Concerns over West Midlands Police's performance
There are serious concerns about the performance of West Midlands Police, the police inspectorate has said.
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PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of West Midlands Police
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded West Midlands Police’s performance across eight areas of policing and found the force was adequate in two areas, requires improvement in three areas and inadequate in three areas.
HMICFRS said West Midlands Police prioritises the prevention and deterrence of crime, including actively seeking views and support from communities, and working with partners to reduce and prevent long-term crime and anti-social behaviour.
However, the inspectorate said it had serious concerns about how West Midlands Police investigates crime, protects vulnerable people and manages offenders and suspects.
Because of these concerns, last month the inspectorate moved West Midlands Police into an enhanced level of monitoring. This process will provide additional scrutiny and support from across the policing sector to help West Midlands Police make improvements.
The inspectorate recognised that the West Midlands has high levels of deprivation. It also said that West Midlands Police’s funding has been disproportionately affected compared to some other forces, and that the force needs to have enough resources to prevent crime and protect the public effectively.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams said:
“I have serious concerns about how well West Midlands Police investigates crime, protects vulnerable people and manages offenders and suspects. We have highlighted these problems in previous inspection reports, but the force’s performance has declined.
“The force had a change in leadership in the year leading up to our inspection. They have implemented a robust performance framework to help make improvements. Most significantly, they have reviewed the force’s operating model and made rapid changes to it. I recognise the scale of the challenge senior leaders face in meeting demand and achieving sustainable improvements. At the time of our inspection, the force had only just put these changes in place, and there has not yet been time for most of the changes to fully develop.
“Given our findings, West Midlands Police is now in our enhanced monitoring process, which provides additional scrutiny and support. I recognise the rapid action taken by the senior team, and accept that it will take time to have the effect the leadership team wants. I am in contact with the chief constable and will continue to work closely with the force until the required improvements are made.”
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PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of West Midlands 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.