We would like your views on whether this programme covers the the right themes and areas of policing.
In 2023–2025, we carried out a PEEL inspection of Cambridgeshire Constabulary. 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.
Our inspection assessed how good Cambridgeshire Constabulary is in nine areas of policing. We make graded judgments in eight of these nine as follows:
We also inspected how effective a service Cambridgeshire Constabulary gives to victims of crime. We don’t make a graded judgment in this overall 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 pleased with some aspects of the performance of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, but it is inadequate at responding to the public and managing offenders and suspects.
It needs to do better at responding to calls from the public, management of sexual offenders and violent offenders (MOSOVO) and investigating indecent images of children through its paedophile online investigation team (POLIT).
In some areas we inspected, the constabulary needs to improve. It must answer 999 and 101 calls faster, and respond to those incidents more quickly too. It must also improve at managing risks from registered sex offenders in the community and to children from indecent images online.
The constabulary actively invites external scrutiny over how police officers use force and stop and search powers. This is an example of innovative practice. We found that it uses new digital platforms to hear directly from the public, including young people, to make sure it is treating its communities fairly.
I am pleased that the constabulary focuses on preventing crime. It does this by working with partner organisations, charities and communities to use out-of-court disposals. It also uses data and evidence to invest in crime prevention projects that have an excellent track record of success.
While I congratulate the police officers and police staff of Cambridgeshire Constabulary for their efforts to keep the public safe, I will monitor progress in the areas where I feel the constabulary needs to improve.
HM Inspector of Constabulary
Using the College of Policing leadership expectations as a framework, in this section we set out the most important findings relating to the constabulary’s leadership.
The chief constable is visible and involves all police personnel in shaping the constabulary’s priorities and culture. For example, he runs events discussing what it should focus on in the coming year. He invites all personnel to these events where they can share their views.
The constabulary is investing in its leaders so they can support people and improve performance. This includes coaching and mentoring schemes, plus leadership and culture courses. There are also specific projects that train people to lead confidently.
Senior leaders have several challenges to deal with. The most significant are answering 999 calls, reducing how often people abandon calls to the police and managing sexual offenders.
The constabulary works with Bedfordshire Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary in a formal partnership. This offers good value for money. A deputy chief constable oversees this partnership.
The constabulary has good oversight of data on new recruits and recent leavers. It uses this data to keep people in the constabulary, saving it money. This data also informs its organisational planning and risk assessment process (CamSTRA).
Senior leaders work hard to improve leadership at all levels. They provide support to people entering leadership roles for the first time via the ‘Stepping Up’ scheme. And leaders across the constabulary know how to demonstrate high standards to the public and their teams.
But the constabulary must improve how it scrutinises performance. It hasn’t responded fast enough to poor performance, including in areas where personnel can’t keep up with demand. It must make sure leaders can improve things when problems are identified.
More detail on Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s leadership is included in the main body of the report.
The reducing crime assessment sets out what Cambridgeshire Constabulary 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 make comparisons over time.
Personnel working in the demand hub identify vulnerability through effective questioning and good use of the THRIVE model. They share this information with the right people to support safeguarding activity.
The constabulary must improve how quickly it answers 999 calls. It must reduce the number of 101 calls that callers abandon and must respond to all calls more quickly.
The grounds recorded by officers for stop and search are almost always reasonable. This helps the constabulary reduce crime.
The constabulary prioritises crime prevention, antisocial behaviour and vulnerability. It focuses on problem-solving across its work. This helps to reduce crime.
The constabulary does prevention and problem-solving work with various partners. These include the Probation Service, schools and many others. One example of this is Operation Guardian, which diverts people who carry knives away from the court system.
The constabulary involves local communities in its neighbourhood policing. For example, it runs a quarterly public survey and ‘coffee with a cop’ sessions. It also shares when and where some police officers will be, so the public can speak with them.
The constabulary has good oversight of its investigations. This leads to high standards and good supervision. It also means all appropriate lines of enquiry are pursued. This improves outcomes for victim and reduces future crime.
The constabulary should improve how it manages registered sex offenders in the community. This will also help to reduce crime.
More detail on what Cambridgeshire Constabulary is doing to reduce crime is included in the main body of the report.
This section describes our assessment of the service Cambridgeshire Constabulary 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 constabulary had closed with the following outcome type:
Although our victim service assessment is ungraded, it influences graded judgments in the other areas we have inspected.
The constabulary 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 while they are waiting in a queue.
During calls, call handlers use a structured process that assesses threat, harm, risk and vulnerability. This process helps the constabulary identify repeat victims and consider the victim’s circumstances when deciding what response it will offer.
Call handlers are polite and give victims advice on crime prevention and how to preserve evidence.
In some cases, it didn’t inform victims of delays, meaning that their expectations weren’t always met. This may cause victims to lose confidence and decide not to continue with the process.
In most cases, the constabulary investigates crimes in a timely way. And it explores relevant and proportionate lines of enquiry. A thorough investigation raises the chance of police finding and arresting criminals, which gives a positive result for the victim.
The constabulary supervises investigations well and keeps victims regularly updated. Victims are more likely to have confidence in a police investigation when they receive regular updates. In most cases, the constabulary took victim personal statements, which gives them the chance to describe how the crime has affected their lives.
When victims withdraw support for an investigation, the constabulary considers continuing with the case without the victim’s support. This can protect the victim and prevent further offences from being committed.
In most cases, the constabulary records whether it considers using orders designed to protect victims. For example, a Domestic Violence Protection Notice (DVPN) or Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO).
The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime (the Victims’ Code) requires forces to carry out a needs assessment at an early stage to determine whether victims need additional support. The constabulary usually carries out these assessments and records requests for additional support.
The constabulary consistently gives a service that gets appropriate outcomes for victims. And it assigns closed cases an appropriate outcome type. It records a clear reason for using a certain outcome and this is supervised well. It also always informs victims which outcome code it assigned to their case.
But it doesn’t always ask victims’ views before deciding which outcome it should assign to their case. And when required, the constabulary can’t always provide an auditable record of the victim’s wishes.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is outstanding at using police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
When police officers stop and search someone, the constabulary sends that person a QR code. This code links to an explanation of stop and search powers and an invitation to join the community scrutiny panel. This panel reviews stop and search incidents and gives feedback to the constabulary.
The QR code system aims to promote the panel’s role and regularly refresh its membership. This includes a strong focus on getting young people to join. A more diverse panel scrutinising the police could improve its approach to stop and search. It could also improve community relationships.
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 218 stop and search records from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. Based on this sample, we estimate that 90.4 percent (with a confidence interval of +/− 3.8 percent) of stop and searches carried out by the constabulary in this period had reasonable grounds.
This is a statistically significant improvement compared with our previous inspection. It found that, in 2020 and 2021, stop and searches had reasonable grounds recorded in 80.6 percent of cases (with a confidence interval of +/− 5.4 percent).
The constabulary’s linked find rate is 31 percent compared with a rate of 22 percent across England and Wales. This is the third highest find rate in England and Wales. This means that the constabulary is using its stop and search powers effectively.
Officers use stop and search proactively. Of the searches we reviewed, 53.2 percent were done by officers during their everyday work, rather than in specific operations led by supervisors. This shows that the constabulary is focused on people or places where there is more crime.
We also reviewed 11 stop and searches via body-worn video (BWV) footage. In most cases, officers knew how to use their powers correctly within the law.
In 9 of 11 samples, officers told people they searched that they had a right to have a copy of the search record. But only 3 of 11 people were told how to get a copy of that record. The constabulary should take steps to address this.
The constabulary trains officers to better understand the reactions of people they stop and search. This includes how and why people from diverse cultures and backgrounds may react differently.
We found that the constabulary invites people from different communities into police training sessions. They talk to local officers about their personal experiences. For example, members of the Black community in Peterborough have given presentations to neighbourhood officers. And officers have also visited mosques and community centres to talk about stop and search.
