Inspectors praise Surrey Police’s crime recording as ‘good’, but say there is still room for improvement

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has today published an assessment on the accuracy of crime recording in Surrey Police, which found that the force accurately records around 93 per cent of crimes reported to it.

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Surrey Police: Crime Data Integrity inspection 2018

HMICFRS previously inspected the accuracy of crime recording in Surrey Police in 2014. For this latest inspection, HMICFRS has judged Surrey Police’s crime recording as ‘good’.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoë Billingham said:

“I am very pleased that Surrey Police has been graded as good in terms of the accuracy of their crime recording. I recognise the hard work that the force has done to improve its crime recording arrangements and we were particularly impressed by Surrey Police’s outstanding culture and leadership with regard to crime recording. The force has made real progress under the strong leadership of the deputy chief constable and its strategic crime and incident recording group.

“We found that staff and officers fully understood their roles and responsibilities when it comes to accurate crime recording. The force’s auditing processes are robust and act as an early warning system, flagging up areas where officers are most likely to make repeat mistakes. I was also pleased to see that Surrey Police had put all our recommendations from 2014 into place.

“Although we have graded Surrey Police as good, there is still some room for improvement. For instance, officers were most likely to miss a crime off the books when it was an additional crime disclosed by a victim during an on-going investigation. This included some cases involving sexual offences.

“I will continue to monitor Surrey Police, but I am very reassured by the good progress that the force has made in this vitally important aspect of policing.”

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Surrey Police: Crime Data Integrity inspection 2018

Notes to editors

  1. HMICFRS is an independent inspectorate, inspecting policing to promote improvements in policing that make everyone safer, and assesses and reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces to tackle crime and terrorism, improve criminal justice and raise confidence.
  2. On 19 July 2017 HMIC took on responsibility for fire & rescue service inspections and was renamed HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.
  3. HMICFRS inspects all 43 police forces in England and Wales together with other major policing and law enforcement bodies.
  4. HMICFRS is unable to make direct comparisons with the 2014 inspection due to a change in the methodology used. In particular, the 2014 inspection was a dip-sample of records in each force which contributed to a statistically robust rate for crime-recording accuracy for England and Wales, whereas this inspection is working to a statistically robust standard within each force.
  5. Further information on how Surrey Police is performing can be found on the HMICFRS online assessment tool.
  6. For further information, HMICFRS’s press office can be contacted during office hours from 8:30am – 5:00pm Monday – Friday on 020 3513 0600.
  7. HMICFRS’s out-of-hours press office line for urgent media enquiries is 07836 217729.