Surrey PEEL 2017

This question was not inspected in 2017. The grade and findings from last year’s inspection still stand.

Surrey Police is good at investigating crime and reducing re-offending.

The force:

• conducts investigations of consistently good quality;
• provides victims with appropriate contact as investigations progress; and
• ensures that investigators are properly supervised.

However, Surrey Police’s approach to reducing re-offending could be improved: limited progress has been made since our 2016 inspection. The force:

• recognises it should do more to manage foreign national offenders;
• needs to pursue suspects more proactively; and
• should place more emphasis on integrated offender management, in order to maximise the reduction of threat, harm and risk.

Surrey Police is good at identifying vulnerable people and is effective at identifying and supporting people with mental health conditions. The force generally investigates crimes involving vulnerable people well.

• The force uses the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s guidance to identify vulnerability and is currently developing a strategy for protecting vulnerable people.
• Staff are able to identify vulnerable people, including domestic abuse victims, at the first point of contact.
• The control room has systems in place to identify repeat callers, and the force has a quality assurance process that is clearly improving the force’s threat and risk identification.
• Risk assessments are consistently applied and immediate safeguarding is carried out, where appropriate.

Officers and staff consistently demonstrate a good understanding of vulnerability, and have received training to understand ‘hidden harm’, such as coercive control and so-called honour-based abuse.

The force:

• makes good use of legal powers to protect victims of domestic abuse, such as domestic violence protection notices; and
• recognises that its domestic abuse arrest and charge rates are both declining, while its use of voluntary attendance for suspects of domestic abuse has increased. In response, in June 2017 it introduced a ‘domestic abuse framework’.

Frontline staff understand their responsibilities in relation to mental health, and have received relevant training on understanding sections 135 and 136 of the Mental Health Act.

Surrey Police is good at tackling serious and organised crime (SOC). The force:

• has a good understanding of both emerging and traditional SOC threats;
• has identified clear priorities for tackling SOC; and
• is effective at disrupting and investigating SOC.

Neighbourhood officers are aware of organised crime groups (OCGs) which operate in their areas, and submit intelligence in relation to their activity. However, we found limited evidence of effective identification of new or emerging OCGs.

We also found limited evidence of the force trying to deter young people from being drawn into organised crime, but the force has recently appointed a ‘prevent co-ordinator’ for this purpose.

The force should improve its understanding of the effect of its activity against SOC, and ensure that it learns from experience to maximise the disruptive effect of its activity.

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 closely with Sussex Police to ensure that enough trained staff and officers are available to respond to national threats;
• tests its skills and capabilities in training exercises; and
• has developed a good understanding of the threat to the public from an armed attack.