The constabulary works with community groups, including young people, to understand disproportionality in stop and search. Police personnel sometimes give presentations and show videos about this in sessions with community groups. This allows the community to give feedback to the police.
The constabulary also communicates with young adults at local universities.
The constabulary has introduced new technology to examine its stop and search and use of force data. It can identify how many searches officers carried out, why and when they were done, and any outcomes. It can also break down this data by age and ethnicity. For use of force incidents, it provides the same data as well as what type of force was applied, such as handcuffs or Taser.
In the year ending 31 March 2022, the constabulary carried out 2,665 stop and searches. This was a 25 percent decrease from the previous year, in line with a 25.9 percent fall across England and Wales. The constabulary now takes a more targeted approach to its stop and search powers.
During this period, Black people were 3.8 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the constabulary than White people. Across England and Wales generally, they were 4.8 times more likely to be stopped by police than White people.
The constabulary monitors its use of force and stop and search well. It keeps good records on its use of force and stop and search. This includes details of anyone officers search or use force on. It includes their gender, age, ethnicity and any disabilities.
The constabulary also monitors where stops take place and if the same people are stopped repeatedly. It identifies officers who are using stop and search powers frequently and refers them to supervisors. These supervisors check if they are using them appropriately. A senior police officer also checks all grounds recorded on stop and search forms to make sure they align with the relevant legal powers.
The constabulary found that some officers were copying and pasting the same grounds across all records when they searched a group of people. The constabulary recognised that this was bad practice. It now makes sure officers record specific grounds for each individual.
The constabulary is using data and new technology to target stop and search activity in areas where there is more crime or antisocial behaviour. This means officers can use stop and search more effectively to prevent and detect crime.
Supervisors give feedback to police officers on the use of stop and search powers. This is informed by reviews of stop and search forms and BWV footage.
If supervisors identify that an officer needs to improve their use of stop and search, they pair them up with a tradecraft officer. This is an officer who is viewed as a professional expert, with lots of experience in stop and search. They work with the less experienced officer to improve their skills.
We found that neighbourhood officers, response officers and special constables receive a three-hour stop and search training package. This is part of their weekly continuing professional development (CPD). The package covers legislation, what reasonable grounds are and how to record them. It also explores disproportionality.
Supervisors receive extra training to help them manage staff carrying out searches. And new recruits receive training on how to work with people from different backgrounds during searches.
These measures have improved the use of stop and search powers in the constabulary.
The constabulary has an independent stop and search and use of force scrutiny panel. The police and crime commissioner (PCC) supports this by encouraging the public to attend panel sessions. The panel has a diverse membership and an independent member of the public as chair.
Every person on the panel receives training about relevant legislation and what to consider when reviewing incidents. The panel randomly selects and views documents and BWV clips to assess how and why officers carried out a stop and search or use of force. The constabulary provides detailed information around these cases to the panel. The panel then reviews and discusses these cases. Their findings are fed back to the constabulary to improve its stop and search and use of force.
The constabulary invites scrutiny panel members into training sessions. This allows them to see what training covers and take part in role play scenarios. In one case, the panel told recruits they were disproportionately handcuffing Black individuals during these role plays.
The constabulary monitors juvenile strip search data to inform scrutiny work at the monthly youth justice board.
The constabulary has tried to increase the diversity of its scrutiny panel in innovative ways. For example, they have worked with many young adults at local universities. A senior police officer and police staff member sometimes attend meetings with these groups. They offer senior leadership support and try to recruit new members to the panel.
Since our last inspection, the constabulary has improved its recording of use of force.
The form used to record these incidents is now easier to access. It is now available on police personnel’s mobile devices. Supervisors also prompt them to complete the form and there are posters up which give extra reminders. This has led to positive changes.
In the year ending March 2022, recording of use of force increased by 27.4 percent compared to the previous year. This means a total of 6,009 incidents were recorded. This increase is much higher than the 8.2 percent rise across England and Wales.
Based on its total arrests, we estimate that there are actually 4,650 more use of force incidents in the constabulary than the 6,009 incidents that it recorded. This is similar to other comparable forces.
In the year ending March 2023, Cambridgeshire Constabulary recorded 6.7 use of force incidents per 1,000 population. This is similar to other forces across England and Wales.
People from ethnic minority backgrounds account for 8.6 percent of use of force incidents in the constabulary. This compares to 14.2 percent of arrests and 14.6 percent of the local population. This could be because personnel aren’t recording all use of force incidents involving people from these backgrounds.
Senior leaders have improved recording of use of force. This has improved most around incidents where officers use handcuffs and people don’t resist. Neighbourhood teams receive quarterly training to make sure they record use of force. And an automated system prompts supervisors to review all forms completed by their teams.
Inspectors and senior leaders dip sample completed forms to check accuracy. Custody teams also sample 50 custody records a month. They check that personnel have completed use of force forms when people arrive at custody suites in handcuffs. This has improved recording by over 80 percent.
From January 2024, a planned IT upgrade will link the stop and search form with the use of force form. This should further improve recording.
The constabulary’s ethics and legitimacy officer has designed a training package called ‘#HavingTheConversation’.
This encourages police officers to ask questions about stop and search and use of force statistics shared during their training. It helps them understand why people may react by being nervous, aggressive or confrontational during these incidents. It places a particular focus on young people, vulnerable people and those from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is good at prevention and deterrence.
Operation Farmington is a multi-agency project to reduce demand from repeat callers. When there are 3 calls in 30 days from the same address, the demand hub informs the local neighbourhood policing team and local authority ward manager. In response, relevant partners (such as housing agencies) work with police to address the cause of these calls.
For example, one elderly female made over 2,000 calls to police and ambulance services in a year. The constabulary worked with health partners to create a plan to divert calls to an NHS care team. This continued while a care home place was found for her. Since August 2023, this means the constabulary has only received one call from her.
The Court Project is an early intervention scheme run by the constabulary and partner agencies. It diverts people at risk of committing crime or antisocial behaviour to other services. It also aims to deter them from committing any further offences.
The constabulary works with the Crown Prosecution Service, court staff and other criminal justice professionals on this project. They invite offenders to an inactive magistrate’s court where they take part in role-play scenarios. Expert role players guide offenders through the court and custody process. This shows what could happen if they commit knife crime.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to prevention and deterrence.
The constabulary makes good use of data to understand serious acquisitive crime. This includes domestic burglary, personal robbery and theft from a person. It also includes theft of and from vehicles.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, Cambridgeshire Constabulary recorded 8,012 of these crimes. This compares to 7,112 crimes recorded in the year ending 31 March 2022. This is an increase of around 12.7 percent. In the same period, theft of vehicles rose 36 percent.
The constabulary has carried out an analysis to understand why all these crimes are rising. At the time of our inspection, it told us that it is planning crime prevention work to tackle rising crime in problem areas.
In June 2023, the constabulary introduced prevention and vulnerability hubs. They combine the constabulary’s old prevention hubs, vulnerability focus desks and out-of-court disposals team.
The hubs promote the idea that all police personnel should care about crime prevention and safeguarding. The use the slogan ‘One More Step’. This challenges people to think about how they can best protect victims and prevent crime.
The hubs have various functions. They identify high-risk, vulnerable or repeat victims, prevent repeat domestic abuse and stalking and investigate missing people. They also apply for Stalking Prevention Orders (SPOs) and DVPOs and look after volunteers.
The hubs are still quite new, but we found evidence that they are already making an impact on prevention.
For example, the constabulary has an IT solution to improve understanding and monitoring of Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs). When a CBO is granted, the hub is immediately notified. In one case, a frequent shoplifter was given a CBO, but kept offending and breached their order. The police officer dealing with the case was told about this by the prevention and vulnerability hub. The officer then checked for breaches and was able to arrest and prosecute the offender.
Another example of early impact is the hubs’ research on hate crime incidents. The hubs found that hate crimes against people with disabilities, from the LGBTQ+ community or from some religious or racial backgrounds have increased. The constabulary has responded to this. It is working with schools to build a programme that deals with harmful attitudes. By intervening early, it can help to prevent future hate crimes.
