Cumbria Constabulary congratulated on good performance
Cumbria Constabulary has been congratulated on its overall good performance, although it needs to improve in some areas, the police inspectorate has said.
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PEEL 2021/22 – An inspection of Cumbria Constabulary
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded Cumbria Constabulary’s performance across eight areas of policing and found the force was ‘outstanding’ in one area, ‘good’ in three areas and ‘adequate’ in four areas.
HMICFRS said the areas requiring improvement included how the force handles calls from the public and its neighbourhood policing resourcing.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke, said:
“I congratulate Cumbria Constabulary on its performance in keeping people safe and reducing crime, although it needs to improve in some areas to provide a consistently good service.
“The force’s work in the management of registered sex offenders is excellent, which means it is protecting communities from some of the highest-harm offenders – I am impressed by some of the innovative practice.
“The force has a positive, supportive and inclusive culture. Everybody we spoke to during our inspection said that they felt proud to work for Cumbria Constabulary. It’s digitally progressive and innovative, using digital technology to support those on the front line.
“There’s a strong focus on early intervention with children and young people, and I am encouraged to see the child-centred policing model that the force has adopted.
“Cumbria Constabulary does need to improve its call handling performance. Emergency calls are answered and responded to quickly; however, sometimes abandonment rates for non-emergency calls aren’t meeting national standards.
“It also needs to review its neighbourhood policing resourcing and deployment model. I am reassured that the force has been developing work to address this following our inspection.
“I will monitor Cumbria’s progress towards addressing the areas I have identified where the force can improve further.”
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PEEL 2021/22 – An inspection of Cumbria Constabulary
Notes
- For further information, please contact the HMICFRS Press Office on 07836 217 729 or HMICPressOffice@hmicfrs.gov.uk.
- In 2014, we introduced our police effectiveness, efficiency, and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach and this year has seen the most significant changes yet.
- We are moving to a more intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years. We have also changed our approach to graded judgments. We now assess forces against the characteristics of good performance, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
- We have also expanded our previous four-tier system of judgments to five tiers. As a result, we can state more precisely where we consider improvement is needed and highlight more effectively the best ways of doing things.
- However, these changes mean that it isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded this year with those from previous PEEL inspections. A reduction in grade, particularly from good to adequate, does not necessarily mean that there has been a reduction in performance, unless we say so in the report.
- More information about the new PEEL assessment framework 2021/22 is available on our website.