lacking in the majority of forces, with fewer than a quarter of forces investigating demand in order to prioritise and organise their workforce. In this age of austerity it’s more important than ever that forces understand how to prioritise their resources.’
Chief Inspector of Constabulary Thomas Winsor said that the oxygen of effective policing was intelligence.
‘Despite this, in too many respects, police forces have failed to embrace and exploit the capacities of modern technology, and have established information systems which even now lack necessary standards of interoperability,’ he said.
‘Steps are now being taken in this respect – and they are to be welcomed – but progress until now has been too slow, insular and isolationist. This must change urgently; for as long as these material shortcomings persist, lives are at risk.’
Winsor said that although England and Wales has 43 police forces, ‘there are not, and never have been, 43 best ways of doing something’.
‘Whilst the roots and much of the practice of policing are local, and will remain so, police forces must collectively recognise that it is in the public interest that every force must understand and adopt best practice, to be applied in the most efficient and effective way in each police force area.’
The report found most forces only have a basic understanding of their demand and the performance and workload of their officers and staff, while the use of technology by the police can only be described as inadequate. ‘Many forces are operating with old technology, ill-suited to modern crime fighting. The police service, together with the Home Office, the College of Policing and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners must work together to remedy this as a priority,’ the report stated.