The constabulary has built a new neighbourhood policing SharePoint site. This aims to help neighbourhood officers do their job. The portal holds important information such as key individual networks, College of Policing guidance, evidence of good practice and priorities from quarterly community surveys.
Both this information and problem-solving plans are shared with other teams in the constabulary, such as the demand hub. This means call handlers can find out valuable information about incidents the public are reporting. This can help the correct resources to be deployed in response.
The portal also helps less experienced officers by giving easy access to help and guidance.
The constabulary addresses community issues by working effectively with partners, including the local council, housing agencies and community groups.
There are monthly problem-solving groups with partners. At these meetings, a neighbourhood inspector presents community problems and partners work together to solve them. The neighbourhood inspector or a local authority manager chairs these meetings.
In one case, the constabulary raised the problem of children skipping school and committing antisocial behaviour. At the problem-solving group, housing authorities agreed to deal with this issue.
In another case, a pedestrian underpass in the Millfield area was being used for drug dealing. The constabulary worked with the council to install CCTV. Its officers also carried out high-visibility patrols and used targeted stop and search. As a result, the constabulary prosecuted several offenders for drug crimes.
The constabulary has also worked with other partners, such as Trading Standards, immigration authorities and HM Revenue and Customs. In one example, they tried to deter organised crime groups from setting up businesses to provide cover for criminal activity.
Police community support officers (PCSOs) regularly meet with the community to understand their concerns. They attend community meetings with the council and work with charities to help communicate with asylum seekers. They also hold street meetings with the Salvation Army.
The constabulary encourages community members to report issues from their mobile phones. They can do this by scanning a QR code displayed on posters in the Millfield area.
During our last inspection, we set the constabulary an area for improvement around evaluating its problem-solving plans. This was so that it could identify what works and share its learning. In this inspection, we were pleased to see that it has set up a problem-solving evaluation panel.
The panel has been running since February 2023. It meets every three months. Partners from community safety partnerships and housing associations attend to provide external scrutiny. A senior officer runs the panel, with neighbourhood sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors also attending.
The panel evaluates problem-solving plans. They check if objectives are specific and relevant to the problem. This includes reviewing relevant police intelligence and analysis. Feedback from the evaluation is sent back to officers. They use this to improve their plans.
For example, the panel identified that PCSOs needed more training around problem solving plans. As a result, neighbourhood sergeants arranged this training for them. The constabulary should keep building on the panel’s positive work.
Operation Guardian is an initiative to reduce knife violence that identifies and targets offenders who are prone to carrying knives. It aims to deter them from carrying weapons and prevent knife crime.
The constabulary shares intelligence on these offenders with other forces. For example, when one offender moved from Cambridgeshire to Sussex, the constabulary passed intelligence to Sussex Police.
The constabulary says that, because of Operation Guardian, hospital admissions with knife-related injuries have halved.
In the Wisbech and Peterborough areas, the constabulary is working with schools and other partners, such as housing and antisocial behaviour teams, to address antisocial behaviour, crime, safety and public confidence.
The PCC funded the Safer Streets 4 project from July 2022 to September 2023. The project taught school pupils about misogyny and behaviours towards women and girls. The project also trained local businesses to spot inappropriate behaviour towards women and girls and how to respond to it.
The project provided some long-term solutions which are benefiting the community. This includes changes to public spaces to deter antisocial behaviour, such as installing CCTV cameras in areas of high risk. It also led to the creation of a Neighbourhood Watch scheme and funding for CCTV operators.
The constabulary has a dedicated team, made up of a police sergeant and six constables, to target repeat offenders who commit crime in the city centre. This is a response to the negative impact of antisocial behaviour and offences like shoplifting, bike theft, criminal damage and theft from businesses. The offenders include people from the homeless community.
When we inspected, the constabulary had charged 15 offenders with 107 crimes in total. It had also made arrests for breaching CBOs. Businesses have given positive feedback and community confidence has increased.
The constabulary works with communities who traditionally interact less often with the police.
For example, the constabulary tasked neighbourhood teams with working more closely with specific communities in the city centre. This led to Operation Therasic, which aims to tackle racial abuse of Chinese people. Officers ran outreach events in places where the Chinese community often meet. They’ve done the same with other minority communities.
Increasing community confidence is important to the constabulary. For example, it tells the public where some police officers will be patrolling. This increases their visibility and helps the public to speak with an officer.
The constabulary also works with the university and colleges in the city centre to build trust with students. This has led to an increase in intelligence and crime reporting. This makes it easier for local officers to target enforcement activity.
Neighbourhood officers and PCSOs regularly attend events to understand local concerns. These include parish council meetings, ‘coffee with a cop’ surgeries, community forums and in-person Neighbourhood Watch meetings.
The rural crime action team also holds ‘meet and greet’ events. These are based at local farm shops that many people who live in rural or isolated communities visit. This helps the constabulary understand their concerns and keep communities safe.
The constabulary works well with partners to prevent rural antisocial behaviour and related crime.
The rural crime action team runs a monthly project called Operation Chambers. This involves working with partners like the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, HM Revenue and Customs, Environment Agency and Huntingdonshire District Council. Together, they recover stolen goods, seize vehicles, report traffic offences and collect intelligence for future operations.
Another example is Operation Galileo. This has reduced hare coursing from 2,044 incidents in the Eastern region in 2021 to 1,415 in 2022. This is a fall of 31 percent. This was done by working with other police forces to enforce antisocial behaviour laws, such as CBOs, Community Protection Warnings and Community Protection Notices, to cut crime.
In recognition of their work, the National Farmers Union has nominated the rural crime action team for a Rural Initiative of the Year award.
We found that the number of special constables has reduced since the pandemic. There has been no new recruitment for over 12 months.
We found that there is no clear way for public volunteers to support the constabulary. This is because there is no central point of contact for them. We were told that the citizens in policing team that manages volunteers is understaffed.
After a volunteer applies to join the organisation, the constabulary matches them to a role based on their skills. We found that this works in some cases. But it could offer more opportunities to make best use of their skills.
Volunteers have worked in the constabulary’s rape investigation team and have acted as role-players in other training sessions. They have also worked with a private company carrying out property marking to prevent catalytic converter theft. This was part of Operation Feline.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is inadequate at responding to the public.
In the year ending 30 June 2023, the constabulary answered 80.1 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. This was lower than the 90 percent level expected of forces in England and Wales. But since then, the constabulary’s performance has got even worse. In September 2023, it only answered 71.2 percent within 10 seconds.
Within three months, Cambridgeshire Constabulary should:
Within six months, Cambridgeshire Constabulary should:
Figure 1: Proportion of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds by forces in England and Wales in the year ending 30 June 2023
Source: 999 call answering times (unpublished) from BT
In the year ending September 2023, the constabulary told us that callers abandoned 32 percent of calls to its non-emergency 101 line. This abandonment rate relates to 101 calls that the constabulary has already answered and risk assessed. It then determines if a call is an emergency and whether the caller is vulnerable. Lower-risk calls are then placed in a queue for call handlers to answer.
The constabulary’s messaging system asks people to hang up and report online. But the constabulary can’t measure if callers hang up because of the long waiting times or because they choose to report online instead. And it can’t measure if people report online because they are following the system’s advice. The constabulary is actively working with its phone providers to make sure the phone system can start providing this data.
Every three months, senior leaders examine call handling data. They call back some people who hung up to find out why they abandoned their call. They also survey call handlers to check that they dealt with callers appropriately.
The constabulary should use performance data to understand what is going wrong and improve how quickly it answers calls.
In our previous PEEL inspections in 2018/19 and 2021/22, we found the constabulary wasn’t meeting some published response targets.
The constabulary still hasn’t improved in this critical area. Our inspection audit found that of 46 cases we examined, only 23 met the required attendance time.
Extra information from the constabulary shows that it can’t currently meet its target times for callouts. These delays can lead to missed chances to protect victims or collect evidence.
