In 2023–2025, we carried out a PEEL inspection of Bedfordshire Police. PEEL stands for police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy.
We inspected how well the force performed in several areas of policing. Most of these areas were then graded as outstanding, good, adequate, requires improvement or inadequate.
Find out more about Bedfordshire Police
More information about the PEEL assessments
Our inspection assessed how good Bedfordshire Police is in ten areas of policing. We make graded judgments in nine of these ten as follows:
We also inspected how effective a service Bedfordshire Police gives to victims of crime. We don’t make a graded judgment for this area.
We set out our detailed findings about things the force is doing well and where the force should improve in the rest of this report.
We also assess the force’s performance in a range of other areas and we report on these separately. We make graded judgments for some of these areas.
In 2014, we introduced our police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach.
We have moved to a more intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years. Forces are assessed against the characteristics of good performance, set out in the PEEL Assessment Framework 2023–2025, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
It isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded in this PEEL inspection and those from the previous cycle of PEEL inspections. This is because we have increased our focus on making sure forces are achieving appropriate outcomes for the public, and in some cases we have changed the aspects of policing we inspect.
Our reports contain references to, among other things, ‘national’ definitions, priorities, policies, systems, responsibilities and processes.
In some instances, ‘national’ means applying to England or Wales, or England and Wales. In others, it means applying to England, Wales and Scotland, or the whole of the United Kingdom.
I am satisfied with some aspects of the performance of Bedfordshire Police in keeping people safe and reducing crime. But there are areas the force needs to improve.
Although the force’s funding is at the lower end of police forces in England and Wales, the number of officers and demand in terms of incidents, 999 calls and 101 calls is in line with other forces.
Bedfordshire Police has visible leadership with a culture of innovation to find better ways of working. It is reducing financial challenges by using technology to help give personnel more time to investigate crimes to keep victims safe. The force identifies future risks and opportunities through an effective strategic planning process to make sure it is fully prepared to respond.
The force is good at recording crime. It records nearly all reported crime within the required timescales. The force needs to improve how it records antisocial behaviour and rape crimes and equality data.
The force has strong governance and oversight of stop and search. It works well with its communities who scrutinise the force and help it improve how it uses these powers. However, Bedfordshire Police needs to improve its governance of use of force so it can make sure it is using this power correctly.
The force works well with partners to prevent knife crime and has done some commendable work in Luton to keep communities safe.
I commend Bedfordshire Police for making significant improvements to performance in its control room by answering 999 and 101 calls faster. But the force needs to attend incidents more quickly and update callers if there are delays in attending. We found that the force mostly graded calls correctly and used risk assessment tools to help prioritise them. But I was disappointed to see that it was still not giving callers appropriate crime scene preservation advice. This will negatively affect investigations. It is essential that the force improves in this area.
The force isn’t achieving enough positive outcomes for victim-based offences. Bedfordshire Police needs to fully understand this and increase the number of victim‑based crimes that are brought to justice. The lack of trained detectives across the force is putting a real strain on the rest of the workforce. The force should increase the number of trained detectives to help manage demand to achieve better outcomes for victims. The force has improved the quality of case file submissions to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). This is making a positive impact to cases at court.
At the time of our inspection, Bedfordshire Police didn’t have a prioritised list of outstanding suspects to help it target the higher-risk suspects first. But we found that the force managed sexual and violent offenders well, and it was making good use of Sexual Harm Prevention Orders to keep victims safe.
The force provides good levels of support to personnel who attend traumatic incidents or who work in high-risk roles. It is also reducing the number of people who leave the force, which is helping to improve the experience of staff and officers across the workforce.
Bedfordshire Police has listened to our feedback and has responded quickly to address some of the issues in this report. I hope the changes result in improvements that help it meet the public’s needs. I will be monitoring its progress closely.
HM Inspector of Constabulary
Using the College of Policing leadership standards as a framework, in this section we set out the most important findings relating to the force’s leadership at all levels.
There is good leadership in the force. Senior leaders have clear plans and priorities, which they communicate well to personnel through visible leadership. Bedfordshire Police invests in its leadership’s ability to support the workforce and improve performance.
The force carefully reviews data on leavers and joiners, and has made great progress in reducing the number of people who leave. This is helping to keep experienced officers working in Bedfordshire Police.
The force has effective governance in place to manage its performance, but it needs to do more in some areas to achieve better results for victims. We found that the force needs to concentrate its investment to make sure it has the right people in the right places to deal with demand effectively.
The force promotes a culture of innovation through key initiatives such as its work with Amazon Web Services to use automated chatbot technology in the force control room. This helps signpost people to the most relevant department or agency. The force is also in the early stages of using artificial intelligence to help build intelligence profiles and manage resources.
It also runs a Dragons Den-style forum where any personnel can present ideas to improve the force to senior officers. We found this is helping the force to improve. Personnel feel they are listened to and valued as the force invests in new ways of working.
Senior leaders take the time to understand key issues effecting the workforce through regular workshops with personnel that focus on culture. The force is open to feedback and looks for opportunities to learn and improve.
More detail on Bedfordshire Police’s leadership is included in the main body of the report.
The reducing crime assessment sets out what Bedfordshire Police is doing to reduce crime and how effective this action is. This assessment doesn’t include police recorded crime figures. This is because they can be affected by variations and changes in recording policy and practice, making it difficult to draw comparisons over time.
Bedfordshire Police shows a good understanding of current and future demand. It has an effective team that reviews future opportunities and risks by analysing socio-economic and environmental data and considering legal developments. The force has invested in innovative technology that is helping it achieve better results for victims. But there is still work to do to keep communities safe.
The force has a strong focus on prevention. It works well with young people to try to deter them from crime. We found this is having positive results in areas such as Luton where prevention work has reduced all crime in the Dallow ward by 38 percent. The force works closely with communities to understand their needs, which is helping to shape priorities.
The force has a higher number of outstanding suspects than it would like and they aren’t prioritised effectively according to risk. This means that the force isn’t able to target its resources to arrest the highest-risk offenders first.
The force records reasonable grounds for stop and search well and has effective governance and oversight to make sure it is using powers properly. The force needs to improve how it records and supervises the use of force. Using police powers in a proportionate and fair way will help the force to reduce crime.
The force records crime effectively but should improve how it records rape crimes and antisocial behaviour. It should also respond to incidents faster and update callers if there is likely to be a delay. This will help the force achieve better outcomes for victims.
More detail on what Bedfordshire Police is doing to reduce crime is included in the main body of the report.
This section describes our assessment of the service Bedfordshire Police provides to victims. This is from the point of reporting a crime and throughout the investigation. As part of this assessment, we reviewed 100 case files.
When the police close a case of a reported crime, they assign it an ‘outcome type’. This describes the reason for closing it.
We selected 100 cases to review, including at least 20 that the force had closed with the following outcome type:
Where a community resolution was applied.
Although our victim service assessment is ungraded, it influences graded judgments in the other areas we have inspected.
