Kent PEEL 2017

Kent Police is outstanding at treating the people it serves with fairness and respect. The force’s vision and values emphasise the importance of fair and respectful treatment and are understood by the whole workforce. The workforce receives effective training that covers unconscious bias, communication skills and the use of coercive powers such as stop and search. Officers are able to demonstrate their understanding of these issues.

The force monitors the use of stop and search and has carried out research to understand its disproportionate use. It considers that disproportionality in the use of stop and search among the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities is due to its activities to disrupt gangs coming into the county from London. The force intends to improve how it records stop and searches linked to gang disruption so that it can understand disproportionality better. Independent advisory groups with a diverse membership that includes young people provide effective external scrutiny and feedback. Governance of the use of force is clear and lessons learned are communicated with the workforce. However, the force needs to ensure that all officers and supervisors understand what constitutes reasonable grounds for stop and search and record them correctly.

Kent Police is good at ensuring that its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully. The force’s policies and procedures comply with the Code of Ethics. Leaders are aware of the importance of an ethical approach and act as ethical role models. Officers and staff receive continuing advice and extensive training on ethical decision-making and have an excellent understanding of ethical policing. The force does not meet national vetting standards, but has an achievable plan to address this.

The force provides clear information on its website about how to make a complaint, and we found this information in most front counter areas of police stations we visited. The force should ensure it provides all complainants with the correct information when they first make a complaint and informative updates at the required intervals. The workforce has a good understanding of discrimination and generally identifies and responds to initial reports appropriately. The investigations we assessed were conducted well and complainants received a good service. The force needs to ensure it always refers internal misconduct cases involving allegations of discrimination to the IPCC.

In 2016, we found that Kent Police was outstanding at treating its workforce with fairness and respect. This year we have not actively sought further evidence on this aspect, but report on additional activities we identified during our inspection.

The culture and ethics boards continue to be effective and are well supported by the workforce. The force continues to have a good understanding of workforce concerns relating to fairness, including grievances, complaints and misconduct matters.

The force is increasing officer recruitment from black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) communities and is continuing its work with its BAME officers and staff to better understand and remove any barriers to their progression.

Kent Police held a joint health and wellbeing conference with Essex Police to encourage further improvements in workforce wellbeing. The force maintains a comprehensive range of effective and sometimes innovative preventative measures to improve workforce wellbeing, including initiatives to reduce the stigma attached to mental health problems.

The force continues to develop its good personal development review processes. These now enable both individuals and managers to identify career preferences and plot their current development position. The force has schemes to develop talent and skills at various levels, including the police staff leadership pathway. The workforce sees the police officer promotion process as fair and candidates report receiving objective feedback.