The constabulary should establish better oversight to improve its response to incidents. It should also develop its awareness of how well it answers calls and responds to incidents. This will help it identify improvements it can make.
The constabulary knows it must improve. And it has tried to understand and deal with these issues, including with a project team responsible for making changes in line with a four-part plan. But it hasn’t yet met its published targets.
Within six months, Cambridgeshire Constabulary should:
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the constabulary responds to the public.
When we last inspected, we told the constabulary that giving consistent advice about preventing crime and protecting evidence at crime scenes was an area for improvement.
In the first quarter of 2023, the constabulary gave its call handlers training in these areas. It also carried out internal dip sampling of calls and gave training to handlers.
In our victim service assessment, we found that call handlers gave good advice on preserving evidence in 22 of 24 cases. They gave good advice on crime prevention in all 29 cases we sampled. This is an improvement since our last inspection.
The constabulary told us its demand hub doesn’t have enough resources and 16 percent of the hub’s staff leave every year. This has made it difficult to meet 101 demand.
Since 2018, the constabulary has had a rolling recruitment programme. In their first six days, new handlers learn to manage 101 calls. They then complete a training course for two months. This covers the basics around the constabulary’s systems and processes and looks at risk management. After that, handlers start working in the demand hub.
The constabulary is trying different ways to deal with staffing gaps. This includes looking at best practice in how other forces recruit call handlers. The constabulary recognises that recruitment is made more difficult by how close it is to London.
The constabulary has a ‘one stop shop’ for applicants, where they complete the full recruitment process in one day. This means it can make formal job offers before a candidate leaves. This is reducing how often people drop out of the recruitment process.
The constabulary recruits more staff than it needs as some people will withdraw during the process. It also invites people who have been unsuccessful in the police officer recruitment process to apply for control room jobs.
In our victim service assessment, we found that call handlers generally use a structured triage approach (THRIVE) to assess risk and consider a caller’s needs. They did this in 57 of 61 cases we reviewed.
In all 57 cases that used the THRIVE model, call handlers gave a good reflection of what callers said. This means the constabulary is correctly prioritising calls and providing appropriate responses.
We also found that the constabulary identified repeat victims in 43 out of 48 cases. This is an improvement since our last inspection.
The demand hub has dedicated personnel who work on its digital desk. Each staff member focuses on a particular channel for their shift, such as webchat. They are all trained in THRIVE and managing risk. They don’t answer 999 or 101 calls unless demand is high.
The constabulary told us that if there are lots of 999 calls, it turns off the webchat service. The webchat staff then switch to 999 calls while demand is high.
The hub’s digital marketing officer promotes online services through its social media channels. This tells the public about the different ways they can get in contact. The constabulary uses a performance dashboard to tell how many incidents are reported online because of this.
After a pilot in the first three months of 2023, the constabulary has fully introduced rapid video response (RVR). If a victim who contacts the demand hub fits certain criteria, they can be connected to an RVR operator. The operator will take their report via video link and deal with the incident.
RVR aims to cut demand on response officers and reduce queues in the hub. This helps the police respond and give support to victims more quickly. This reduces risk.
From May 2023 to July 2023, the constabulary told us it resolved 694 incidents via RVR.
The integrated mental health team is based in the demand hub seven days a week. This consists of an NHS mental health professional based in the demand hub. They can access NHS records to help assess risks to callers who may have a mental health condition. During the night, the hub can contact a mental health professional via a dedicated phone line.
Response officers can access a joint response unit. This is a patrol car with a police officer and mental health nurse who attend mental health-related incidents. Having a health worker present can reduce the time officers spend at these incidents.
This unit won an award at the 2023 Parliamentary Awards in the regional excellence in mental health care category. It has since been nominated for the national award in this category.
In May 2023, the constabulary detained 27 people under section 136 of the Mental Health Act. This is compared to 59 people in May 2022. The time an officer spends at these incidents has also fallen by between 13 and 26 percent, depending on how quickly NHS mental support can arrive.
We were told that the information passed from response officers to investigators can be poor. This is often because details such as phone numbers are missing. This means that detectives have to contact victims and witnesses again to get details which officers should have recorded at crime scenes.
The constabulary told us that 44 percent of its response officers have less than two years of experience. In the next recruitment intake, this is due to reach 50 percent. With such an inexperienced workforce, there is a risk that evidence could be missed.
The constabulary is taking steps to address this. It is making sure that response officers complete basic skills training and spend time practising these skills so that they collect evidence correctly. Officers then move on to further training courses, such as on driving and use of Taser.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is adequate at investigating crime.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary doesn’t always achieve acceptable outcomes for victims. It doesn’t solve enough of the crimes it investigates. The constabulary needs to understand this issue and improve outcomes.
Figure 2: Percentage of victim-based crime recorded by Cambridgeshire Constabulary and all forces in England and Wales by selected outcome types in the year ending 30 June 2023
| Outcome types | Cambridgeshire Constabulary outcome rate | England and Wales outcome rate |
| 1 – Charged / summonsed | 6.1% | 4.8% |
| 2 and 3 – Caution – youths and adults | 0.5% | 0.7% |
| 8 – Community resolutions | 0.5% | 1.5% |
| 9 – Prosecution not in the public interest (Crown Prosecution Service decision) | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 10 and 21 – Prosecution not in the public interest (police decision) and further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest (police decision) | 0.1% | 0.9% |
| 14 – Evidential difficulties (suspect not identified; victim doesn’t support further action) | 5.2% | 5.7% |
| 15 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports further action) | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 16 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim doesn’t support further action) | 21.0% | 21.3% |
| 17 – Prosecution time limit expired | 0.5% | 0.2% |
| 18 – Investigation complete – no suspect identified | 45% | 42.1% |
| 20 – Responsibility for further investigation passed to another body | 0.7% | 1.4% |
| 22 – Diversionary, educational or intervention activity | 0.9% | 0.4% |
Source: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
In the year ending 30 June 2023, Cambridgeshire Constabulary recorded 59,919 victim-based crimes. It assigned 10.8 percent of these offences an ‘offenders brought to justice’ outcome, compared to 12.9 percent in the year ending 30 September 2022. This 10.8 percent figure is much higher than expected compared to other forces across England and Wales.
In the year ending 30 June 2023, the constabulary assigned 6.1 percent of victim based crimes a ‘charged/summonsed’ outcome. This is a decrease from 11.9 percent in the year ending 31 March 2015.
Figure 3: Proportion of victim-based crimes assigned a ‘charged/summonsed’ (outcome 1) by Cambridgeshire Constabulary between the year ending 31 March 2015 and the year ending 30 June 2023
Source: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
The constabulary should improve its recording of victims’ decisions, including why they stop supporting investigations. It should also make sure it records if personnel considered evidence-led prosecutions. These are cases the police continue with, even though victims don’t support it.
The constabulary usually doesn’t consult victims before it decides which outcome to assign to a case. Our victim service assessment found that it only consulted victims about this in 39 out of 57 cases we reviewed.
We also found that the constabulary tried to progress without the victim’s support in only six of nine relevant cases. By not pursuing prosecution on behalf of victims, it may have missed chances to get results for them. The constabulary should improve in both areas.
As of March 2023, the constabulary’s charge rate for rape is 2 percent. This is lower than the average for England and Wales of 2.5 percent. It is seeking to improve this rate and recognises that this is vital to protecting victims from harm.
To help with this, the constabulary’s case file standards unit is working with the Crown Prosecution Service to improve the quality of evidence submissions in these investigations.
The victim and witness hub supports victims of all crimes, except for rape and serious domestic abuse. The hub is based in Peterborough.
The hub divides support for victim and witness care across different specialisms within its team. This includes areas like human trafficking, violent crime and support for migrants. Independent domestic violence advocates also work in the hub and help to share information about domestic abuse victims. Some charities, like Mind and Engage, work in the hub too. They look after child victims and witnesses.
Every victim agrees a personal contract when they first make contact with the hub. This sets out how the constabulary should communicate with the victim. This includes what information they want to receive, how often, and what communication method to use.
