Inspection finds Derbyshire Police require improvement

Police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy inspections assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

Inspections rate forces in ten categories including preventing crime, responding to the public and the service it gives to victims of crime.

In its first report since 2019, Derbyshire Constabulary has been rated as ‘require improvement 'in five categories and as ‘adequate’ in the remaining four.

In 21 of 51 cases reviewed, victim service assessment found the constabulary failed to meet its own incident response targets. In 13 of 21 cases reviewed, victims weren’t updated about delays.

Constabulary data shows that between January and June 2022, 18 percent of calls transferred from the switchboard to the 101 service were abandoned. The national standard for abandonment of non-emergency calls is five percent.

The report said: “Derbyshire Constabulary doesn’t always conduct thorough investigations. This means investigation outcomes may not always be appropriate and opportunities to bring offenders to justice may be missed.

“Investigative opportunities to progress cases were taken in only 2 of 12 cases reviewed. This means that victims are potentially being let down and offenders aren’t being brought to justice.”

In 12 of 23 cases reviewed, officers didn’t take victim personal statements. This deprives victims of the opportunity to describe the impact that crime has had on their lives. In 23 of 72 cases reviewed, the constabulary didn’t complete a victim needs assessment.

The report stated: “Until the constabulary improves its supervision of investigations, management of outstanding offenders and risk at initial contact, it won’t be able to effectively reduce crime.”

Chief Constable Rachel Swann said: “There are a number of areas of improvement that have been highlighted in the report, some of which we are already taking steps to progress, and others which will be delivered shortly.

“From January there will be a full implementation of a Crime and Intelligence Directorate, which brings together resources and increases supervision to ensure a force-wide approach to improving our investigations across areas including Rape and Serious Sexual Offences, child protection and domestic abuse.

“We are working hard to ensure continuous improvement; and will be bolstering our frontline, focusing on local policing and taking action when calls for service are needed.”