Leicestershire Police congratulated for outstanding performance
Leicestershire Police has performed well in a challenging policing environment and has been congratulated for its outstanding performance, the police inspectorate has said.
Get the report
PEEL 2021/22 – An inspection of Leicestershire Police
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded Leicestershire Police’s performance across nine areas of policing and found the force was ‘outstanding’ in three areas, ‘good’ in four areas and ‘adequate’ in two.
HMICFRS said the outstanding areas included how the force records crime and protects vulnerable people.
Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, Roy Wilsher, said:
“Since our inspection, the former chief constable of Leicestershire Police, Simon Cole, sadly passed away. Our thoughts remain with Simon’s family, friends and colleagues and this report is a fitting tribute to his leadership.
“Leicestershire Police’s officers and staff are to be congratulated on their hard work. The force is outstanding in three areas, which demonstrates its high level of performance, but it can improve in other aspects to provide a consistently good service.
“The force empowers its increasingly diverse staff and has a strong, established leadership culture that prioritises identifying and safeguarding the vulnerable.
“The force uses powerful tools to reduce the threat posed by the most potentially dangerous people. This includes its trailblazing expansion of the way it uses Operation Encompass – the national arrangement for informing schools if their pupils have been involved in, or witnessed, domestic abuse – and its production of Kayleigh’s Love Story.
“Leicestershire has significantly improved its recording of all reported crimes since our last inspection – we found it correctly recorded nearly all sexual offences and was particularly good at recording crimes of rape. Rape is one of the most serious crimes a victim can experience, and it is especially important that crimes are recorded accurately to make sure victims receive the service and support they expect and deserve.
“However, the force needs to improve its sex offender management processes, which are at times unclear and deviate from national guidelines.
“I look forward to monitoring the force’s progress towards addressing the areas I have identified for improvement.
Get the report
PEEL 2021/22 – An inspection of Leicestershire Police
Notes
- For further information, please contact the HMICFRS Press Office on 07836 217 729 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 and this year has seen the most significant changes yet.
- We are moving to a more 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.
- We have also expanded our previous four-tier system of judgments to five tiers. As a result, we can state more precisely where we consider improvement is needed and highlight more effectively the best ways of doing things.
- However, these changes mean that it isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded this year with those from previous PEEL inspections. A reduction in grade, particularly from good to adequate, does not necessarily mean that there has been a reduction in performance, unless we say so in the report.
- More information about the new PEEL assessment framework 2021/22 is available on our website.
- Kayleigh’s Love Story is a short film produced by Leicestershire Police about the dangers of online grooming, based on the 2015 murder of Kayleigh Haywood.