The hub always considers victim safety, especially when contacting victims or witnesses in domestic abuse cases. The team signposts people to a wide range of external support and gives practical help such as food bank vouchers.
The team focuses on listening to victims and letting them share their fears and concerns with a professional. Offers of support aren’t time-limited. Victims often ask for support from the hub some time after the crime, following other events in their lives.
This tailored and intensive support has led to fewer victims and witnesses dropping out of the court process.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the constabulary investigates crime.
In our 2021/22 PEEL inspection, we found the constabulary didn’t always create investigation plans. We also found that it needed to have better supervision of investigations. In this inspection, we found improvements.
Since our last inspection, the constabulary has introduced Project Sherlock. This aims to improve standards in investigations. It involves a monthly audit to check the quality of cases using a ‘Sherlock scorecard’.
The project provides training and support for detectives and supervisors. For example, the constabulary provides ‘crime week’ training for all new recruits which teaches them how to investigate crime.
For officers covering supervisory positions on a temporary basis, the constabulary offers a specific training course to help them adapt. This is called the ‘Stepping Up’ programme. It gives training to help temporary supervisors lead policing work and manage people.
The constabulary’s intranet includes guidance on carrying out investigations. It has lots of information, including detail on legal restrictions the constabulary can place on offenders and legal processes involved in investigations. There is also a guidance booklet for supervisors. This helps them understand what the constabulary expects them to do.
Our victim service assessment reflects these positive changes. Our audit found investigation plans existed for 50 out of 51 cases. These plans were followed in 46 out of these 50 cases. There was effective supervision in 67 out of 73 cases we reviewed. And overall, the constabulary handled 87 cases out of 100 well.
The constabulary’s crime standards delivery group oversees the resources used to improve investigations. A senior officer chairs this group. It has helped to improve the constabulary’s approach and has identified training needs, such as in disclosure.
The group has other responsibilities too. For example, it has guided technology changes to speed up information sharing with partners such as local authorities. It also monitors recruitment into general and specialist investigation teams.
In general, we found that senior leaders regularly examine the caseloads that investigators have. They do this to check the quality of their work and offer support where needed.
In our 2021/22 PEEL inspection, we found that the constabulary wasn’t complying with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime. It didn’t contact victims in a timely way or keep them updated about the progress of cases. In this inspection, we found improvements.
We found that detectives and officers had good knowledge of the requirements of the code and treated them as a priority. Supervisors help to increase awareness of Victims’ Code through training, reminder emails and laminated notices in police stations.
The child abuse investigation support unit demonstrates good practice. Investigators in this team focus on meeting victims’ needs. They take a tailored approach for each individual they support. In the serious crime team, detectives contact victims within five days of them reporting a crime.
The constabulary’s technology platform sends automated reminders to tell police personnel when the next victim contact is due. These reminders have helped to improve compliance with the Victims’ Code.
Our victim service assessment audit measured how often victims received service in line with the Victims’ Code. It found that the constabulary met these standards in 86 out of 97 cases. The constabulary recorded a victim needs assessment in 62 out of 67 cases. And it met the standards set out in victim contracts in 76 out of 79 cases.
The constabulary uses out-of-court disposals to divert people from the criminal justice system. This includes perpetrator programmes, which help offenders change their behaviour without going to court. We found that the volume crime team (which investigates crimes that aren’t defined as serious and complex) often used these programmes, with the team’s senior leader encouraging them to do this.
An example of a diversion programme is ‘Brighter Tomorrow’, which targets female offenders. It applies to crimes where, for example, women may have acted violently after being victims of abuse. In these cases, the constabulary offers the programme as part of a community resolution or conditional caution. It aims to stop this behaviour and signposts them to alcohol or mental health support services.
Another example of an out-of-court disposal is the adolescent parent violence programme. This is offered by the constabulary and the Probation Service. This 13 week scheme aims to reduce violence committed by children aged 13 to 19 towards their parents. So far, 45 families in the county have attended this course.
The constabulary has 163 vacant detective positions. This is an overall vacancy rate of 32 percent. It has a recruitment plan to address this, with 104 detectives currently in training. When these trainees arrive in post, the vacancy rate will fall to 12 percent.
We found that some detective teams have experienced vacancy rates as high as 47 percent. This resulted in high workloads within these teams. The constabulary is looking at the impact on their welfare. With the new trainees coming in, some teams will return to full staffing.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is adequate at protecting vulnerable people.
When we inspected the multi-agency safeguarding hub and the child exploitation hub, we found that some supervisors had limited experience in safeguarding.
The constabulary had no formal safeguarding induction or training for people in these roles. This meant that some don’t have the knowledge they need. These same personnel attend important meetings about children at significant risk of harm.
In addition, this might mean these personnel don’t understand their role or those of other agencies in multi-agency work. It could make it harder for them to assess risk and lead safeguarding activity.
To keep children and adults safe, personnel must have good working knowledge or experience of safeguarding. We told the constabulary about our findings. It is now creating a new training programme.
A multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) is a meeting which discusses domestic abuse victims at high risk of serious harm or murder. Many partners attend these meetings. This includes the police, health and housing agencies, the Probation Service, independent domestic violence advocates and specialists from the voluntary sector.
The UK charity SafeLives produces guidance on MARACs. It says that chairs should have experience leading public protection meetings and the authority to hold other agencies to account. Chairs need to be senior enough to lead action that can reduce harm to vulnerable people.
In our inspection, we found that some police constables have been chairing MARACs. One police constable had done so for 18 months. This officer had no public protection background or formal MARAC chair training.
We also found examples of police constables who are the MARAC chair while also representing the police. This means they will be setting themselves actions which they will need to check with senior officers later on. Police constables aren’t appropriate choices to serve as MARAC chairs.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the constabulary protects vulnerable people.
In April 2023, the constabulary introduced a new safeguarding referrals system.
This lets response officers record information about vulnerable people on their laptops. They can do this while talking to someone who may be vulnerable. After this, supervisors check and send them to the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) for action. This new process makes referrals faster and means safeguarding can happen more quickly.
The constabulary faced several challenges when they brought in this process. They didn’t have enough personnel to manage the resulting increase in referrals. This led to delays in assessing them and sharing them with partners.
The constabulary had planned for an increase in referrals, but it didn’t realise how many there would be or how quickly a backlog would develop. It became aware of this problem a few weeks after the new model was brought in.
But it was slow to respond to this. And senior leaders didn’t have the right systems to prevent backlogs in the first place.
By the end of June 2023, the backlog had peaked at 3,000 referrals. Our inspection found that this fell to 1,700 by August 2023.
We were pleased to see the constabulary has acted on our early findings.
The backlog is now at 250 referrals, the ‘safe’ level the constabulary has set in line with College of Policing standards. MASH personnel have adapted their work patterns so that more are in the hub at the busiest times and on weekends. This also means they are more accessible to frontline officers to give safeguarding advice.
Senior leaders should continue to check demand in the MASH and make sure it has enough resources to make prompt referrals.
In 2023, the constabulary’s vulnerability strategy was refreshed. It has a chief officer lead. This strategy is supported by three others: a violence against women and girls strategy, an offenders and suspects strategy and another for victims and witnesses.
The strategy also includes a performance framework. This aligns with the national vulnerability action plan and the College of Policing’s 13 vulnerability strands. Each of these strands is evidence-based and has a responsible lead who reports to the constabulary’s performance board.
The constabulary previously completed a project with an independent consultancy to learn more about the experience of rape victims. Together, they created a survey for victims. Victims fill out different parts of the survey at specific times after starting their case. These are six weeks, three months and eight months in, and then whenever the case reaches an outcome. The survey explores their views on the processes and cultures they see. This includes feedback on the police and the independent sexual violence adviser service offered by Rape Crisis.
The constabulary discusses the findings from this ongoing survey every month, looking at both individuals and the overall trends. This informs an action plan that aims to improve victims’ experiences. The constabulary has made several changes in response. For example, explaining what sexual assault referral centres are for and making clear the different roles of specialist officers and independent sexual violence advisers.