Bedfordshire Police needs to improve the time it takes to answer emergency calls. It also needs to reduce the number of non-emergency calls where the caller hangs up before a call handler answers it.
Call handlers don’t always use a structured process that allows them to fully and accurately assesses threat, harm, risk and vulnerability. Call handlers also don’t consistently identify repeat and vulnerable victims. This means the force isn’t always fully aware of the victim’s circumstances when considering what response it should give.
Call handlers are polite and give victims advice on crime prevention. But they don’t always give advice on how to preserve evidence.
On most occasions, the force responds to calls for service appropriately. But sometimes it doesn’t respond within set timescales.
Call handlers informed victims of a delay less than half of the time. This may cause victims to lose confidence and to disengage with the process.
The force has effective processes to record crime. It makes sure that most crimes are recorded correctly and promptly.
We set out more details about the force’s crime recording in the ‘Recording data about crime’ section.
In most cases, the force investigates crimes promptly. And it completes relevant and proportionate lines of enquiry. The force doesn’t always supervise investigations well, but it updates victims regularly. Victims are more likely to have confidence in a police investigation when they receive regular updates.
A thorough investigation increases the likelihood of perpetrators being found and arrested, providing a positive result for the victim. In most cases, the force took victim personal statements, which give victims the opportunity to describe how that crime has affected their lives.
The force doesn’t always record whether it considers using orders designed to protect victims, such as a Domestic Violence Protection Notice or Domestic Violence Protection Order.
The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime requires forces to carry out a needs assessment at an early stage to determine whether victims need additional support. The force doesn’t always carry out these assessments or record all requests for added support.
The force mostly closes crimes with the right outcome type. It records a clear rationale for the outcome type and this is effectively supervised. It always asks for victims’ views when deciding which outcome type to assign to a closed investigation. But the force doesn’t always have an auditable record of those views. The force always informs victims of the outcome code it has assigned to the investigation.
Bedfordshire Police is good at recording crime.
The Home Office Counting Rules, which provide the standard for crime recording in England and Wales, have changed since the last time we inspected the force for crime data integrity. The changes mainly relate to the way forces record violent crime. This means we can no longer statistically compare the findings from this audit to those from earlier audits.
We estimate that Bedfordshire Police is recording 95.5 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 2.1 percent) of all reported crime (excluding fraud).
We estimate that the force is recording 92.7 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 4.1 percent) of violent offences.
We estimate that the force is recording 98.0 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 2.3 percent) of sexual offences.
The force isn’t recording enough crimes when incidents are categorised as antisocial behaviour personal (ASBP). We examined 50 incidents closed as ASBP. In these, only 13 of 22 crimes were recorded. It is important police record crimes correctly to help keep victims safe.
The force’s data for victims of crime shows that age and gender are well recorded. But ethnicity is less well recorded and other protected characteristics aren’t well recorded.
The force should be collecting this information to understand the extent to which crime affects each protected group, how this differs from those without protected characteristics, and whether a different response is needed for these victims.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to crime data integrity.
Although the force records 98 percent of its sexual offences, it should make sure it classifies rape crimes correctly. We found that the force classified 40 rape crimes correctly. But it recorded five others as reported incidents of rape (N100 classification) not as rape crimes. Rape is one of the most serious crimes a victim can experience. It is especially important that the force records and classifies crimes accurately to make sure victims receive the service and support they expect and deserve.
Bedfordshire Police is adequate at using police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, Bedfordshire Police recorded 6,621 use of force incidents. This was an 8.3 percent increase compared to the previous year. But this was still 3,688 fewer incidents than we estimate should have been recorded. This could mean that the force isn’t recording all incidents where officers use force.
The force doesn’t track compliance for recording use of force by comparing this data with data on arrests, stop and search and mental health incidents. This would help Bedfordshire Police identify and monitor where it may be under‑recording the use of force.
The force should improve its scrutiny of use of force. Supervisors aren’t reviewing use of force forms completed by officers and aren’t checking if officers are uploading body-worn video.
The force has internal and external scrutiny panels for use of force. They review four to five cases every two months. But both panels review the same incidents, which reduces the opportunities for wider scrutiny. Bedfordshire Police needs to make sure the scrutiny of use of force is robust enough to find themes and trends so the force can make improvements.
People from ethnic minority backgrounds account for 28 percent of the Bedfordshire population, yet we found that they account for 32.9 percent of use of force incidents. This could mean people from ethnic minority backgrounds may be subject to use of force on a more frequent basis. But the force is improving its understanding of disproportionality and senior leaders closely scrutinise performance in this area. This is helping the force to improve.
The force should make sure there are reasonable grounds for applying handcuffs. The force told us that 186 people (42.5 percent) were handcuffed during stop and searches carried out from 1 November 2023 to 29 February 2024. From our audit of body-worn video, we found that in some cases officers used handcuffs without recording reasonable rationale or justification. The force should review its use of handcuffs during stop and searches to make sure it is using these powers correctly.
The force considers the welfare and well-being of any children that it searches. The public protection unit hub reviews all stop and searches of children and checks that a safeguarding referral has been completed.
The multi-agency safeguarding hub reviews these cases every day and prioritises them based on risk before working with local authority partners to make sure appropriate safeguarding measures for the children are in place. We found this an effective process to keep children safe from harm. We also saw that the children and young people board reviewed plans to safeguard these children to make sure they were dealt with effectively.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
During our inspection, we reviewed a sample of 101 stop and search records from 1 May 2023 to 30 April 2024. Based on this sample, we estimate that 93.1 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 4.9 percent) of all stop and searches carried out by the force during this period had reasonable grounds recorded. This is broadly unchanged compared to the findings from our earlier review of records from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020, where we found 94.8 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 3.7 percentage points) of stop and searches had reasonable grounds.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, Bedfordshire Police carried out 3,991 stop and searches. This is an increase of 8.7 percent compared with the previous year. This increase is higher than the national average across England and Wales of 2.8 percent.
We found this increase was helping the force find more prohibited items linked with the search in higher crime areas such as Luton. The force told us this was increasing positive outcomes. In the year ending 31 March 2023, Bedfordshire Police found the item looked for in 26.8 percent of stop and searches carried out. This is higher than the 25.1 percent rate across England and Wales, and shows that the use of stop and search is effective.
Census data was updated in 2021. In the year ending 31 March 2023, Black people were 3.4 times more likely than White people to be the subject of a stop and search by Bedfordshire Police. This is lower than the national average across England and Wales where Black people are 4.1 times more likely than White people to be the subject of a stop and search.
The force knows about this disproportionality and tracks it through the force performance board chaired by the assistant chief constable. The force reviews the operational context and intelligence to understand disproportionality. It also commissions detailed reviews where disproportionality can’t be explained. This increases its understanding and promotes improvements so the force can make sure it applies the powers fairly and appropriately.
Bedfordshire Police reviews stop and search data to help find good or poor practice and to resolve problems promptly. Supervisors complete an enhanced review of between 25 and 30 stop and searches each month. This includes reviewing body‑worn video footage. Senior leaders also quality assure supervisor reviews, which is helping to improve their quality. An internal stop and search scrutiny panel reviews four cases per month.
