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Wiltshire PEEL 2017

Effectiveness

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

Last updated 22/03/2018
Good

Wiltshire Police is good at keeping people safe and reducing crime. It has performed consistently well in our effectiveness inspections and is making good progress.

The force is good at protecting vulnerable people and supporting victims. It is effective in how it identifies vulnerability. The force uses risk assessments for all calls for service into the force control room to identify threat, risk, harm and vulnerability of callers and others, and to ensure an appropriate response in accordance with individual needs. Daily review meetings ensure the officers deployed to calls for service involving vulnerable people have the skills to meet the needs of the people involved. The workforce understand vulnerability and know how to identify the signs that a person may be at risk of harm.

Our review of investigation case files (undertaken before our inspection) found that the force provides vulnerable victims with a generally good standard of service. Call handlers, frontline officers and staff take a consistent approach to safeguarding vulnerable people.

Wiltshire Police is outstanding at identifying and supporting people experiencing mental health problems. It works exceptionally well with partner organisations through comprehensive and well-established meetings to ensure that continuing support and specialist safeguarding arrangements are in place for vulnerable people, including those who have experienced domestic abuse. In addition, the force works proactively with other organisations to ensure continual improvement of services to protect and reassure people at risk of harm.

Wiltshire Police has the necessary arrangements in place to fulfil its national policing responsibilities, and to respond to an attack requiring an armed response. Appropriate governance processes are in place to assess and review force capability and capacity to respond to major incidents. Plans are tested with other organisations and information on outcomes is exchanged within the partnerships using a joint ICT system.

Questions for Effectiveness

3

How effective is the force at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims?

Good

Wiltshire Police is good at protecting vulnerable people and supporting victims.

The force’s risk assessments ensure that it:

  • identifies vulnerability effectively; and
  • responds appropriately in accordance with individual needs.

The force provides vulnerable victims with a generally good service. Its workforce understands vulnerability and how to identify the signs that someone may be at risk of harm. Call handlers, frontline officers and staff take a consistent approach to safeguarding vulnerable people.

Wiltshire Police is outstanding at identifying and supporting people experiencing mental health problems. Effective partnerships with mental health services are improving the support provided to people in crisis.

The force works exceptionally well with partner organisations, ensuring continuing support and specialist safeguarding arrangements for vulnerable people.

The force also works proactively with other organisations to ensure continuous improvement of services to protect and reassure people at risk of harm.

Areas for improvement

  • The force should implement a process to obtain feedback from victims of domestic abuse.

5

How effective are the force’s specialist capabilities?

Ungraded

National threats often require forces to work together, across force boundaries. These threats include terrorism, large-scale disorder and civil emergencies. We examined the capabilities in place to respond to these threats, in particular a firearms attack.

Most positively, the force:

  • works well with other organisations in response to national threats;
  • tests its skills in training exercises;
  • shares best practice and learning with partner organisations; and
  • has developed a good understanding of the threat to the public from an armed attack.