We found that personnel understand that protection orders can safeguard victims of domestic abuse or stalking. Officers told us they routinely consider using these orders and know how to apply for them.
Since the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act came into force in October 2022, use of DVPOs has fallen. The constabulary is trying to raise awareness of them to increase their use and safeguard victims.
In the year ending 31 March 2022, superintendents in the constabulary authorised 177 DVPNs. In the year ending 31 March 2023, this decreased to 132.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, the constabulary made 132 DVPO applications. This meant it made DVPO applications in 1.2 percent of all domestic abuse-related crimes. In the year ending 31 March 2022, it made 174 DVPO applications. This is equivalent to 1.5 percent of all domestic abuse-related crimes. This means the rate of DVPO applications has fallen.
Our victim service assessment audit found that the constabulary considered using DVPOs and DVPNs in 14 of 15 cases. It is keeping victims safe by using these orders.
The constabulary has a domestic abuse scrutiny panel. This checks cases to make sure personnel apply for protection orders when appropriate. Supervisors also analyse cases to make sure this is happening.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), also known as Clare’s Law, gives people the right to ask police if their partner could pose a threat to them. In the year ending 31 March 2023, the constabulary received 149 DVDS applications and made 80 disclosures. The MASH deals with this process.
When we inspected, the constabulary had no performance data available on the DVDS process. This was because it didn’t have effective oversight of the process. This meant it couldn’t tell us if they meet the legal disclosure timelines. We understand that the constabulary has started to address this.
The constabulary has secured funding from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to continue its domestic abuse perpetrator programme. This aims to reduce reoffending and change behaviour. Instead of going to court, perpetrators receive a conditional caution and must attend the programme. An early evaluation by the constabulary shows that this helps victims feel safer.
The constabulary has also worked with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to secure more funding. This is to recruit a new domestic abuse perpetrator panel co-ordinator. It will also fund a new domestic abuse and stalking intervention programme to train personnel to use SPOs. This will help the constabulary safeguard victims and track compliance with SPOs.
The constabulary’s Violence Against Women and Girls action plan has resulted in several prevention projects. This includes training for CCTV operators and night time economy workers (such as door staff). It has also helped pay for more CCTV coverage, more use of dash cams in vehicles and new video doorbells. Successful bids to the Safer Streets Fund and other funding streams have helped pay for these projects.
The constabulary’s school education programme for 16-year-olds is another example of good practice. In these sessions, officers speak to young people about attitudes and behaviours towards women and girls. They encourage open discussion about misogyny and social media. The focus is on keeping people safe through positive attitudes and behaviour.
The constabulary told us that Cambridgeshire County Council’s education department has approved this programme.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is inadequate at managing offenders and suspects.
Our inspection found that police personnel regularly visit registered sex offenders on their own. This is contrary to authorised professional practice. This is because meeting registered sex offenders individually makes personnel vulnerable to grooming.
Senior leaders told us that visits like this only occurred after risk assessments and with oversight from supervisors. But more junior personnel told us this was common practice to deal with heavy workloads.
To provide effective oversight, the constabulary should hold regular meetings to examine its performance and the data available on it. This should set out the backlog’s size, the risk posed by these cases and the most overdue visit.
We found that performance data is held at a local level and contains the total number of overdue visits at each risk level. But it doesn’t show how overdue visits are or the specific risks in individual cases.
Senior leaders don’t routinely see this data. This stops them taking good decisions to give staff the resources and support they need. Leaders must have clear oversight of performance information like this. This will make sure they can understand risks, backlogs and whether individual visits are taking place.
Within three months, Cambridgeshire Constabulary should develop a performance framework that helps it understand:
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the constabulary manages offenders and suspects.
In our last inspection, we found a number of problems. Supervisor reviews of registered sex offender cases were poor. There were missed opportunities to assess registered sex offenders. And when the constabulary did intelligence checks, it only used police systems. It didn’t examine other platforms like social media.
In this inspection, we found similar failings. We found that supervisor reviews were still poor. Assessments and home visits to registered sex offenders sometimes weren’t completed on time. Some registered sex offenders weren’t given enhanced intelligence checks. And records of actions and attempted visits were often incomplete or missing.
For example, our audit identified a case of a registered sex offender with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. This allowed the constabulary to install monitoring software on their electronic devices. But it didn’t do so and gave no clear reason for this decision.
We looked at another case involving a high-risk person who had been in and out of prison. We found that the police hadn’t visited this person for several months. Supervisor reviews of this case were again poor.
When the constabulary completed active risk management system checks, they were of a good standard. But they weren’t always completed within the legal deadlines. In some cases, risk management plans were well written and considered relevant factors.
We also found that enhanced intelligence checks were still limited. The constabulary only searches police systems during these checks. They don’t complete financial checks or analyse automatic number plate recognition records and online shopping platforms.
We found that supervisors managed large teams and usually handled cases involving about 500 registered sex offenders. They told us they found this number difficult to manage. It meant that they couldn’t support their teams with visits to registered sex offenders, especially when personnel are covering for colleagues on leave.
The constabulary told us that offender managers also have large workloads. They usually deal with 50 to 60 offenders each, with around 72 live investigations. To manage this, the constabulary tells managers to do many of these visits on their own.
Personnel working on MOSOVO teams told us their welfare isn’t taken seriously by senior leaders. They argued that leaders don’t understand the role. And they said that they aren’t offered well-being support and have to ask for it. They felt that the constabulary doesn’t take enough action to actually improve their well-being.
The constabulary told us about one officer reviewing 175,000 images from an offender’s phone. They had already spent two full working days on this, with two more to go. Despite this, the officer received no welfare support from the constabulary.
The constabulary has a scheme called ‘Pause Point’ which lets people in high-risk roles take a break from their job. But personnel in MOSOVO teams weren’t aware this existed.
Overall, we found that MOSOVO personnel don’t trust senior leaders to support them. The constabulary must address this urgently.
Early on in our inspection, we looked at some online child abuse cases. We found that there were large backlogs, with many cases due for police action.
The constabulary told us the backlog contained 30 medium-risk and 30 low-risk cases. But our review found cases where it wasn’t properly safeguarding children. And some cases were over a year old. This suggests the constabulary didn’t understand the risks within the backlog.
In response to our early findings, the constabulary acted quickly to reduce the backlogs and protect children from harm. This included a period of intense work from the POLIT with oversight from a senior officer.
We found that welfare was good in the POLIT. The constabulary told us that leaders are visible and understand the high-risk nature of the role. Occupational health carries out psychological assessments every six months and arranges more welfare support if needed. There is little turnover of personnel. And the POLIT understands the Pause Point scheme and is regularly offered access to it.
But the constabulary told us that the intense work to reduce backlogs may be harming staff welfare. This includes a rise in sickness rates. It should monitor the situation and reduce the risk of further illness.
We found a lack of clarity around working with others to safeguard children. The constabulary told us it has a weekly meeting with partners, including health, education and social services. But it doesn’t cover all cases and there is no formal sharing of risk. We didn’t find a consistent approach to sharing information with partners.
When the constabulary believes a suspect has access to children, it should make a referral to social services as early as possible. This would allow the two services to begin sharing information and assess the risk posed by suspects.
In some cases, partners will have valuable information about potential suspects. But if this isn’t shared quickly enough, children may continue to be at risk. Creating clear ways to share information is essential to protecting children from harm.
In our last PEEL inspection, we also said that the constabulary should improve its intelligence development work. We were pleased to see the constabulary has acted on our feedback. It has since recruited more personnel to work in this area.
In 2021, we inspected Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s child protection services and made several recommendations. The constabulary should make sure it continues to act on these too.
The constabulary has good data on how many suspects or wanted people it is looking for. Senior leaders can access this data and the constabulary uses it to prioritise the suspects it pursues.
The constabulary has a risk assessment process to identify the most dangerous perpetrators. It discusses and prioritises these offenders at daily management meetings. This helps it carry out targeted work and make arrests quickly. It also allocates high-risk cases to neighbourhood or response officers to target offenders.