An independent community scrutiny panel meets each month to review body-worn video of stop and search incidents. We found that members were well trained to evaluate incidents. Their feedback is reviewed by senior leaders and tracked by the community cohesion team.
The force prioritises internal and external feedback from stop and search incidents by scoring them from 1 to 10. Those rated 7 result in a meeting between the officer carrying out the stop and search and the superintendent lead to discuss the incident. Incidents rated 8 or 9 are sent to the professional standards department to assess. The force feeds back learning outcomes to panel members to show it has responded to their findings.
We found good senior officer oversight and analysis of stop and search data. For example, the force reviews data on repeat searches of the same subject by the same officers. This is helping the force understand and improve the way it uses its powers.
The force told us that it wasn’t following the College of Policing national curriculum for stop and search and use of force annual refresher training introduced in April 2024. The force told us it had agreed with the College of Policing to fully adopt the course in April 2025.
The force provides mandatory training to officers on stop and search. This includes helping officers to better understand what reasonable grounds to stop and search are. Training also includes how to effectively communicate with people who have neurodiverse conditions and how to effectively safeguard people during stop and search incidents. Training also includes experiences of people who have been stopped and searched.
The force has effective processes in place to review the use of body-worn video. The control room reminds personnel to turn on their body-worn video when they are on the way to calls such as domestic violence incidents. Supervisors also remind personnel to use body-worn video for stop and search incidents. The force correctly uses body-worn video in 98 percent of all cases.
During our inspection, we found that supervisors didn’t always review body-worn video recorded at use of force incidents. The force is assessing ways to improve in this area. This will help scrutiny panels and supervisors to provide valuable feedback to officers and staff to help the force improve.
Bedfordshire Police is adequate at prevention and deterrence.
We found that the force doesn’t always use problem-solving plans to record and evaluate activity and share learning across the force. This is making it harder to promote consistency and effectively measure performance across neighbourhood policing teams.
The force uses problem-solving plans for large-scale crime prevention operations. But it doesn’t consistently use the problem-solving framework to prevent crime and antisocial behaviour in local communities. We found examples of this in the rural crime team.
Bedfordshire Police doesn’t oversee problem-solving plans across the force, which is preventing it from evaluating activity and sharing best practice. This is reducing its effectiveness in managing neighbourhood crime and antisocial behaviour.
Neighbourhood policing teams aren’t consistent in their approach to managing crime prevention and antisocial behaviour.
At the time of our inspection, the force didn’t have profiles for each neighbourhood policing ward. This means the teams don’t have a clear overview of their area with demographic data on population, employment and housing, for example. We found the teams also aren’t aware of all the faith and business premises in their wards.
The force should make sure neighbourhood policing teams can use ward profile data to inform and monitor their work with communities and crime prevention activity.
Bedfordshire Police tackles knife crime through a range of prevention initiatives. For example, a Power to Parents workshop has been provided to over 300 people in partnership with Bedfordshire’s Violence & Exploitation Reduction Unit. Parents share the early signs of their children’s journey into gang affiliation. This helps other parents identify these signs and prevent their children from joining gangs.
Since March 2024, the force has invested in a dedicated superintendent role to design and implement its prevention strategy. The superintendent makes sure a focus on prevention is in place across the force. They also oversee key crime prevention operations.
We found that the force has good quality problem-solving plans for large-scale serious youth violence and knife crime prevention operations in Luton. These are carried out in partnership with the local authority. Examples include Operation Metal, Operation Mercury Blade and the Dallow Cares project to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour in the Dallow ward.
These operations include regular joint patrols with social workers in high crime areas, working with gang members, seizing weapons and closing premises used for drug offences. The force told us that between 1 July 2022 and 1 June 2023, crime in Dallow ward in Luton fell by 38.9 percent. In the same period, serious violence fell by 45.6 percent and knife crime by 50 percent.
The force also ran advertising campaigns on YouTube in high knife crime areas. Anti-exploitation and knife crime awareness content was added into drill music videos and shared with young people in Bedfordshire. The force told us that from 1 July 2024 to 14 July 2024, over 79,000 young people aged between 18 and 24 watched this content. This is an innovative way to reach young people.
In September 2024, the force was highlighted in the national media for seizing over 35,000 zombie knives from a wholesaler before they were distributed on the streets following changes in legislation to make them illegal.
We found that Bedfordshire Police is consistently providing effective knife crime prevention activity and exploring new ways to work with seldom-heard communities, such as young people, to keep them safe.
The Chrysalis Centre is a programme aimed at breaking the cycle of domestic abuse. It provides interventions and support to adults and children who have caused harm in a domestic context.
Bedfordshire Police works with the Chrysalis Centre, which is a collaboration between Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire police and crime commissioners, local authorities, NHS integrated care boards and the probation service. The initiative received Home Office funding of £2 million over two years (2023/24 and 2024/25), with £1.2 million match funding from authorities across both counties. It started in September 2023 with a small number of personnel based in each of the forces.
The centre brings together a range of professionals from healthcare and criminal justice sectors, as well as behavioural change experts. Adults, and children aged 9 to 16 who have been abusive to parents, can volunteer to take part.
The centre takes referrals from agencies including the police, health services, local authorities and independent domestic violence advisers, as well as receiving self‑referrals.
The force told us that between 1 September 2023 and 1 September 2024, it made 101 referrals to the centre.
The Home Office is having the scheme evaluated. We will be interested to see the findings.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to prevention and deterrence.
Bedfordshire Police listens and responds well to its communities. The force runs face‑to-face meetings, as well as providing online and written information to the public. Its platform Beds Connected has over 22,000 users. This is helping the force build relationships in neighbourhood wards and set priorities with its communities.
Neighbourhood officers use Beds Connected to advertise crime prevention work, send alerts, run surveys and send updates on incidents. It provides local authority updates and scam and fraud warning information. We found examples of the force’s community cohesion team using the platform to record police visits to mosques during Ramadan.
Neighbourhood officers use Beds Connected to record if they are redeployed to other policing areas. But not all personnel across the force are doing this. The force would benefit from offering clearer guidance to the workforce. A consistent approach would help it understand how often staff and officers are diverted from their main duties.
Neighbourhood policing teams regularly carry out crime prevention activity and work with their communities in partnership with the local authority and councillors. They prioritise enforcement based on a top ten list of high-risk suspects, victims and locations. This includes searching high-crime areas for weapons, carrying out joint patrols in crime hotspots, and speaking to neighbours of burglary victims to gather intelligence.
The force also carries out fortnightly joint patrols with councillors to help tackle priorities in their wards. For example, councillors and officers speak with people begging on the street and make joint referrals to the local authority and homelessness charities to support people back into accommodation.
We found Bedfordshire Police worked well with the local authority, probation service, businesses and charities to prevent crime. For example, when a person leaves prison with an electronic tag, the force works with the probation service and charities to prevent further offending.
