Concerns about Surrey Police's response to the public
Surrey Police needs to improve how it responds to the public, including how quickly it answers emergency and non-emergency calls, the police inspectorate has said.
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PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of Surrey Police
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded Surrey Police’s performance across nine areas of policing and found the force was good in two areas, adequate in four areas, requires improvement in two areas and inadequate in one area.
HMICFRS said that the force was effective at preventing and deterring crime and was making improvements in its management of registered sex offenders. It also praised the force’s early safeguarding measures in its investigations into child abuse images.
However, the inspectorate said it was concerned about how quickly Surrey Police answers calls. It found that the force answered 77 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds, below the expected standard of 90 percent.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher said:
“I have concerns about the performance of Surrey Police in keeping people safe, reducing crime and providing victims with an effective service.
“The force doesn’t always answer emergency and non-emergency calls in a timely manner, and some callers simply give up. This means crime will go unreported and vulnerable people will not be safeguarded. This was highlighted in our last inspection, but performance has since deteriorated.
“However, we were pleased to see that since our last inspection, the force has worked well to improve its management of registered sex offenders. It has also put safeguarding measures in place early in its investigations into child abuse images.
“There was a change in leadership at the force during our inspection, with the appointment of a new chief constable. He has made changes to the performance management structure and set out his priorities for the force.
“In view of these findings, I have been in contact with the new chief constable and I will be monitoring the force’s progress closely.”
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PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of Surrey Police
Notes
- For further information, please contact the HMICFRS Press Office on 0300 071 6781 or HMICPressOffice@hmicfrs.gov.uk.
- In 2014, we introduced our police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach.
- We have continued our intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years.
- We have also changed our approach to graded judgments. We now assess forces against the characteristics of good performance, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
- It isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded in this PEEL inspection and those from the previous cycle of PEEL inspections. This is because we have increased our focus on making sure forces are achieving appropriate outcomes for the public, and in some cases we have changed the aspects of policing we inspect.
- More information about the new PEEL assessment framework 2023-2025 is available on our website.