We found that there are good processes to share details of wanted suspects on the Police National Computer. And investigations stay open until wanted suspects are found and arrested. This approach reduces the risk of further offending. It means that the constabulary can progress investigations and keep victims safe.
The constabulary has a detailed policy about the use of bail in line with the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This includes explaining what is required by officers and supervisors. It emphasises that bail should be preferred instead of released under investigation (RUI), given the safeguarding benefits.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, the proportion of arrests using pre-charge bail was 27.8 percent. This is an increase from 25.2 percent in the year ending 31 March 2022.
The custody policy and performance team is made up of two custody sergeants and one police staff member. It makes sure the constabulary uses RUI correctly and organises when people on bail must return to police stations to be formally charged. It also checks that relevant data is recorded to a good standard.
The constabulary’s case management system is called Athena. This gives automatic reminders for when bail is set to expire. This assists with managing bail and reduces the risk that bail goes on too long and becomes RUI.
The use of RUI has dropped by more than half. It was 11 percent in the year ending 31 March 2023, down from 25.8 percent in the year ending 31 March 2022.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary is good at building, supporting and protecting the workforce.
We found mixed views about how the constabulary manages individual performance. Police officers told us that, unless they want a promotion or move to a specialist role, they see little value in it.
Officers told us they only complete a performance review because it is linked to pay rises for the first seven years in the role. They also only complete the parts needed to get a pay rise. We heard this from constables and sergeants across the constabulary.
In January 2022, the constabulary presented findings from a review of its culture. This asked the workforce about leadership, fairness, well-being and whether the organisation supports them and trusts them to do their jobs.
A key finding was that leaders should be responsible for developing those they manage. But there was a consensus that personal development isn’t a priority. Performance reviews and one-to-one meetings rarely took place. The review also found that supervisors often change roles. This meant that many personnel felt little interest from leaders in supporting their needs.
Our PEEL workforce survey ran from 12 June 2023 to 7 July 2023. It found that, of people who had a formal professional development review in the last year, only 149 of 316 said it was a good development tool. This is just 47.1 percent. And only 58.2 percent (184 of 316) said they valued the process.
The constabulary should consider how to improve the value and benefits the professional development review system offers to police personnel. This will help it manage the performance and development of the workforce, including volunteers.
The constabulary runs a survey to explore if new recruits stay in the workforce and how it can support them. This is called ‘Fit to Proceed’.
Regional occupational health managers make sure the constabulary looks after its personnel. Where necessary, they work with line managers to make sure teams have reasonable adjustments in place. This means new recruits have good support early in their career as they adapt to new roles.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the constabulary builds, supports and protects the workforce.
The constabulary told us that high workloads in detective teams are harming well being. In some cases, these teams are using lots of overtime to manage high demand. This is leading to staff feeling burnt out.
We found that detectives in the south division of the constabulary had much higher caseloads than in the north. Senior leaders recognise these challenges. They are recruiting more people into teams which don’t have enough workers.
Workloads are also high in the constabulary’s demand hub. Personnel working there struggle to take both planned and unplanned time off work.
Senior leaders in the hub weren’t always aware of well-being challenges. This meant they couldn’t always take action to address the causes of high demand. And existing work to help well-being wasn’t focused enough in areas that would make a difference.
The POLIT’s focus on reducing backlogs is harming well-being. This is because personnel are dealing with a very large number of cases. This pressure should reduce once the backlog is cleared.
The constabulary told us that some response inspectors supervise too many officers. In some cases, inspectors and chief inspectors were working rest days and extra hours to deal with their workloads.
The constabulary has identified departments and roles that carry high risks to well being. It reviews this list regularly. Those in high-risk roles get regular, compulsory psychological screening and stress and trauma risk assessments.
Most personnel said they felt supported by the constabulary. We found that a wide range of well-being support options are available. The constabulary has health and well-being co-ordinators and a peer support framework to give extra help where needed. It also has an online well-being space with useful resources and provides some chaplaincy visits.
But, as noted earlier, MOSOVO teams don’t feel supported by senior leaders.
The constabulary has a clear process for post-incident support. This includes debriefs after traumatic or critical incidents and a buddy system to give peer support. It also offers extra access to occupational health and a trauma risk management (TRiM) referral process. Despite TRiM offering a good service, the constabulary told us that it is not used very often. The constabulary is exploring why this is.
The constabulary supports personnel who are victims of assault. It has a good management structure in place for this. It records assault incidents on its personnel and supports and monitors their well-being. This includes direct communication from the chief constable to the person involved to recognise the impact of an assault.
We were pleased to find that personnel had regular meetings with line managers to discuss workloads and well-being. They told us they had confidence in their line managers and felt supported by them. We found that personnel felt included and new recruits are welcomed into the constabulary.
Our PEEL workforce survey collected relevant responses from 410 people. It found that 85.9 percent (352 people) said their line manager modelled high standards of behaviour and 75.1 percent (308) agreed their line manager helps them achieve their full potential. And 89.7 percent (368) agreed their line manager created an inclusive workplace.
The constabulary has created ‘career cards’ to raise awareness of the roles available in the organisation. These are one-page role profiles that are sent to new recruits. It has also developed an app to guide people through recruitment. This helps to keep potential recruits interested and reduces how often they drop out from the process.
The constabulary has systems to understand why new recruits leave or are thinking about doing so. It has a process where new recruits can speak to an independent person if they are thinking of leaving. When they meet this person, they discuss how the constabulary can help them stay. The constabulary introduced this at the start of June 2023 when 11 percent of its officers left every year. By 1 November 2023, this had fallen to 8 percent.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, 123 officers left the constabulary. Of these officers, 72 left because they chose to resign.
The constabulary uses a range of information to understand retention patterns. It also uses this to explore challenges for new recruits from under-represented groups. This informs an action plan which focuses on retaining them. Senior leaders check progress on this action plan at a regular board meeting.
In particular, the constabulary is exploring ‘pinch points’. These are times where people are more likely to drop out of the recruitment and training process.
In our PEEL workforce survey, we found that some people were looking for jobs outside the constabulary. A total of 6.6 percent (27 people) wanted to leave as soon as possible and 12.7 percent (52) wanted to leave within the next year.
Among those who planned to stay in the constabulary, 10.7 percent (44) wanted to do so for at least a year, 11.5 percent (47) wanted to stay for at least three years and 36.1 percent (148) thought they would stay beyond three years.
The constabulary has invested in CPD units to support new recruits, such as officers in their probation period. These units include some tradecraft officers. They work with local policing teams to coach and mentor new officers on key skills. The constabulary’s rolling CPD programme is also effective at giving officers the skills they need.
The constabulary has a specific coaching framework for detectives. This trains new detectives up and helps existing ones maintain their professionalising investigations programme 2 qualifications.
The constabulary has created a force culture statement that sets out the standards expected of police personnel. This was informed by consultation with the local authority and communities, including young people. It also runs cultural awareness training to frontline personnel. Community leads provide this training, which aims to improve the culture across the constabulary.
The constabulary is training its leaders to help them change the organisation’s culture. For example, there is a nine-month leadership and culture workshop for chief inspectors and police staff equivalents.
There is also training for frontline leaders. All police sergeants and inspectors attend a compulsory five-day leadership and culture course. This focuses on the constabulary’s culture statement and leadership styles. It also looks at discriminatory practices. This aligns with the College of Policing’s First Line Leaders programme. This course is being rolled out to personnel over a two-year period.
After this course, every attendee must set and achieve a personal action plan. This demonstrates that they can apply what they learned in the workplace. It also helps new leaders gain confidence in managing their teams effectively. We heard much positive feedback from those who had attended the course.
We were pleased to see that the constabulary recognises the importance of giving leaders the skills they need. Our PEEL workforce survey which collected feedback from line managers provides evidence of this. It found that 71.2 percent (89 of 125) line managers said they received the training needed to do their role.
The constabulary is tackling barriers that stop people developing at work.