Further examples include Operation Highgate. The force tackled antisocial behaviour and drugs offences at Bedford bus station by issuing Community Protection Notices and warnings. Design-out crime officers worked with the local authority to change the area’s layout and increase lighting and camera coverage. This helped reduce crime and antisocial behaviour in the area.
The force’s Operation Bellville tackles prolific shoplifting. It targets the top ten locations and offenders. It works with the local authority and businesses to share intelligence and CCTV. The force told us that from 1 January 2024 to 1 September 2024, Operation Bellville resulted in 37 arrests, 124 charges and 10 Criminal Behaviour Order applications.
During our inspection, we found that Bedfordshire Police had created 75 problem‑solving plans for schools across the force. The education and diversion team has carried out a risk assessment and found 14 schools that need more focused crime prevention activity through regular visits.
The force has adopted best practice from another force to provide police education programmes for schools to use with their pupils. This focuses on areas such as child abuse, assaults and harassment, as well as raising general awareness of the law. The force told us that 40 percent of all schools in Bedfordshire were now using the education programmes.
During our inspection, we found that officers were confident applying for and using Community Protection Notices and dispersal powers. We found some good examples of the force using Criminal Behaviour Orders for larger operations.
But we found that the force could use a wider range of antisocial behaviour orders to help tackle local issues. In the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police issued 34 Community Protection Notices, and used dispersal powers (under section 34 of the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014) on 36 occasions.
The force has acknowledged neighbourhood policing as a specialism by developing a one-year programme for all neighbourhood officers and police community support officers (PCSOs). They complete a portfolio of work in areas such as understanding the community’s needs and problem-solving. They must provide evidence of operational competence in areas such as police powers, use of civil orders and Community Protection Notices. We found this programme has led to better consistency in knowledge and skills across neighbourhood policing teams.
The force also offers neighbourhood officers and PCSOs training to NVQ level 3 in crime reduction, which includes problem-solving. In addition, supervisors and senior leaders across the force complete training on problem-solving using the scanning, analysis, response and assessment (SARA) model. This is helping make sure the force doesn’t leave prevention work to neighbourhood policing teams.
However, we found that the training PCSOs received when they joined Bedfordshire Police didn’t equip them with the skills they needed to do their role. They received basic problem-solving training, but PCSOs felt there wasn’t enough focus on key areas such as managing and recording interactions with the community. We were told the training was more relevant to officers. The force should take steps to tailor PCSO training to equip them with the skills they need to keep communities safe.
Bedfordshire Police is adequate at responding to the public.
When we last inspected the force in 2022, we found through our victim service assessment that the force didn’t always identify repeat victims and those who are vulnerable, or record this information.
During this inspection, we were disappointed to find the force has made very little progress in this area. In our victim service assessment, we found that the force checked for repeat victims in 53 out of 76 cases we reviewed. The force checked to see if a caller had a record of vulnerability in 67 out of 82 cases reviewed.
The force has introduced a quality assurance process where line managers in the force control room check cases each month to see whether call takers are identifying repeat victims and vulnerable callers. But the force needs to do more so it doesn’t miss opportunities to keep victims safe.
The force doesn’t publish attendance targets, but it has an internal target of 15 minutes to respond to emergency calls. During our inspection, we found that the force isn’t always attending calls for service quickly enough. Our victim service assessment showed that the force attended 47 of the 74 cases we reviewed within its attendance time frame. It may be missing opportunities to keep communities safe.
We also found that the force isn’t always updating callers if there are delays in attendance. It updated callers if there was a delay in only 11 out of 24 cases we reviewed. Updating callers is particularly important as the force isn’t getting to incidents as quickly as it would like to.
The force doesn’t have enough trained emergency response drivers to meet demand. At the time of our inspection, the force told us it needed 220 trained response drivers to respond to emergency calls, yet it only had 166. This is reducing its ability to attend calls quickly. The force is investing in more driver courses. It expects to have 201 trained drivers by December 2024. Once trained, the force requires response drivers to use their qualification in the force for a minimum of two years.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force responds to the public.
In the year ending 31 July 2024, Bedfordshire Police answered 84.6 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. This was below the standard expected of forces in England and Wales of answering 90 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. If forces don’t answer calls quickly enough it can mean losing both public confidence and investigative opportunities to keep communities safe.
Figure 1: Proportion of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds by forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 July 2024
Source: 999 call answering times from BT
Note: Call answering time is the time taken for a call to be transferred from BT to a force, and the time taken by that force to answer the call.
The force has, however, made significant improvements to performance in this area since March 2023. Its performance continues to improve towards the national standard and is sustainable. Senior leaders discuss call handling through a gold group chaired by the deputy chief constable. They closely scrutinise performance in the force control room and make sure resources are able to meet demand.
At the time of our inspection, the force control room was well resourced with enough personnel in place to meet demand. The force worked with the College of Policing to understand its performance and to gather and adopt best practice. We found that the force was open to review and scrutiny, and was keen to listen and learn from others.
The force told us that as of September 2024, 15.5 percent of calls to its 101 non‑emergency line were abandoned. This is higher than National Police Chiefs’ Council guidance, which states forces without a switchboard, such as Bedfordshire Police, should aim to have an abandonment rate of lower than 10 percent.
During our inspection, we found that the force had improved its understanding of the number of abandoned calls through better analysis of its data. While this is positive, it could have been achieved much earlier, which would have helped create improvements sooner.
The force had correctly graded calls in 88 out of 94 cases we reviewed. It had recorded a structured triage in 66 out of 79 cases. We found that the quality assurance process in the control room was helping to create improvements.
We found examples of line managers dip sampling five to ten calls each month to make sure personnel were using the threat, harm, risk, investigation, vulnerability and engagement (THRIVE) assessment tool correctly. We also found that attending personnel completed risk assessments in 47 out of 50 cases. Using risk assessment tools well makes it easier to prioritise calls to keep communities safe.
When we last inspected the force in 2022, we found it wasn’t following its own policy that call handlers must give callers advice on preserving evidence. The force hasn’t improved in this area.
In this inspection, we found that call handlers didn’t give correct crime scene preservation advice in 9 out of 20 cases we reviewed. Advice on preserving scenes will increase the chances of successful investigations by securing better forensic evidence. The force has responded positively to our feedback and now checks this through its quality assurance process.
Bedfordshire Police requires improvement at investigating crime.
Bedfordshire Police doesn’t have enough qualified detectives in post. This means serious and complex crimes are often managed by inexperienced investigators who aren’t detectives.
As of 31 March 2024, the force needed 412 trained detectives, but only had 245. This means only 59 percent of detective posts were filled with trained detectives. The force only had 23 officers training to be a detective against a shortfall of 167. The force has a plan to increase the number of detectives, but more progress needs to be made to make sure serious and complex investigations are managed effectively.
During our inspection, we found the criminal investigation department (CID) and protecting vulnerable people teams had low morale. We found examples where frontline investigators were managing crimes without the training or skills to do so.
We found pockets of high workloads where personnel were investigating between 25 and 30 investigations at once. In one example, a police constable working in a detective role was investigating 29 crimes at once, 18 of which were rapes.
