Inspection finds Derbyshire Police “missed” chances to gather evidence and “inappropriately” downgraded risk to domestic abuse victims

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services made the observations during its 2023-25 police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) assessment of the Derbyshire Force.

This is the second time Derbyshire Constabulary has been inspected in the last two years – with the latest having been brought forward to check progress on areas of concern.

Inspector Roy Wilsher noted in his summary that although the force had made progress on “many” previously highlighted areas “the scale of change needed means that some improvements will need more time to achieve”.

In the report, published today (Friday), Mr Wilsher wrote that the force was not always achieving “acceptable” outcomes for victims of crime and “the number of crimes that are solved following investigations is low”.

Grading the force as requiring improvement for its ability to protect vulnerable people, the report highlighted concerns over the downgrading of risk to domestic abuse victims.

The inspection states that referral teams within Derbyshire Police downgraded initially high assessments made by officers to “medium risk” – with the secondary assessments failing to consider previous incidents, psychological harm and increases in incidents.

In another section of the report covering the force’s ability to respond to the public, assessed as requiring improvement, the author described how “many front-line officers...lack the knowledge and ability” to follow “golden hour principles” and secure evidence early.

Mr Wilsher wrote: “Supervisors told us that they regularly see early opportunities to gather evidence being missed. Some officers are overlooking or not properly recovering evidence when they first arrive at an incident.

“Handovers are of a poor quality and often ignore golden hour actions. This reduces the quality of an investigation from the outset.”

The same section of the inspection document notes that in the year ending 30 June 2023 Derbyshire Constabulary answered just 66.4 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds. While the standard expected of forces in England and Wales is 90 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds.

Handing the force a “requires improvement” mark for leadership and force management, inspectors found examples of “under-performance” not being highlighted to senior managers.

Derbyshire Constabulary was rated against eight areas of policing during the inspection and was graded as follows:

- Preventing crime: Good

- Police powers and public treatment, managing offenders, developing a positive workplace: Adequate

- Investigating crime, responding to the public, protecting vulnerable people, leadership and force management: Requires improvement

Qualifying the above points, the report made the following points:

- Call response times: The force was taking action to improve by increasing control room staff numbers and altering the call handling processes

- Solving crimes: While only 10.3 percent of victim-based crimes in the year ending June 30, 2023 were assigned an “offences brought to justice” outcome, this was was “within the typical range compared to other forces in England and Wales”

- Downgrading of risk to domestic violence victims: Derbyshire Police had “promptly” revealed improvement plans for processes, training and oversight within the domestic abuse

referral team, while staffing in the high-risk domestic abuse team was being increased in anticipation of more investigations being categorised as high risk