Its positive action plan includes measures to help people from under-represented groups develop and progress. This involves several projects – including buddy and mentoring schemes – to identify and develop talented people.
For example, ‘Becoming Career Ready’ helps talented people develop so that they can be promoted within the constabulary. And the ‘Future Supers’ scheme helps personnel to reach superintendent level (or its police staff equivalent). There is also a chief officer reverse mentoring scheme where junior staff give direct advice to senior personnel. This can also help them develop.
These schemes also encourage people from under-represented groups to join departments that aren’t fully representative of the community.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s leadership and management requires improvement.
In our inspection, we found that the constabulary is focused on improving performance. This was having positive results. However, we still found poor performance in some parts of the constabulary.
In the demand hub, we found that callers abandon one in three 101 calls. But personnel didn’t have the information needed to understand why this figure was so high. The constabulary is looking to improve its telephone data to deal with this.
In July 2023, we found that the paedophile online investigation team had large backlogs. This meant it had many children in need of safeguarding. The paedophile online investigation team is now completing work to reduce backlogs. But after this work is complete, it must make sure it has a good sense of its current and future demand.
In the management of sexual offenders and violent offenders team, we found leaders didn’t have the information they need to effectively review performance and risk. This meant they couldn’t assess the risks created by missed visits to registered sex offenders.
The constabulary should make sure it has the information needed to scrutinise performance. And it should make sure it can respond to changes in performance. This will help it provide the best possible service to the public.
The constabulary should make sure it is set up well to tackle current and future demand in all areas. It should also make sure it can adapt to changing demand. Giving senior leaders access to good performance data will help with this.
The constabulary has a strategic threat and risk assessment process called CamSTRA. This helps it to do organisational planning. In addition, it has a corporate governance framework which helps it develop plans for dealing with short-term changes to demand. We found that people across the constabulary know about CamSTRA and understand what their role is in strategic planning.
But we still found some areas where personnel can’t keep up with demand. For example, inexperienced officers in the serious crime team struggle to manage their workloads. And backlogs in the paedophile online investigation team have delayed safeguarding of children.
The constabulary must make sure it can respond to areas of high demand via CAMSTRA. To do this, the constabulary must also make sure it can identify areas of high demand across its work.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to leadership and management.
During our inspection, most personnel spoke positively about the chief constable and how he communicates with them. For example, they praised the ‘Big Conversation’ sessions he runs, where all personnel can ask questions to the chief officer team. But we found less evidence that other leaders were visible. Some personnel told us they rarely saw their superintendent.
We found that areas of poor performance weren’t always scrutinised through robust data analysis. For example, the demand hub couldn’t review call data to understand why so many calls are abandoned. And the constabulary couldn’t explain what it is doing to reduce the number of cases where victims decide not to support police action, even though a suspect is identified.
The constabulary’s framework to manage performance around MOSOVO was weak. It wasn’t supported by clear data and didn’t identify risks related to missed visits. The constabulary also didn’t use performance reviews well to help people improve or learn.
The constabulary should make sure leaders have the information they need to evaluate the performance of their teams. It should make sure that, where people aren’t performing, they receive clear plans to help them improve.
The constabulary works with Bedfordshire Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary in a three-force partnership. It is also part of a seven-force regional network.
Deputy chief constables in the three forces oversee the partnership to make sure it offers value for money. A departmental management officer tracks the benefits on a day-to-day basis. These are checked by senior leaders in a quarterly financial meeting.
The partnership develops IT projects that are shared across all three forces. These projects can be expanded and led by any of the forces. This approach offers more savings for Cambridgeshire Constabulary than if it managed its IT alone.
The constabulary is exploring other parts of its work that might benefit from being in the partnership.
The constabulary manages its finances well. Its financial plans are sensible and sustainable.
For 2023/24, the constabulary received £178.2m in funding. It receives 46 percent (£82.2m) of this from the council tax police precept. And the PCC has increased the precept for 2023/24 by £14.94 for band D properties.
When considering the amount of funding per person, the constabulary is one of the poorest funded forces in England and Wales. And it needs to make savings of £12m by 2026/27 to keep on track with its financial plan. During our inspection, the constabulary hadn’t identified where it would make these savings.
The constabulary holds general reserves of around 5 percent of its net revenue budget. This is a prudent approach.
Despite having some of the lowest funding and personnel per person in England and Wales, the constabulary takes on financial challenges through innovative projects that raise funds. This includes raising money by sharing its innovative CamSTRA process with Malta Police Force and British Overseas Territories like the Cayman Islands. It also shares other training products that demonstrate best practice to forces worldwide.
The constabulary works closely with the PCC to improve its sustainability. This includes adding electric cars to their vehicle fleet and reviewing carbon emissions across the organisation. This forms part of its sustainability plan.
We found that this is helping the constabulary to be more sustainable.
Data in this report is from a range of sources, including:
When we collected data directly from police forces, we took reasonable steps to agree the design of the data collection with forces and with other interested parties such as the Home Office. We gave forces several opportunities to quality assure and validate the data they gave us, to make sure it was accurate. We shared the submitted data with forces, so they could review their own and other forces’ data. This allowed them to analyse where data was notably different from other forces or internally inconsistent.
We set out the source of this report’s data below.
British Transport Police was outside the scope of inspection. Any aggregated totals for England and Wales exclude British Transport Police data, so will differ from those published by the Home Office.
When other forces were unable to supply data, we mention this under the relevant sections below.
The dotted lines on the Bar Charts show one Standard Deviation (sd) above and below the unweighted mean across all forces. Where the distribution of the scores appears normally distributed, the sd is calculated in the normal way. If the forces are not normally distributed, the scores are transformed by taking logs and a Shapiro Wilks test performed to see if this creates a more normal distribution. If it does, the logged values are used to estimate the sd. If not, the sd is calculated using the normal values. Forces with scores more than 1 sd units from the mean (i.e. with Z-scores greater than 1, or less than -1) are considered as showing performance well above, or well below, average. These forces will be outside the dotted lines on the Bar Chart. Typically, 32% of forces will be above or below these lines for any given measure.
For all uses of population as a denominator in our calculations, unless otherwise noted, we use information from the 2021 Census supplied by the ONS.
We surveyed the police workforce across England and Wales, to understand their views on workloads, redeployment and how suitable their assigned tasks were. This survey was a non-statistical, voluntary sample so the results may not be representative of the workforce population. The number of responses per force varied. So we treated results with caution and didn’t use them to assess individual force performance. Instead, we identified themes that we could explore further during fieldwork.
Our victim service assessments (VSAs) will track a victim’s journey from reporting a crime to the police, through to outcome stage. All forces will be subjected to a VSA within our PEEL inspection programme. Some forces will be selected to additionally be tested on crime recording, in a way that ensures every force is assessed on its crime recording practices at least every three years.
Details of the technical methodology for the Victim Service Assessment.
Data on 999 calls is provided by BT. 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. This data is provided for all 43 police forces in England and Wales and covers the year ending 30 June 2023.
We took data on crime and outcomes from the October 2023 release of the Home Office police-recorded crime and outcomes data tables.
Total police-recorded crime includes all crime (except fraud) recorded by all forces in England and Wales (except BTP). Home Office publications on the overall volumes and rates of recorded crime and outcomes include British Transport Police, which is outside the scope of this HMICFRS inspection. Therefore, England and Wales rates in this report will differ from those published by the Home Office.
Police-recorded crime data should be treated with care. Recent increases may be due to forces’ renewed focus on accurate crime recording since our 2014 national crime data inspection.
For a full commentary and explanation of crime and outcome types please see the Home Office statistics.
We collected this data directly from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. This data is as provided by forces in July 2023 and covers the year ending 31 March 2023.
Cambridgeshire PEEL assessment 2023–2025
You can find more about Cambridgeshire Constabulary on our dedicated force page.
The force prioritises the development of its workforce while building an ethical organisation which the community can trust.
Reducing crime and harm in our communities and protecting the most vulnerable is core to the force’s mission.
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.