We found that CID teams often only had half the personnel they needed on duty. This meant investigators were struggling to keep up with demand. The force should take immediate steps to make sure there are enough trained detectives on duty and that workloads are manageable.
When we last inspected Bedfordshire Police in 2022, we found that it didn’t consistently follow the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime (‘the Victims’ Code’). The force hasn’t made enough progress in this area.
In our victim service assessment, we found that the force completed a victim needs assessment in 63 of the 84 cases we reviewed. We also found that the force recorded victims’ entitlement to extra support in only 22 of 44 cases we reviewed. It is important that the force understands victims’ needs so it can give them the right support. The force has made some improvements from our last inspection, but it needs to do more to fully understand and respond to victims’ needs.
We also found examples where victims didn’t always understand their rights. This included victims not being told their crime number or the name of the person investigating the crime.
The force isn’t achieving acceptable outcomes for victims. It has low numbers of victim-based crimes that are solved following investigations. The force needs to better understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police recorded 42,175 victim‑based crimes. Of these recorded offences, 7.8 percent were assigned an offences brought to justice outcome. This is lower than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales.
Figure 2: Percentage of victim-based crime recorded by Bedfordshire Police and all forces in England and Wales by selected outcome types in the year ending 31 March 2024
| Outcome types | Force outcome rate | England and Wales outcome rate |
| 1 – Charged/summonsed | 5.6% | 6.1% |
| 2 & 3 – Caution – youths & adults | 0.6% | 0.7% |
| 8 – Community resolutions | 1.2% | 1.7% |
| 9 – Prosecution not in the public interest (Crown Prosecution Service decision) | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 10 & 21 – Prosecution not in the public interest (police decision) | 0.2% | 0.8% |
| 14 – Evidential difficulties (suspect not identified but the victim declines or is unable to support) | 8.1% | 5.6% |
| 15 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports police action) | 9.8% | 13.5% |
| 16 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim does not support or withdraws support) | 24.8% | 21.5% |
| 17 – Prosecution time limit expired | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| 18 – Investigation complete – no suspect identified | 44.1% | 43.4% |
| 20 – Action undertaken by another body/agency | 2.2% | 1.5% |
| 22 – Diversionary, educational or intervention activity | 0.2% | 0.4% |
Source: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Note: Presented data comes from the July 2024 data release and may have been revised since. British Transport Police and the City of London data are excluded from the England and Wales rate. Total police-recorded crime includes all crime (except fraud). For a full commentary and explanation of crime and outcome types please see the Home Office statistics.
Figure 3: Proportion of victim-based crimes assigned a ‘charged/summonsed’ outcome (outcome 1) by Bedfordshire Police between the year ending 31 March 2015 and the year ending 31 March 2024
Source: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Note: Presented data comes from the July 2024 data release and may have been revised since. Victim-based crimes are defined as all police-recorded crimes where there is a direct victim, such as an individual, an organisation or corporate body.
Between the year ending 31 March 2023 and the year ending 31 March 2024, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned Outcome 15: ‘Evidential difficulties, suspect identified, victim supports action’ by Bedfordshire Police decreased from 10.2 percent to 9.8 percent. Both values are lower than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales.
Between the year ending 31 March 2023 and the year ending 31 March 2024, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned Outcome 14: ‘Evidential difficulties, suspect not identified, victim declines or is unable to support’ by Bedfordshire Police increased from 7.5 to 8.1 percent. This value is higher than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales.
The force introduced an out-of-court resolutions team in August 2024 to look for further opportunities to improve outcomes. This is a positive step, but the force needs to do more.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force investigates crime.
The force is routinely redeploying trained detectives away from managing their investigations to provide support to uniform colleagues. This includes policing football matches, guarding crime scenes and supporting night patrols. Investigators told us this was making it very difficult to keep on top of workloads. It reduces the time they spend investigating serious and complex crime to keep victims safe.
Criminal investigation department (CID) supervisors use Operation Tool, an initiative that sees personnel paid overtime to work from home on rest days. They focus on cases where suspects are remanded in custody. We were told that some personnel worked an extra 20 to 30 hours per month to help manage their workloads. The force should review its detective redeployment policy to give officers more time to manage their investigations and improve their well-being.
During our inspection, we found CID personnel spent too much time completing basic enquiries that should have been completed by the first officer attending. We found examples of detectives chasing up uniformed colleagues to upload CCTV to the case management system, or taking statements that the officers who first responded should have completed.
Supervisors don’t check the quality of uniformed officers’ case handover to investigative teams. The force needs to improve the quality and supervision of these handovers. This will reduce delays in securing better outcomes for victims and help keep them safe.
The force closely scrutinises outcomes to make sure it finalises cases correctly. It has a policy that an inspector must review all cases where a suspect has been found but the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. But the force doesn’t always create an auditable record of the victim’s reasons for withdrawing their support.
Where a victim doesn’t wish to pursue a prosecution, the police should consider if there is enough evidence to secure a conviction at court. This is called an evidence‑led prosecution. During our inspection, we found that personnel would routinely consider the use of evidence-led prosecution as a tool to keep victims safe. Investigators told us they mostly considered if it should be pursued. This includes all crimes, not just domestic abuse cases where it is standard practice. Our victim service assessment supported this, showing that investigators considered evidence-led prosecutions in 14 out of the 19 cases we reviewed.
The force has a specialist domestic abuse team called Emerald, which investigates high-risk domestic abuse cases. The force told us that 30 percent of all domestic abuse cases were classified as repeat cases (involving more than two incidents of domestic abuse in the previous 12 months). The force has evaluated these cases and found that most repeat victims didn’t want to support prosecutions. In response, the force now presents all cases of domestic abuse related to a repeat victim to the CPS to see if there are any opportunities to use an evidence-led prosecution.
It is important forces provide high-quality training for personnel investigating crime. This will help secure better outcomes for victims by keeping investigators up to date with changes in legislation, as well as sharing learning to continually improve.
Personnel working in the Emerald team told us that they received high-quality training throughout the year. This includes refresher training on key areas such as honour-based violence, the use of protective orders, stalking and harassment, and domestic abuse. The training is provided by subject experts or external professionals.
We found the programme was helping to equip personnel with the key skills they need to keep victims safe. But personnel in other departments, such as CID and protecting vulnerable people, aren’t always able to attend training because of their caseloads. In some circumstances, this meant personnel hadn’t received essential training for their role, such as achieving best evidence training. The force should make sure investigators across all departments receive the training they need to carry out their roles.
The force told us it had a young and inexperienced workforce. Over 400 officers have less than two years’ service. It has invested in a file quality unit (FQU) to raise investigation standards and help achieve better outcomes for victims at court.
The FQU gives investigators advice and support to make sure case files have everything needed for a successful prosecution. Where necessary, the FQU gives the investigating officer an action plan outlining what needs to be done and sends a copy to their supervisor. The unit reviews files before the force gives them to the CPS.
