Humberside PEEL 2016

The force uses a wide range of methods to engage with the communities it serves and to understand the needs of emerging communities and groups with less trust and confidence in the police. Issues are identified from this work and addressed, or, if more systemic, shared with the relevant command for action. The force can show that it listens to and acts on information from communities, the IPCC, the ICVS, etc. within discrete business areas, but there is no effective way to monitor feedback to the force.

There is no complete picture of how the force treats, or is perceived to treat, its communities. The website does not inform the public of accumulated activities to improve treatment and fairness in response to the feedback it has received.

The force has a robust vetting process. All officers, staff contractors and volunteers are vetted to the designated standard and subject to regular reviews, as well as on change of role or promotion. The force uses a range of methods to clarify and reinforce standards of behaviour. Most resonant among staff have been the proactive professional development days focused on discussion of ethical dilemmas.

The force has a good understanding of local and national corruption threats, and these have informed its intelligence requirements and prevention activities. It has a good range of approaches to intelligence gathering. Intelligence is evaluated promptly, recorded in line with approved practice and developed in a timely fashion.

The force is not undertaking proactive intelligence gathering with women’s refuges, sexual health clinics and charities supporting sex workers to identify potential corruption and encourage reporting of inappropriate behaviour. The force publicises misconduct hearings for police officers and police staff, and shares the outcomes internally with staff and on its website.
The force has addressed all five recommendations made by HMIC following our police integrity and corruption inspection in 2014.

In our 2016 national overview of police legitimacy, we recommended that all forces should have started to implement a plan to achieve the capability and capacity required to seek intelligence on potential abuse of position for sexual gain. In 2017, we reviewed of the plans put in place by all forces to in response to this recommendation.

Abuse of position assessment – Humberside Police

Humberside Police uses various methods to identify issues that affect the workforce’s perceptions of fair and respectful treatment, including a staff forum for identifying concerns. However, the force could do more to show how it understands issues that affect the workforce, and how feedback has been used to make improvements.

The force understands the benefits of workforce wellbeing and shows a commitment to it – including mental wellbeing – through a range of wellbeing provision, including intervening early to prevent problems from escalating by providing additional training for supervisors on their wellbeing responsibilities.

The force’s PDR system is limited and not used consistently by the workforce. HMIC found several staff who had not had a PDR for several years. The force launched a new electronic PDR system (ePDR) in June 2016. The force also has unsatisfactory processes for tackling poor performance within the workforce. The force has previously under-invested in staff professional development linked to performance although the introduction of a professional practice development day, and ongoing review of performance, aims to improve the performance of its operational officers.