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HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate
HM Inspectorate of Prisons
HM Inspectorate of Probation
Criminal Justice Joint Inspection

Dyfed-Powys 2017

Read more about Dyfed-Powys

This is HMICFRS’ fourth PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) assessment of Dyfed-Powys Police. PEEL is designed to give the public information about how their local police force is performing in several important areas, in a way that is comparable both across England and Wales, and year on year. The assessment is updated throughout the year with our inspection findings and reports.

The extent to which the force is effective at keeping people safe and reducing crime is good.

The extent to which the force is efficient at keeping people safe and reducing crime requires improvement.

The extent to which the force is legitimate at keeping people safe and reducing crime is good.

Wendy Williams, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary

Contact Wendy Williams

HMI's observations

Read my assessment of Dyfed-Powys Police below.

I am satisfied with most aspects of Dyfed-Powys Police’s performance in keeping people safe and reducing crime, but it needs to make further improvements in some areas to provide a consistently good service.

The force has made good progress in enhancing its response to vulnerable people. I am also pleased that it has improved the standard of its investigations since my last assessment. However, its progress in improving custody provision is mixed: it has strengthened management and safe custody, but has experienced some staffing problems.

The force understands its current demand but has more to do in planning for the future and using its resources effectively; in particular, it needs to develop a better understanding of the skills and capabilities of its workforce.

Dyfed-Powys Police treats those it serves and its staff with fairness and respect, and sets a clear expectation that its workforce will behave ethically and lawfully.

I am pleased to see that Dyfed-Powys Police has acted on our recommendations since 2016 and am confident that these improvements will continue.

Os hoffech chi ddarllen hwn trwy’r Gymraeg (PDF document)

Effectiveness

How effective is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?

Last updated 22/03/2018
Good

Dyfed-Powys Police is good at keeping people safe and reducing crime. The force has made improvements since 2016, and HMICFRS is confident that Dyfed-Powys Police will continue to make steady improvements to the services it provides to the public.

Os hoffech chi ddarllen hwn trwy’r Gymraeg (PDF document)

Dyfed-Powys Police is good at investigating crimes but there remains room for improvement. In most cases, the force attends incidents promptly, and when officers arrive at the scene, they take appropriate steps to identify and secure evidence.

While the force conducts thorough telephone investigations and investigates cases of fraud to a good standard, the quality of handovers between teams could improve and supervision is not always effective.

The force is now taking a victim-focused approach to the allocation of cases for all crime; specialist investigators deal with the majority of high-risk and complex cases. The force’s investigative capacity and capability are sufficient to cope with the demand for its services, and the force is good at keeping victims updated throughout an investigation.

The force generally works well with partner organisations, such as local authorities and probation services, making good use of a variety of approaches to manage offenders. However, it does not have effective processes for monitoring offenders who are not yet detained.

Dyfed-Powys Police requires improvement in the way it protects vulnerable people. On a positive note, the force has a clear definition of vulnerability, and a plan for protecting vulnerable people. It is also good at identifying victims with mental health problems. However, while the force investigates crimes involving vulnerable victims to an adequate standard, it could improve some aspects of this work. The quality of information provided in risk assessment forms varies and supervisory oversight could be better. The force needs to understand why its arrest rate for domestic abuse has fallen, and how to best use legal powers to protect victims. Although the force works well with other organisations to support vulnerable people, improvements are required in its management (in partnership) of the risk posed by dangerous and sexual offenders.

Dyfed-Powys Police has the necessary arrangements in place to fulfil its national policing responsibilities, and to respond to an attack requiring an armed response.

View the five questions for effectiveness

Efficiency

How efficient is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?

Last updated 09/11/2017
Requires improvement

Dyfed-Powys Police is judged to require improvement in the efficiency with which it keeps people safe and reduces crime. Our overall judgment this year is the same as last year. The force’s understanding of demand is judged to be good; it is assessed to require improvement for its use of resources to manage demand; and its planning for future demand is judged to require improvement.

Os hoffech chi ddarllen hwn trwy’r Gymraeg (PDF document)

Dyfed-Powys Police needs to improve the overall efficiency with which it keeps people safe and reduces crime, although there are some aspects of the force’s work that are managed well, such as its understanding of demand. The force has well-established processes and systems that allow it to monitor and understand current demand, including demand that might go unreported. It uses this understanding to move resources to where they are needed most. The force’s leaders are also good at promoting innovative thinking to reduce demand, and use continuous improvement techniques to good effect, identifying wasteful and inefficient practices.