Investigative team supervisors told us the FQU was an excellent initiative that was helping improve standards. The force told us that in the year up to 1 March 2023, it had an 80 percent case file rejection rate from the CPS. As of 1 September 2024 this had reduced to 20 percent.
Bedfordshire Police is adequate at protecting vulnerable people.
During our inspection, we found that Bedfordshire Police uses Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) less often than most other forces across England and Wales. These orders aim to keep victims safe by preventing further harm caused by domestic abuse perpetrators.
Figure 4: Domestic Violence Protection Orders applied for per 100,000 population, across forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2024
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
The figure above shows that in the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police applied for 44 DVPOs at court, which equated to 6 applications per 100,000 population. This was lower than expected compared to other forces across England and Wales.
The force told us that domestic abuse cases make up 40 percent of CID’s overall workload. CID personnel told us they didn’t have capacity to apply for DVPOs. We found that the domestic abuse specialist team Emerald uses DVPOs more often. The force needs to apply a more consistent approach to the use of DVPOs and increase their overall use across all teams who investigate domestic abuse.
The force doesn’t have a clear process to monitor DVPO breaches. We found examples of where officers checked suspects were complying with their DVPO conditions in high-risk cases, but this wasn’t consistent practice.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police recorded 6 DVPO breaches, which equated to 0.8 DVPO breaches per 100,000 population. This was lower than expected compared to other forces across England and Wales. The force should make sure it has a clear process to check for DVPO breaches. This would help keep victims of domestic abuse safe.
When we last inspected the force in 2022, we found it didn’t have enough personnel working in the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH). The force told us it had 964 cases awaiting a full assessment. In September 2024, we found that the force had recruited more personnel, but there were still cases awaiting full assessments.
In July 2024, the force had 600 outstanding assessments, which it managed to clear in August. But, following a busy summer, the backlog of assessments waiting for a full review rose to 230. The oldest case waiting for an assessment was 17 days old. This means vulnerable people aren’t getting the help they need quickly enough.
The force has a risk assessment process in place for cases waiting to be triaged. We found no incorrectly graded high-risk cases in the backlog. The force responds to backlogs through personnel working overtime. We found that the force needs to improve its backlog management. At the time of our inspection, the MASH wasn’t connected to force demand management systems, which would make backlogs visible and allow the force to deploy resources to reduce them.
The force needs to improve the quality of frontline personnel’s safeguarding referrals to the MASH. In the referrals we reviewed, there wasn’t enough information to fully understand the risk associated with each case. This makes it more difficult to grade risk. The force is looking to improve the quality of primary referrals by running roadshows to frontline personnel to help share learning.
The force doesn’t fully understand how many frontline personnel’s referrals have been regraded. This means the force is missing opportunities to help frontline personnel more accurately grade risk. The force has invested in a quality assurance role in the MASH. This will help the force to improve in this area.
Bedfordshire Police has created a group, Bluebell, that provides support to personnel who have experienced sexual misconduct or who are victims of police‑perpetrated domestic abuse. The group draws from personnel across the force, including groups such as Women of Colour in Policing and the women’s network. Bluebell members share personal experiences of incidents, help to create and promote training, and raise awareness of key issues.
We found that the Bluebell group is helping to change force culture so personnel feel able to speak up when they see or experience unacceptable behaviour. The group has secured extra support for victims, such as counselling sessions. It also helped to promote a powerful training video where victims shared their experiences of sexual misconduct.
The Bluebell group has helped to share recommendations from The Angiolini Inquiry by setting up project teams to implement recommendations, commissioning staff and officer surveys, and consulting with staff and officer networks.
We found that the force’s overall approach provides strong support to victims within the force, raises awareness of key issues and is helping to change culture to help keep people safe.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force protects vulnerable people.
Bedfordshire Police has a comprehensive approach to male violence against women and girls, which is helping to prevent harm and secure positive outcomes for victims.
The force investigates all violence against women and girls. The force has, however, focused more strongly on violence by men by creating a male violence against women and girls gold group. A senior police officer chairs the group. The force has provided a male violence against women and girls curriculum for schools in the county. The force has also created a scheme where officers work with women to keep them safe from sexual offences and predatory behaviour while out running.
The force works closely with the three local authorities across Bedfordshire by analysing data for crimes and incidents related to male violence against women and girls. We found that the force tracked associated outcomes, numbers of child victims and repeat victims and perpetrators, as well as finding trends and patterns of offending. This is helping the force to target enforcement activity in the highest‑harm areas. But we found that the force didn’t regularly update all actions on its male violence against women and girls plan.
When offenders who have committed violence against women and girls are released from prison, the force notifies neighbourhood policing teams and local authorities to make sure safeguarding measures are in place. The force has a platform called MVAWG [male violence against women and girls] Voices, for survivors of rape and domestic abuse perpetrated by men to share their experiences and have their voices heard.
Bedfordshire Police has increased its use of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), also known as Clare’s Law. This allows police to proactively disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s previous abusive or violent offending (‘right to know’). The DVDS also gives potential victims the right to ask for this information.
We found that the force had significantly increased its use of ‘right to know’ applications. In the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police recorded 251 ‘right to know’ applications from potential victims, which equates to 3.4 applications per 10,000 population. This was notably higher than in the previous 12 months, when the force recorded 73 applications. This equated to 1 application per 10,000 population.
The force now scans overnight crimes and intelligence each day to find opportunities to make disclosures. In the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police recorded 122 ‘right to know’ disclosures, which equates to 1.7 disclosures per 10,000 population. This was notably higher than in the previous year ending 31 March 2023, when the force recorded 34 disclosures. This equated to 0.5 application per 10,000 population.
The increased use of disclosures is positive, but the force needs to make sure it can keep up with the increased demand. We found that victim engagement officers were having to work overtime to make sure they completed disclosures within 28 days.
Bedfordshire Police is adequate at managing offenders and suspects.
The force told us that in March 2024, it had 1,340 named suspects who were wanted in connection with an offence, but hadn’t yet been tracked down and arrested. We found that the force didn’t have a fully prioritised list of outstanding suspects based on risk within each department. This would give the force a clearer understanding of the risk posed by each individual so it could effectively target higher-risk perpetrators first.
Senior leaders have recorded that the number of outstanding suspects is higher than they would like on the force risk register. They manage the risk through the force performance board. In the year ending 5 June 2024, there were 992 wanted suspects circulated on the Police National Computer in the force area. Following a spike in demand over the summer months, the force told us that the number of outstanding suspects went back up to over 1,300.
The force introduced Operation Caged, where a team of officers carry out enquiries to find outstanding suspects. We found this team was making an impact, but would benefit from having a better understanding of the risk posed by individuals so they could be deployed more effectively.
Senior leaders should have a clearer understanding of risk in each department and should use this data to make strategic decisions to respond effectively.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force manages offenders and suspects.
During our inspection, we found that the force had a ratio of offender manager to offenders of 1:65. An offender manager shouldn’t have a caseload of more than 50 offenders and less than 20 percent of them should be high risk. High workloads can affect the well-being of officers and staff and the effective management of offenders.
