Cheshire PEEL 2014

Cheshire Constabulary has a good track record in reducing crime. There were fewer crimes per 1,000 population over the 12 months to June 2014 in Cheshire than across England and Wales. As a whole, crime rates have fallen at around the same rate as across England and Wales over the last four years, although in the last year crime has fallen at a greater rate in Cheshire than across England and Wales.

Crime prevention is a clear priority for the force and there is a strong focus on understanding the root causes of crime, and providing appropriate services to prevent crime and reoffending. The force also provides a victim-centred approach through its neighbourhood teams and specialist teams who provide good victim care.

The force works well in partnership to make best use of local resources to enable joined-up responses and to target activity at areas of greatest risk. There are plans to extend further local partnership working.

There are clear procedures in place to identify vulnerable and repeat victims and staff understand the victim-centred approach and are committed to providing a high quality service.

HMIC found a mixed picture with regard to the quality of investigations, with some good and victim-focused practice in specialist investigations but there were inconsistencies in the quality of investigations in other areas. The force works well to prevent reoffending among serious and prolific offenders through a highly regarded integrated approach to managing offenders with partners.

The force has a positive approach to learning. ‘Systems thinking’ is widely understood and has been used to good effect. It has provided a general focus on understanding where improvements in service can be made across the force.

There are comparatively high rates of anti-social behaviour in Cheshire, although the area has seen a reduction over the last year.

Cheshire Constabulary uses a range of tools and techniques to understand and address local concerns and engage with the public and victims of anti-social behaviour. The force has good systems in place to identify repeat victims of anti-social behaviour and spot where a pattern of escalating risk might be occurring.

The force works well with partners to tackle anti-social behaviour. There is good practice in place with partner agencies across most of the force area, working jointly to assess and manage risk to victims from anti-social behaviour.

The domestic abuse inspection found that there was some effective working in Cheshire Constabulary to identify victims of domestic abuse and make them safer. The inspection found that staff throughout the organisation understood this and recognised their role in making victims safer, and dealing properly with domestic abuse. There are processes in place to identify serial perpetrators and manage their behaviour.

The crime inspection found evidence that domestic abuse continued to be a priority for Cheshire. The inspection found that there were productive working relationships between police and other agencies involved in supporting victims of domestic abuse. The inspection also reviewed Cheshire’s domestic abuse action plan and found it incorporates HMIC recommendations relating to both the constabulary and the police service as a whole. The updates for each recommendation contained a short overview of progress regarding each recommendation and are monitored as part of existing force governance processes.

The crime inspection found that the force had effective processes in place to manage and disrupt organised crime groups across the county. Local teams were given the responsibility for tackling groups within their areas, and partners were also engaged in disrupting organised crime groups.

The inspection also found that the force was developing a corporate approach to identify and respond to the rapidly growing threat from child sexual exploitation. Training is being delivered to develop skills and knowledge to tackle cyber-crime with the stated aim of ‘developing the most cyber-literate investigative workforce in the country’.

The Strategic Policing Requirement inspection found that the chief constable understood his role as specified in the Strategic Policing Requirement. Cheshire Constabulary had assessed the scale and nature of the terrorism, civil emergency, serious organised crime public disorder threats but not that for a large-scale cyber incident. This had enabled the force to identify how much resource it needed to manage and respond to these threats, with the exception of a large-scale cyber incident. Public order has a nationally agreed requirement for resources and Cheshire is able to provide the necessary agreed amount.

The inspection found that Cheshire had, or had access to through collaboration with other forces regionally, the necessary capability to tackle terrorism, civil emergency, serious organised crime and public disorder but not a large-scale cyber incident.

Cheshire was able to operate effectively together with other police forces and emergency services to respond to public disorder and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents.

In Cheshire the inspection found that connectivity with other forces was effective for responding to terrorism, civil emergency, serious organised crime and public disorder but not large-scale cyber incidents.