Nottinghamshire PEEL 2018
Effectiveness
How effectively does the force reduce crime and keep people safe?
How effective is the force at preventing crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and keeping people safe?
Areas for improvement
- The force should work with local people to improve its understanding of local communities and show the action it has taken to address their concerns.
- The force should evaluate and share effective practice routinely, both internally and with other organisations, to improve its prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour.
Nottinghamshire Police needs to improve how it prevents crime and deals with anti-social behaviour. In 2017, we asked the force to get a better understanding of its local communities. We also asked it to evaluate and share good practice more routinely. Since that time, it hasn’t made enough progress in these areas.
The force has a new policing model, but it’s too early for us to tell how good this is. It sometimes moves neighbourhood officers and staff into other policing roles. This makes it harder for them to deal with local problems. The force has recruited more police officers to help deal with demand. It is planning to provide better training for its local teams.
Nottinghamshire Police works well with other public sector organisations to tackle complex problems and support vulnerable people. But the force should consult the public more when it comes to deciding its priorities and should use this information to help it plan its services. It should also get better at updating the public about the results of consultation.
The force uses a variety of local problem-solving approaches, but it doesn’t consistently record the results. Local differences can lead to different levels of service. It is difficult for the force to understand which approaches work best.
The force has reduced its use of anti-social behaviour powers. It doesn’t fully understand why this has happened or whether this change is positive. It is planning to research this further.
Detailed findings for question 1
How effective is the force at investigating crime and reducing re-offending?
This question was not subject to detailed inspection in 2018/19, and our judgment from the 2016 effectiveness inspection has been carried over.
How effective is the force at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims?
Areas for improvement
- The force should ensure that a DASH risk assessment is carried out for all domestic abuse incidents to reflect the force policy change.
Nottinghamshire Police is good at protecting people who are vulnerable. Officers and staff treat vulnerable people well. The force works with its partner organisations to understand people in the area who might be vulnerable.
The force is good at identifying vulnerable people when they first make contact and has good systems to do this. It responds well to incidents that are a priority. But it isn’t as good at getting to less urgent incidents. This may mean it isn’t addressing vulnerability as quickly as it could.
In 2017, we asked the force to get better at responding to incidents involving vulnerable people. It has now done this. It regularly gets feedback from vulnerable victims, including those who do not support police action. It uses the information to make its services better. Officers and staff are good at assessing risk at domestic abuse incidents. The force works closely with other organisations to protect vulnerable victims. It makes good use of its protective powers to do this. It also has good processes that help its officers respond well to people who have mental health problems.
The force is changing the way it manages registered sex offenders (RSOs). This is to follow national guidance. Specially trained officers will have more time to focus on higher-risk offenders. The force may wish to review how it manages people who breach court orders.
The force’s online investigation team can’t deal with all the cases it receives about children. The force is addressing this problem.
We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the force’s performance in this area.
Detailed findings for question 3
How effective is the force at tackling serious and organised crime?
This question was not subject to detailed inspection in 2018/19, and our judgment from the 2016 effectiveness inspection has been carried over.
How effective are the force’s specialist capabilities?
We have previously inspected how well forces provide armed policing. This formed part of our 2016 and 2017 effectiveness inspections. Subsequent terrorist attacks in the UK and Europe have meant that the police service maintains a focus on armed capability in England and Wales.
It is not just terrorist attacks that place operational demands on armed officers. The threat can include the activity of organised crime groups or armed street gangs and all other crime involving guns. The Code of Practice on the Police Use of Firearms and Less Lethal Weapons makes forces responsible for implementing national standards of armed policing. The code stipulates that a chief officer be designated to oversee these standards. This requires the chief officer to set out the firearms threat in an armed policing strategic threat and risk assessment (APSTRA). The chief officer must also set out clear rationales for the number of armed officers (armed capacity) and the level to which they are trained (armed capability).
Detailed findings for question 5