The management of sexual or violent offenders team had a small number of vacancies, which was making it harder to manage workloads. We found that supervisors scrutinised performance data to provide an overview of how the team was managing offenders in the community. Supervisors use this data to prioritise highest-risk offenders. The data also allows senior leaders to understand future demand by analysing trends and patterns.
While the force has a good understanding of performance, it should take steps to increase the ratio of offender managers to offenders. The force should also consider increasing the number of sergeants in the management of sexual or violent offenders team. At the time of our inspection, they managed 8 police personnel and 386 offenders in the community, which is high. The force should make sure the team is fully resourced to meet current and future demand.
A Sexual Risk Order (SRO) puts restrictions on a person’s behaviour to protect the public from risk of sexual harm. A Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) is made by the court and puts restrictions on an individual considered to pose a risk to certain people. We found the force’s management of SROs and SHPOs to be effective.
We found that the force regularly reviewed its intelligence and crime-recording databases to look for opportunities to increase the use of preventative orders. In the year ending 31 March 2023, the force issued 55 SROs and SHPOs. This increased to 104 in the year ending 31 March 2024.
SHPOs are recorded on the force’s crime recording system. They are flagged so personnel can easily locate them. The briefing and tasking system makes sure frontline officers are aware of offenders who have preventative orders. If police stop offenders, they can easily check details of the order for potential breaches. Breach rates for SHPOs and SROs have reduced despite the number of orders increasing.
During our inspection, we found that the force’s internet child abuse investigation team (ICAIT) had an effective performance management framework. This is helping to improve outcomes for victims. We found that the team was well resourced and well managed. Senior leaders closely scrutinise performance. They regularly dip sample investigations and provide feedback to officers and staff to help them improve. The force shares information quickly with partners, such as social care, when it finds risks concerning children.
The force makes sure that digital media investigators attend every warrant to give early specialist advice and to help triage digital devices at the scene. This targets investigative activity in the right place. ICAIT is fully compliant with APP and completes enforcement activity within the required timescales. The force has increased its specialist capability to secure a greater range of cloud-based data held on devices. This means that the force can now recover much more data, which is leading to better outcomes for victims.
The force wasn’t always carrying out bail checks on suspects arrested by ICAIT and neighbourhood officers weren’t always aware of the bail conditions of registered sex offenders living in their wards. But we found that the force made good use of technology to proactively monitor the online activity of registered sex offenders on bail, including social media platforms. A dedicated officer gathers intelligence proactively. And the force reviews intelligence reports with maps of registered sex offenders daily to identify offending patterns.
The digital forensics unit (DFU) is well managed and has clear key performance indicators that are tracked at a senior level. The DFU can quickly analyse digital evidence sent by ICAIT, as it carries out the initial triage of devices at the scene. The DFU is managed within the same intelligence command as ICAIT allowing senior leaders to quickly and easily move resources to meet demand.
We were told that the DFU was slow at processing devices related to lower-risk drug offences. We found examples of the DFU taking over 12 months to review some devices. This is delaying the prosecution of offenders. Since our inspection, the force has introduced a dedicated team to speed up investigations for drugs offences. The force should continue to closely monitor this area to make sure there are no unnecessary delays.
Bedfordshire Police is adequate at building, supporting and protecting the workforce.
We found that managers feel they can’t support their teams enough due to high workloads. There aren’t always enough supervisors on shift to provide support to newer officers. Some members of the workforce aren’t having regular one-to-one meetings with their line managers, and their career ambitions aren’t routinely discussed or recorded. Personnel in acting or temporary leadership roles aren’t always trained before starting. This makes it harder for them to support their team.
Bedfordshire Police doesn’t fully understand the barriers that prevent officers and staff developing and progressing. The force has a positive action strategy, but it isn’t clear how it will achieve its aims as there is no accompanying action plan.
There are some initiatives in place to support personnel from under-represented groups during the promotion process, but not all members of the workforce know about them.
Some personnel have received training on how to support officers and staff from under-represented groups to progress, but awareness of the training is limited.
In our PEEL workforce survey, we found that 69.7 percent of respondents (515 of 739) agreed they are given the same opportunities to develop as other staff and officers.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force builds, supports and protects the workforce.
Bedfordshire Police offers strong well-being support that the workforce values. It has identified departments and roles that carry a higher risk to officer and staff well-being and reviews these regularly. Personnel in high-risk roles get regular psychological screening. The occupational health unit (OHU) works closely with the well-being team to support personnel.
The well-being team works with charity Mind Over Mountains, which gives personnel the opportunity to take time away from work to process traumatic incidents. Officers and staff are invited to walk in nature with trained and experienced coaches and counsellors.
The force also provides comprehensive, long-term internal and external support to personnel who experience secondary trauma from attending incidents to reduce its impact. We found examples of senior leaders personally speaking to officers and staff who attended traumatic incidents.
Bedfordshire Police has reduced the number of people who leave the force. In the year ending 31 March 2024, the attrition rate for officers (excluding transfers) was 6.4 percent. The attrition rate for year ending 31 March 2023 was 8.1 percent.
The force has processes to understand why officers and staff leave, or are considering leaving, through the culture, inclusion and well-being board. The force carries out regular surveys and focus groups to check workforce satisfaction. It carries out culture assessments in teams across the force, with key themes fed back to chief officers. The force focuses on retaining new recruits by providing early support from experienced officers. If student officers are thinking about leaving, the force consults the relevant higher education institution to see if any changes can be made to support the student to stay.
The force uses a range of data to find patterns and trends. It has a ‘pathways process’ for personnel who wish to leave. They are invited to discuss their decision with an independent manager who tries to resolve the issue. We found examples where personnel were offered new roles, changes to their working hours or support for promotion. The force told us that 70 percent of the people who entered the pathways process stayed in the force.
We found that the force provided effective training for its first-line leaders. But it should take steps to make sure that more personnel in acting or temporary roles benefit from it.
The force has a first-line leaders course in line with the College of Policing programme. This course is highly regarded by the workforce. The command team recognises that the force has a young and inexperienced workforce, and has provided extra support to first-line leaders to focus on core operational skills. This includes specific training on managing investigations and prioritisation of risk.
The force also provides other training for first-line leaders, such as the College of Policing’s Upstander Training Programme and cultural awareness training. This is helping the workforce to effectively carry out their roles.
The OHU provides support to Bedfordshire Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary and Cambridgeshire Constabulary for work-related clinical issues. We found that the OHU has a clear performance framework that is closely scrutinised by managers. The unit provides weekly performance reports to Bedfordshire Police, which include data on personnel who didn’t attend appointments. The OHU tracks clinical outcomes to help it improve. Personnel spoke positively of their experience when seen by the OHU.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police had 10.7 occupational health referrals per 100 employees. This is lower than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales. Despite this, we found examples where officers waited over 27 days for an appointment with a nurse.
Our data shows that the force is improving the time it takes from a referral to being seen. In the quarter ending 30 September 2023, the average wait time was 45.4 days. But in the quarter ending 31 March 2024 it went down to 22 days. Now the OHU is fully staffed, we hope the force will make improvements to meet its target of 15 days.