Dyfed-Powys Police needs to improve the way it uses its resources. The force has not undertaken a skills audit to understand the capacity and capability of all of its people. Such an audit would help the force inform its recruitment, selection and promotion processes in order to identify the best people for the job and to develop people in their roles. The force also needs to improve the way it plans for the future. For example, the force needs to make better use of national recruitment and development schemes, external recruitment, and other recruitment opportunities to ensure it is able to recruit, promote and develop people with the skills it needs. The force also needs to develop an integrated vision of the future that takes into account public expectation, changing technology, interoperability with other emergency services and the reduced resources available to its partners. On a more positive note, the force has made good progress in developing a more strategic approach to partnership working. It has also invested well in ICT, which has resulted in significant savings and a reduction in demand across a number of areas.

View the three questions for efficiency

Legitimacy

How legitimate is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?

Last updated 12/12/2017
Good

Dyfed-Powys Police is judged to be good at how legitimately it keeps people safe and reduces crime. For the areas of legitimacy we looked at this year, our overall judgment is more positive than last year. The force is judged to be good at treating all of the people it serves with fairness and respect and at ensuring its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully. However, it is judged to require improvement in some aspects of treating its workforce with fairness and respect.

Os hoffech chi ddarllen hwn trwy’r Gymraeg (PDF document)

Dyfed-Powys Police is judged to be good overall in respect of how legitimate the force is at keeping people safe and reducing crime. HMICFRS is pleased to see that the force has acted on most of our previous recommendations for improvement. Its leaders have shown a real commitment to ensuring that the workforce understands the importance of treating the people it serves fairly and with respect. Officers and staff understand unconscious bias and use coercive powers well. Good communication skills are being delivered to some of the workforce. Although the force has good arrangements in place to scrutinise its use of powers, and welcomes challenge to improve the way that it treats people, more must be done to ensure that its external scrutiny is truly representative of the communities it serves. The force also needs to improve its recording of stop and search information.

Dyfed-Powys Police can demonstrate that it has an ethical culture, which helps the workforce to behave ethically and lawfully. The force is also good at identifying, responding to and investigating cases of discrimination. It is easy for members of the public to complain if they feel they have not received the level of service to which they are entitled but the force needs to do more to update both complainants and those subject to complaints. Although the force has failed to reduce the backlog of vetting cases identified by HMICFRS in 2016, we are satisfied the force’s plan to resolve this problem by 2019 is realistic and achievable. The force is actively promoting healthy lifestyles by providing support to those who need it. However, the force needs to do more to encourage black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) representation, by recruiting, retaining and promoting officers and staff who are representative of the local population. It should also ensure that everyone benefits from the new annual appraisal process, and that all officers and staff understand and fully support the promotion and selection processes.

View the three questions for legitimacy

Other inspections

How well has the force performed in our other inspections?

In addition to the three core PEEL pillars, HMICFRS carries out inspections of a wide range of policing activity throughout the year. Some of these are conducted alongside the PEEL inspections; others are joint inspections.

Findings from these inspections are published separately to the main PEEL reports, but are taken into account when producing the rounded assessment of each force's performance.

Last updated 11/04/2018

Abuse of position assessment – Dyfed-Powys Police – published on 5 October 2017

Dyfed Powys – Joint inspection of police custody – published on 6 March 2018

View other reports

Key facts – 2019/20

Force Area

4,237 square miles

Population

0.523m people
2% local 10 yr change

Workforce

93% frontline police officers
92% national level
3.91 per 1000 population
3.69 national level
7% 10yr change in local workforce
5% 10yr national change

Victim-based crimes

0.05 per person
0.06 national level
44% Local 5 year trend
9% National 5 year trend

Cost

63p per person per day local
59p per person per day national

Points of context provided by the force

  • The force area’s 515,870 residents are spread over 4,188 square miles, which is over half the land mass of Wales.
  • The four counties that make up the force area have a vibrant tourist industry that draws large numbers of visitors each year.
Read more about this area

Police and crime plan priorities

A PCP sets out the police and crime commissioner’s (PCC’s) priorities for policing and the resources the PCC has allocated to the chief constable for achieving these priorities.

Read the PCC's police and crime plan
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