West Yorkshire PEEL 2014

Chief officer communications on integrity issues are robust, visible and recognised by staff. HMIC found that most staff knew that reported misconduct would be investigated rigorously but some are still uncertain of professional boundaries. HMIC found there is a pressing need for more effective dialogue with staff to ensure that there is a commonly shared understanding of ethics. West Yorkshire Police has carried out a staff survey and instigated a programme of local and individual ‘accountability meetings’.

New leaders have been appointed within the professional standards department which now includes a ‘compliance unit’. The anti-corruption unit has also been reinforced. HMIC found that the system used to record offers of gifts and hospitality is held on multiple registers by different departments although they can all be accessed from a central location. There is evidence that refused offers of gifts or hospitality are not being reported and recorded. The force has a comprehensive range of policies to guide behaviour together with auditing and analytical processes which are capable of identifying unprofessional use of police systems. HMIC found the force takes effective action to investigate and deal with misconduct by its staff.

HMIC considers that there are two sources of data that give an insight into the public’s perceptions of their police force: the Crime Survey for England and Wales, and the Victim Satisfaction Survey.

The data for West Yorkshire Police show that:

Crime Survey for England and Wales (12 months to March 2013)

• 62 percent of adults surveyed think that the police do an excellent/good job, which is broadly in line with the figure across England and Wales of 61 percent.
• 59 percent of adults surveyed agree that the police deal with local concerns, which is broadly in line with the England and Wales proportion of 60 percent.

Victim Satisfaction Survey (12 months to June 2014)

• 88.4 percent (± 0.8 percent) of victims were satisfied with their experience which is greater than the figure across England and Wales of 85.0 percent (± 0.2 percent).

The value for money inspection found set a clear performance standard for response times and these have remained the same since 2010. The inspection found that during this time the proportion of calls attended within these standards for ’emergency’ calls had declined, but had improved for ‘priority’ calls.

The crime data integrity inspection found that chief officers had reinforced the victim-centred approach to crime-recording, and had invested in processes to monitor and manage victim care, including training for constables and frontline supervisors. However, West Yorkshire Police had some way to go before it could claim that crime was recorded consistently and accurately, thereby ensuring the right level of victim support.

The domestic abuse inspection found that call handlers and enquiry desk staff had received little training in how to understand and deal with domestic abuse incidents. The force could therefore not have confidence that domestic abuse victims were receiving a consistent quality of response at this first point of contact. Incidents were graded according to risk, but the force was not making efficient use of its resources and the victim may not get the quickest response possible. There were weaknesses in the levels of training provided to frontline staff and their supervisors. The quality of completed risk assessments was patchy. Although a formal risk assessment was required to be undertaken at the scene, the inspection found that this was often completed by the officers back at the station and may not have included all the necessary information.

The crime data integrity inspection examined 260 incident records and found that 221 crimes should have been recorded. Of the 221 crimes that should have been recorded, 150 were. Of the 150, 11 were wrongly classified and five were recorded outside the 72-hour limit allowed under the Home Office Counting Rules (HOCR). Improvement in the accuracy and timeliness of crime-recording decisions from incident records was needed as a matter of urgency to ensure victims received the service they required, West Yorkshire Police had a full understanding of the crime in its communities and offenders were brought to justice.

The force had a centralised crime-recording facility involving members of staff at the customer contact centre who had a supplementary role in recording some crime reports. HMIC estimated that the force recorded approximately 13 percent of the total of its recorded crime through this facility where reports of crime were directly recorded from members of the public and did not require the creation of an incident record. HMIC’s inspection of this unit (a review of 33 calls from the public) found that of the 36 crimes that should have been recorded, 34 were. Of the 34, two were wrongly classified and one was recorded outside the 72-hour limit allowed under HOCR.

The inspection also examined 105 no-crime records and found 65 records to be compliant with HOCR and National Crime Recording Standard. As the no-crime records we reviewed were for offences of rape, robbery and violence, this high error rate was a matter of serious concern. Of the 35 rape no-crime records we examined, 23 met the requirements of HOCR. This was unacceptable.