Bedfordshire Police’s leadership and management is adequate.
Bedfordshire Police is focused on improving performance. This is having positive results. But we still found poor performance in some areas.
We found gaps in data on use of force and inconsistent recording of problem‑solving activity. There wasn’t a fully established performance framework in neighbourhood policing. In the control room, we found the force isn’t always checking to identify repeat victims. And in the criminal investigation department, the force doesn’t have a clear process to monitor Domestic Violence Protection Order breaches.
The force should make sure it has the information needed to scrutinise performance. And it should make sure its leaders respond to changes in performance. This will help it provide the best possible service to the public.
Bedfordshire Police generally has good planning processes to make sure that the police and crime commissioner’s priorities are reflected in the force’s priorities and actions. But we also found that the force isn’t always responding to incidents and crime promptly, and that crime isn’t always investigated by sufficiently skilled officers. There has been a reliance on overtime and officers working at home during rest days to manage workloads.
The force’s planning should support it to respond to incidents promptly. It should give officers the training, skills, experience and time to effectively police the communities of Bedfordshire.
Bedfordshire Police has a culture of innovation to find better ways of working using technology to improve outcomes for victims. The force’s commitment and investment is having a positive impact, including at a national level.
It has an effective relationship with Amazon Web Services, which is leading to significant improvements in efficiency and how the force responds to crime. It is allowing personnel to complete administrative tasks quicker and frees time to focus on keeping communities safe.
Notable projects include the development of automatic redaction technology, which significantly improves the time taken to prepare files for court. The control room has chat bot technology that can signpost callers to information.
The force is also developing a tool that uses artificial intelligence to bring together a range of databases in one place, saving officers and staff considerable time. It is already being used in the eastern region special operations unit. The force is using this technology to manage intelligence in a faster and more detailed way. Once tested, this technology will benefit local policing.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to leadership and management.
Bedfordshire Police is well-led. Senior leaders in Bedfordshire Police make sure officers and staff are aware of force priorities and how it is aiming to improve through visible leadership. More than 90 percent of the workforce had attended Bedfordshire Police Vision events, where chief officers explain the force’s strategic direction. The force also provides half-day workshops for team leaders so they can align their teams with the force’s priorities.
Officers and staff spoke positively of their line managers, who set clear priorities and support personnel in their day-to-day work. But some of these managers told us that demand on them was excessive and they found it difficult to effectively supervise their team or complete their own training.
The force has a proven track record of collaboration with other forces. It works with Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Hertfordshire Constabulary in a three-force partnership.
In our last report, we said the force should review its agreement with these forces on the provision of its collaborated occupational health service. The service has since improved and senior leaders closely check its performance.
We reviewed all collaborative arrangements between the three forces and found effective governance arrangements. Bedfordshire Police benefits from these arrangements in terms of financial savings and access to shared resources.
The force is also part of the eastern region seven-force network.
Bedfordshire Police has a well-established and effective annual planning process that considers its financial position. This is known as priority-based budgeting.
As part of the process, the force assesses its activities and decides its highest priorities. The chief officer team oversees the process, which is supported by an effective force management statement that analyses future demand and how the force may need to change. The strength of the process means the force should achieve the £2.8 million savings it needs to make in this financial year.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police received £191,000 of funding per 1,000 population, equating to £139.9 million in total. This was lower than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales.
Figure 5: Total funding per 1,000 population by forces in England and Wales in the 2023/24 financial year
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Bedfordshire Police received 41.3 percent of its total funding from council tax police precept, totalling £57.8 million. This was in line with expected compared to other forces in England and Wales.
Data in this report comes from a range of sources, including:
For any charts and tables included in this report, we have listed the data source underneath.
We collect data from police forces twice a year. We agreed the design and schedule of this data collection with forces and other interested parties, including the Home Office.
Our analysts check and evaluate the collected data. We contact the force if we have any initial queries. Following this, we carry out an in-depth data review and make further contact with the force if needed. This process gives forces several opportunities to quality assure and validate the information they shared to make sure it is accurate.
We then share our analysis with the force by uploading the data to online dashboards. As they can review own and other forces’ data in context, forces can identify any notable differences or other inconsistencies.
This report presents the results from a PEEL inspection of one of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. British Transport Police is outside the scope of this report.
Any aggregated totals for England and Wales exclude data from the British Transport Police, which means that the totals will differ from those published by the Home Office. If any other police forces didn’t supply data and aren’t included in the total figures, we will mention this.
We use data that has been collected outside our PEEL inspection to support our fieldwork.
This report contains the latest data available before the start of our inspection and the data that the force gave us during our inspection. If more recent data becomes available after our inspection fieldwork and shows that the force’s performance has changed, we will comment on this.
In this report, we sometimes present information as rates per 1,000 population in each police force area. This allows our data to be comparable across all forces. Where population data is used in our calculations, we use the latest mid-year population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
In this report, we have included bar charts with dotted red lines to show where a force is significantly different from the average for forces in England and Wales.
The dotted lines on the bar charts show one standard deviation above and below the unweighted average of all forces. Standard deviation summarises the difference between each individual value and the average and can be used to identify extreme or rare values.
Forces that are more than one standard deviation above or below the average are considered significantly different. These forces are outside the red dotted lines on our bar charts and we have highlighted them in either a dark blue (forces above average) or light blue (forces below average) colour. Typically, 32 percent of forces will be above or below these lines for any given measure.
We survey the police workforce throughout England and Wales to understand their experiences at work. The survey is an opportunity for the whole workforce to share their views with us. It is a valuable source of information as it isn’t possible to speak to everyone in a force during our inspection.
However, the responses we receive come from a non-statistical, voluntary sample within the workforce. The number of responses also varies between forces. This means that the results may be not representative of the workforce population.
We treat the results with caution and don’t use them to assess police forces. Instead, we use the results to establish themes that should be explored further during our inspection fieldwork. The results can also be used to give more evidence and validate information from other sources.
We carry out a victim service assessment for all forces as part of our inspection programme.
We assess the service that a force provides to victims. This is from the point of reporting a crime and throughout an investigation.
We also evaluate how forces record crimes. We assess every force on its crime recording practices at least once every three years.
Details of the technical methodology for the victim service assessment.
We carry out a stop and search audit for all forces as part of our inspection programme.
Our stop and search audits allow us to evaluate how well forces use their stop and search powers. We review how many stop and searches a force carried out under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 or section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. We analyse:
Bedfordshire PEEL assessment 2023–2025
You can find more about Bedfordshire Police on our dedicated force page.
A small, diverse police force with vibrant urban centres, market towns and rural parishes, critical transport links and complex crime challenges.
Committed to safeguarding and improving services through culture, leadership, productivity and cutting-edge technological innovation.
Find out more about HMICFRS’s work and other inspection areas.
Find out how well other forces have performed during their PEEL assessment.
You can view the recommendations for all forces made by HMICFRS on our Progress against recommendations page. This shows how much progress has been made on these recommendations.
