West Mercia Police revisit: service to victims cause of concern

Letter information

From:
Wendy Williams
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary
His Majesty’s Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services

To:
Alex Murray
Chief Constable
Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner

Cc:
John Campion
West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner

Sent on:
31 October 2023

Background

Between 6 September 2021 and 1 October 2021, we inspected West Mercia Police as part of our police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) programme. During our inspection, we identified a cause of concern that we shared with you.

Between 3 and 8 July 2023, we revisited the force to review progress against this cause of concern by repeating our victim service assessment. This allowed us to identify and report on any progress made against several of the relevant recommendations we had made to the force. It also allowed us to identify and report on progress against other areas of improvement, not only in the way the force investigates crime but also how it responds to the public when calls for service are made.

As part of this assessment, we reviewed 100 case files, including the outcome of each case. When the police close a case of reported crime, it will be assigned what is referred to as an ‘outcome type’. This describes the reason for closing the case.

Summary of findings

• The force has improved how it keeps victims updated on the progress of investigations and how it completes victim needs assessments.
• The force has improved how it consults victims regarding the outcomes of investigations.
• The force has made a slight improvement in how it records victims’ decisions and their reasons for withdrawing support for investigations.
• The force hasn’t improved how effectively crimes are supervised.
• The force should improve how quickly it answers 999 calls, how often callers abandon 101 calls and how promptly it attends incidents.

Progress against the causes of concern

During our July 2023 revisit, we reviewed the progress made against the causes of concern identified in our 2021 inspection. A summary of our findings is below.

West Mercia Police should, within three months, make sure investigation plans are created where applicable, with supervisory oversight ensuring that all investigative opportunities are taken

This recommendation was not met. We found a slight improvement in how the force completed investigation plans, but no meaningful improvement has been made to supervision throughout an investigation. We found that 50 out of 65 investigations we examined had a documented plan, compared to 25 out of 35 investigations in our previous audit. And we found that 53 of 79 investigations we examined had effective supervision, compared to 49 of 64 investigations in our previous audit.

West Mercia Police should, within three months, make sure victims are regularly updated in line with the Victims’ Code and that victim needs assessments and victim personal statements are recorded when appropriate, so victims are provided with suitable support services throughout the investigation

This recommendation was met. We found that the force has improved how it keeps victims updated on the progress of investigations. Victims were regularly updated in 69 out of 72 investigations we examined. This compares to 30 out of 40 investigations in our previous audit.

We found that the force has also improved how often it carries out victim needs assessments. Victim needs assessments were completed in 46 out of 52 investigations we examined, compared to 22 out of 65 investigations in our previous audit. Victim personal statements were offered to victims in 18 of 24 relevant cases, which was unchanged from our previous audit.

Progress against areas for improvement

During our July 2023 revisit, we also reviewed the progress against the areas for improvement identified in our 2021 inspection. A summary of our findings is below.

The force should make sure that all victims are consulted prior to and following the use of a caution, and all such victim contact should be appropriately recorded

This has been met. We found that the force consulted with 39 of 44 victims before finalising the outcome of an investigation, such as by issuing a caution. The victim’s views were taken into account on 35 of 40 occasions.

The force should improve how it records victims’ decisions and their reasons for withdrawing support for investigations, and make sure it documents whether evidence-led prosecutions have been considered in all such cases

This was not met. The force still needs to improve how it records a victim’s decision to withdraw support for an investigation. We found an auditable record of such a decision in 18 of 30 relevant cases. However, this was an improvement compared to our last audit, when we found an auditable record in 2 of 20 relevant cases.

The force should make sure that call takers give appropriate advice on the preservation of evidence and crime prevention

This has been partially met. The force has improved how often it gives crime prevention advice to callers. In this audit, the call handler gave crime prevention advice on 19 of 22 relevant occasions. During the previous audit, crime prevention advice was only given on 24 of 56 occasions.

The force could do more to make sure callers are given advice about the preservation of evidence. This was given on 13 of 18 occasions in this audit. But this is an improvement on the previous audit when we found that this advice was given on 21 of 50 occasions.

The force should make sure that repeat callers, and those who are vulnerable, are routinely identified

This has been met. The force identified a repeat caller on 61 of 66 occasions. This compares to 36 out of 111 in our previous audit.

Other findings

Our victim service assessment also gathers evidence on how the force responds to the public overall. During our revisit, we found that:

• the force wasn’t answering 999 calls quickly enough;
• too many callers to 101 abandoned their call; and
• the force wasn’t attending incidents quickly enough.

At the time of our audit, the force wasn’t answering 999 calls within the national standard in England and Wales. The national standard is for 90 percent of 999 calls to be answered within 10 seconds. We found that only 76.1 percent of 999 calls to West Mercia Police were answered within 10 seconds.

We also found that too many callers on the force’s 101 non-emergency line were hanging up before their calls were answered. This is often referred to as an abandonment rate. The force’s abandonment rate was 22.7 percent. This is above the expected standard of five percent for forces with a switchboard function.

The force isn’t attending incidents within its own published time frames. Only 38 of 63 incidents we examined were attended within the force’s own published time frames. This has declined since our last audit, where we found 60 of 79 incidents were attended on time. We also found that the force doesn’t always update victims if there is going to be a delay in that attendance. Victims were informed of a delay in only 14 of 28 occasions, compared to 10 of 18 occasions in our last audit.

The force should improve how quickly it answers 999 calls, how often callers abandon 101 calls and how promptly it attends incidents.

Conclusion

We found that West Mercia Police has made progress against some of the cause of concern recommendations that we focused on in this revisit. But it needs to do more in relation to supervision and the allocation of investigation plans.

The force needs to improve how it responds to the public, particularly in how effectively it answers 999 and 101 calls and attends incidents. We will continue to monitor the force’s performance in these areas.

While I recognise the positive progress the force has made, I confirm that the existing cause of concern will remain.

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West Mercia Police revisit: service to victims cause of concern