Crime data integrity inspections - explanatory notes
This page contains explanatory notes to supplement the crime data integrity reports.
Auditable crime-recording route
Number of reported crimes coming through an auditable route that are recorded by the force. These are crimes reported through police control rooms, directly to the crime-recording centre, or both.
Domestic abuse
Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The abuse can encompass, but is not limited to:
- psychological;
- physical;
- sexual;
- financial; or
- emotional abuse.
This definition, which is not a legal definition, includes honour-based violence and abuse, female genital mutilation and forced marriage.
Estimate of the number of additionally recorded crimes
This estimate has been calculated by applying our audit findings to Home Office police-recorded crime figures (excluding fraud) for the 12 months to the end of the audit period. It is our estimate of the number of crimes that the force has additionally recorded as a result of applying the improved recording accuracy we found during our re-inspection.
Estimate of the number of unrecorded crimes
This estimate has been calculated by applying our audit findings, covering a six-month audit period, to Home Office police-recorded crime figures (excluding fraud) for the force for the 12 months to the end of the audit period.
Please note: the HMICFRS audit focused on areas where we would expect to find reports of crime. It is possible that other areas, such as anti-social behaviour, also contain reports of crime that are not being recorded. This may mean that the number of unrecorded crimes is even higher.
When a crime is not recorded the force may have recorded details of the report on a different record, such as an incident log. It is these records that HMICFRS can audit to establish the extent to which reported crime is being recorded. In some cases an officer will have responded to the report. However, where reported crimes are not recorded the effectiveness and efficiency of the police response is compromised: they have only a partial understanding of the extent to which crime and disorder is affecting communities, and of the location, type and propensity of crime and disorder that is occurring. Therefore, accurate crime-recording is imperative if forces are to be able to make sound decisions on the deployment of resources, and to operate with the highest practicable levels of efficiency.
Home Office classification N100
A record created to describe why reported incidents of rape or attempted rapes, whether from victims, witnesses or third parties, have not been immediately recorded as a confirmed crime. This can include where additional information confirms the rape did not occur, or where the rape occurred in another force area and was therefore transferred to the relevant force to record and investigate.
Multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC)
Locally-held meetings where statutory and voluntary agency representatives come together and share information about high-risk domestic abuse victims; any agency can refer an adult or child whom they believe to be at high risk of harm; the aim of the meeting is to produce a co-ordinated action plan to increase an adult or child’s safety, health and well-being; agencies that attend vary, but are likely to include the police, probation, children’s health and housing services.
Multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH)
Entity bringing together the main local safeguarding agencies to better identify risks to children (and in some areas, vulnerable adults) and improve decision-making, interventions, and outcomes.
National Centre for Applied Learning Technologies (NCALT)
National Firearms Licensing Management System
Holds information about the licensing status of any new applicant for a firearm licence and of current certificate holders; including details as to which weapons and the quantity and type of ammunition permitted to be possessed by a certificate holder.
National force crime registrar accreditation course
Course which the College of Policing introduced on the recommendation of HMICFRS in our report Crime Recording: Making the Victim Count. Available to force crime and incident registrars as well as force crime registrars.
Out-of-court disposals
One of several methods of concluding the action of the criminal justice system in respect of a crime without proceeding to a prosecution; they are administered and effected by the police, and enable them to deal quickly and proportionately with low-level, often first-time offences; they include:
- cautions,
- cannabis warnings,
- penalty notices for disorder, and
- community resolutions.
Some have a statutory basis and some do not; they are explained more fully in HMIC’s 2014 report Crime-recording: making the victim count.