Hertfordshire PEEL 2015

Hertfordshire Constabulary is good at preventing crime and anti-social behaviour, and keeping people safe. This is consistent with HMIC’s 2014 crime inspection when the constabulary was also judged as good at reducing crime and preventing offending.

Crime prevention, supporting victims, partnership working and keeping people safe are all clearly important areas to the constabulary. Resources continue to be targeted at these areas and the constabulary’s commitment is well understood throughout the workforce.

HMIC found that, although Hertfordshire has increased the number of neighbourhood officers, however, neighbourhood officers continue to be regularly taken away from their neighbourhood duties to support the police response to calls and incidents. In some areas we found that the capacity of local safer neighbourhood teams does not always reflect the increase in local demand and may undermine the constabulary’s focus on prevention. The constabulary is aware of this and is reviewing local policing in response to the changes in demand and the need to achieve future savings; changes to resourcing are planned for the end of 2015.

Hertfordshire Constabulary recognises the added benefit from working together with local and regional partner organisations to provide a better service to the public by sharing information and joining-up the response, making best use of resources. Hertfordshire has the right systems and processes in place at constabulary-wide and neighbourhood levels, alongside a range of powers and tactics, to work with partner organisations to tackle anti-social behaviour and keep people safe. There is still some room for improvement in the way the constabulary systematically evaluates and uses evidence of what works to ensure it learns from best practice.

Hertfordshire Constabulary’s approach to investigating crime and managing offenders is generally good. In HMIC’s 2014 crime inspection the constabulary was also judged as good in this area. There are some inconsistencies in the quality and supervision of the constabulary’s initial investigations, which mean that it risks missing opportunities to gather the best evidence to bring offenders to justice. This was also a HMIC recommendation in 2014.

Although we found weaknesses in the standard of some initial investigations, the quality of subsequent investigations is good as investigative staff are well trained and generally properly qualified. Investigation plans are generally thorough and well documented and we saw evidence of effective support and review by experienced supervisors.

The constabulary keeps victims well informed as its investigations progress and has effective systems in place to ensure that victims are kept updated at key stages throughout the investigation, such as when an offender has been arrested or bailed and when a court date has been set. Victim satisfaction rates in Hertfordshire remain consistently above the England and Wales average.

The constabulary identifies vulnerable offenders and makes efforts to divert them from further offending. While we found a few areas for improvement, the force’s processes for working with partner organisations to identify, monitor and work with repeat and dangerous offenders to stop them re-offending generally work well.

Hertfordshire Constabulary generally provides a good service in identifying vulnerable people, and responds well to them. It has made good progress since last year, improving its approach to domestic abuse and setting up a county-wide multi-agency safeguarding hub to provide more effective joined-up services with partner organisations to safeguard children better.

We found that Hertfordshire Constabulary, at all levels, is strongly committed to improving its services to protect vulnerable people. The constabulary has invested extra resource into its specialist services that support those who are vulnerable and keep them safe. We found a strong focus on ensuring that vulnerable victims are identified early enough to ensure that the police response is appropriate.

However, the constabulary needs to improve its response to missing and absent children. We found good work from the small specialist team, but there is a lack of clarity over responsibilities for missing children among the majority of frontline staff. This poses a risk that the constabulary may not be managing effectively its investigations into missing children and work to understand and prevent vulnerable children from repeatedly going missing.

The constabulary has made a good start in ensuring that it is well-prepared to tackle child sexual exploitation and must now build on this initial approach with its partners.

Hertfordshire Constabulary is good at identifying and tackling serious and organised crime, including its arrangements for ensuring that it can fulfil its national policing responsibilities. This is the first year HMIC has graded forces on their effectiveness in these areas, so no year-on-year comparison is possible.

The constabulary works well with local and national partner organisations and other forces in the region to prevent serious and organised crime. It has a well-developed understanding of the threat posed by serious and organised crime groups across Hertfordshire, through comprehensive analysis of serious and organised crime at district level. The constabulary is part of an effective multi-agency response to these types of crime, including work to prevent people from becoming involved in it. Hertfordshire Constabulary has access to an extensive range of specialist capabilities provided by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit, to help the constabulary tackle serious and organised crime.

The constabulary has a well co-ordinated and effective method for tackling organised crime groups, with good processes to identify and disrupt the activities of these criminal groups. We saw some good early work with schools and universities to identify vulnerable young people who may be at risk of being drawn into serious and organised crime.