Nottinghamshire Police has improved, but further changes needed

Nottinghamshire Police has improved in some areas but it needs to make further changes, including how it records crime, the police inspectorate has said.

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PEEL 2021/22 – An inspection of Nottinghamshire Police

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded Nottinghamshire Police’s performance across nine areas of policing and found the force was ‘good’ in two areas, ‘adequate’ in six areas and ‘requires improvement’ in one area.

HMICFRS said while Nottinghamshire is good at investigating crime, more needs to be done to ensure it is recording it effectively.

Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, Roy Wilsher, said:

“I am pleased with some aspects of Nottinghamshire Police’s performance in keeping people safe and reducing crime, but there are areas where it needs to improve.

“The force is good at investigating crime – once a crime is recorded, the force carries out effective investigations, allocating them to staff who have the capacity and capability to investigate them appropriately.

“The force is effective at recruiting a diverse workforce. In the year ending 31 March 2021, the force recruited the highest percentage (19.5 percent) of new police officers who were Black, Asian or from a minority ethnic group, compared with the other 43 forces in England and Wales.

“It has also made significant progress in supporting the wellbeing of its workforce and makes effective use of technology to support frontline policing. The force looks for opportunities to help staff on the front line.

“However, the force needs to improve its crime recording processes, particularly when recording crimes related to violent offences, domestic abuse or behavioural crime.

“The force also needs to improve the way it responds to calls. We found call handlers do not always give callers advice on preventing crime or preserving evidence before officers arrive at a scene.

“Nottinghamshire should also consider its approach to problem-solving policing. We found that most of the time, frontline neighbourhood staff are deployed to areas where they can work with communities, offering reassurance and building confidence in the force. But sometimes neighbourhood teams miss opportunities to involve other organisations and the public in jointly managing and solving problems.

“I look forward to monitoring the force’s progress towards addressing the areas I have identified for improvement.”

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PEEL 2021/22 – An inspection of Nottinghamshire Police

Notes

  1. For further information, please contact the HMICFRS Press Office on 07836 217 729 or HMICPressOffice@hmicfrs.gov.uk.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. More information about the new PEEL assessment framework 2021/22 is available on our website.