Hertfordshire PEEL 2017
Effectiveness
How effective is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?
How effective is the force at preventing crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and keeping people safe?
This question was not inspected in 2017. The grade and findings from last year’s inspection still stand.
How effective is the force at investigating crime and reducing re-offending?
Hertfordshire Constabulary is generally good at investigating crime. The force conducts initial investigations well. Officers attend incidents promptly and usually make correct use of the ‘golden hour’ immediately following an incident. Investigations are allocated well, using the appropriate risk assessment and decision-making system. The force also investigates fraud well.
However, the standard of investigations remains inconsistent, and problems include inconsistent handovers (although problems here may be down to the high number of officers in acting or temporary roles).
Investigation outcomes have declined over the past year. The force is trying to deal with this by carrying out analysis and better victim surveys.
Victims of crime receive a generally good service. However, the force does not always update victims regularly, or complete victims’ personal statements.
Hertfordshire Constabulary is good at reducing re-offending. It is encouraging that the force:
- locates and arrests identified suspects quickly;
- enters wanted persons’ details on the Police National Computer quickly; and
- has a good approach to managing arrested foreign nationals.
The force has undertaken several initiatives including use of the integrated offender management model, which involves working with partner organisations to tackle the most prolific criminals. It is also seeking to identify and apply good practice in other forces.
Areas for improvement
- The force should take steps to ensure that it records all available evidence at scenes of crime.
- The force should ensure that it complies fully with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime.
How effective is the force at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims?
Hertfordshire Constabulary requires improvement at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims.
Officers and staff have a good understanding of the nature and scale of vulnerability in the force’s area. They are good at identifying vulnerable people when they make contact. Marking an improvement since 2016, call handlers now follow a structured risk assessment process, ensuring rapid identification of vulnerable people, and supply additional services where needed.
Since our last inspection, the force has improved:
- training in risk assessments and vulnerability; and
- supervision and quality assurance processes in the control room.
The force’s initial response to incidents generally is good. However, matters of concern are the:
- inconsistent quality of its risk assessments to identify vulnerability; and
- reduction in arrests and charges of domestic abuse suspects, especially as the number of domestic abuse incidents has risen.
The force also needs to improve how it investigates crimes involving vulnerable people. While the force allocates most such crimes to specialists, it is struggling to attract duly qualified detectives, leading to problems such as:
- cases not being supervised or managed effectively, or with any clear direction (including some involving significant risk); and
- inexperienced individuals investigating cases.
More encouragingly, since last year the force has improved its use of legal powers to protect victims of domestic abuse, such as domestic violence protection orders and non-molestation orders. It still could use Clare’s Law more effectively.
The force manages sex offenders well. Multi-agency public protection arrangements work well in monitoring high-risk offenders, and neighbourhood officers’ knowledge of high-risk offenders has improved. The force also has good partnership arrangements to support victims and vulnerable people.
Areas for improvement
- The force should ensure that frontline officers become more proficient in completing DASH risk assessments at initial response and that there is sufficient supervision to ensure opportunities to safeguard vulnerable victims are not missed.
- The force should review its effectiveness regarding its use of body-worn video cameras to capture photographic/video recorded evidence, particularly for domestic abuse incidents.
- The force should improve the quality of investigations involving vulnerable people, ensuring that such investigations are subject to regular and active supervision.
How effective is the force at tackling serious and organised crime?
This question was not inspected in 2017. The grade and findings from last year’s inspection still stand.
How effective are the force’s specialist capabilities?
National threats often require forces to work together, across force boundaries. These threats include terrorism, large-scale disorder and civil emergencies. We examined the capabilities in place to respond to these threats, in particular a firearms attack.
Most positively, the force:
- works with other forces to ensure enough trained staff and officers are available to respond to national threats;
- tests its skills in training exercises; and
- has developed a good understanding of the threat to the public from an armed attack.
However, the force should:
- improve its understanding of the time taken for armed officers to attend incidents.