City of London PEEL 2017

Force leaders can demonstrate the value and benefits of procedural justice, and the workforce understands the importance of treating the people it serves with fairness and respect. All frontline officers receive training in communication skills, including empathy and listening. External scrutiny of the force is good and benefits from a wide and diverse membership (particularly considering the small resident population of the force area), but the community scrutiny group would be improved by having an independent chair.

The force’s recording of reasonable grounds to stop and search people must improve. Some officers do not understand what constitutes reasonable grounds or do not know how to record reasonable grounds correctly on stop and search records. The force does not have adequate internal scrutiny of stop and search.

We found some areas of good practice in how City of London Police ensures that its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully. Particularly useful is the London police challenge panel forum, which is supported by the strong base for ethical decision making that the force has built up through its integrity standards board and ethics associates. The force also provides initial ethics training for the entire workforce, who receive support and training when they make mistakes; leaders can demonstrate that they consider the ethical implications of their decisions in the context of an established referrals system.

The force’s policies and procedures are accessible, comply with the Code of Ethics, and have been checked for quality. Its complaints system is accessible to the public. However, the force needs to improve how it keeps complainants updated in line with regulations. Further, while the force is good at identifying allegations of discrimination, it does not always respond to them appropriately or investigate the allegation fully, and the service that people receive from the force during investigations into allegations of discrimination is unsatisfactory.

City of London Police leaders have a range of ways to seek feedback and challenges from its workforce. Staff and officers are confident in their use of these methods, and the force has made changes as a direct result of this feedback. It has used external recruitment to address gaps in its capability and we saw improvements in the ways in which the force identifies and selects future leaders.

Although we recognise the work that the force has done to improve the way it manages individual performance, it needs to do more to improve the workforce’s confidence in its performance development review process, and to link career aspirations and progression.

The force uses outcomes from grievances to highlight learning for the organisation and for individuals, and communicates this to its workforce effectively. The force values wellbeing and provides various wellbeing initiatives to the workforce. However, the force could understand the risks and threats to workforce wellbeing more clearly and use this understanding to prioritise the services it provides, instead of attempting to address all risks and threats at once.