Hampshire PEEL 2016

Hampshire Constabulary is good at preventing crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and keeping people safe; some elements of its work in this area are outstanding. It has a good understanding of the threats facing its communities based on its own and partner agencies’ information.

Neighbourhood officers are allowed to concentrate on preventing and reducing crime and anti-social behaviour in their areas. They are well trained and increasingly communicate with groups less likely to engage with the police, adapting engagement methods if necessary, such as by making good use of social media.

Staff use a joint IT system well to work closely with partner agencies to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. In most cases, but not all, they use structured problem-solving models, and supervisory arrangements would benefit from greater consistency.

Neighbourhood officers have access to crime-prevention advice and resources that can be used to protect vulnerable people and prevent offending. Other parts of the force contribute to problem-solving activity, although this is not consistent across the entire organisation.

The force has started to use predictive policing to identify its most vulnerable locations. HMIC will be interested to see how the use of a harm index affects how the force deploys its resources.

Hampshire Constabulary requires improvement in how it investigates crime. Its performance in some important areas has deteriorated markedly since last year.

The number of offenders who are arrested and dealt with by the force has reduced during the past year, and it brings a smaller proportion of offenders to justice than most other forces in England and Wales. The force has the highest proportion of victims of crime in England and Wales who are not prepared to support an investigation by the force into the crime that they are a victim of. The proportion of reports of crime in which this occurs is unacceptable and the force needs to review this area to understand and address the reasons for this.

Staff in the force enquiry centre and control room provide a good response to victims of crime when they contact the police, and investigators in the resolution centre quickly identify urgent enquiries for completion. Response and patrol officers generally gather relevant evidence during the initial investigation, although the quality of information passed on to investigators is not always good enough. Supervision of ongoing investigations is not consistent and needs to be more frequent. The force continually monitors the workloads of staff in the investigation centres, recognising that staff feel under pressure, and has put in place a plan to provide additional investigative capacity.

Access to specialist investigators is satisfactory. The progress that the force has made to reduce the backlog of computers that require examination is positive, but more work needs to be done to reduce this to an acceptable level. Arrangements to prevent further offending by persistent offenders are both good, although staff experience some frustration about the ease of access to specialist surveillance capability.

Hampshire Constabulary is assessed as requiring improvement based on its current response to domestic abuse which is unacceptable. The practice of assessing the risk to some victims of domestic abuse over the phone, which the force has suspended, does not, in HMIC’s view, provide a suitable response to victims of domestic abuse.

In addition, HMIC is concerned about the very low levels of arrests for domestic abuse offences, criminal justice outcomes and the reduction in the use of domestic violence prevention notices.
Some victims of domestic abuse may have been failed because police officers did not take action to arrest the perpetrator. HMIC will be observing closely the success of plans to improve this situation.

Despite this, we know that protecting vulnerable people is important to Hampshire Constabulary. This is evident from the regular messages from senior leaders about the importance of safeguarding vulnerable people and the investment the force has made into training and deployment of specialist resources.

Officers and police staff are committed to protecting vulnerable people and, with the exception of the concerns we have detailed, about some aspects of how domestic abuse is managed, they display a good knowledge of how to identify and safeguard vulnerable people. The support provided by the force and its partner agencies to safeguard vulnerable people through its partnership arrangements is of a high quality.

The work that the force has done in the creation of a stalking and harassment clinic is innovative and noteworthy.

Hampshire Constabulary is good at tackling serious and organised crime. It has adequate processes in place to identify relevant threats from serious and organised crime, but it needs to include partnership data in order to fully understand the threat from serious and organised crime.

Its processes for prioritising, mapping, scoring and reviewing organised crime groups are good. However, it has fewer organised crime groups per head of population than most other forces, and should reassure itself that it has a full understanding in this area, particularly of human trafficking.

It is disappointing that the force does not yet have a partnership board in place, although we note the steps taken towards this.

Officers who are responsible for managing the response to serious and organised crime have received training for this role. Management plans are well written and contain clear operational objectives. The impact of interventions against organised crime groups are assessed, but the force could do more to share learning from its activity.

The way in which neighbourhood officers are involved in both tackling and raising awareness of serious and organised crime is particularly good. The force is increasingly working with partner agencies in managing and disrupting organised crime groups and the frequency in which it disrupts organised crime groups is among the highest in England and Wales.

The force is increasing its use of ancillary orders to protect the public from serious and organised crime and we would encourage it to maintain this momentum.

Work to prevent people becoming involved in or victims of, serious and organised crime is generally good, with focused campaigns around child sexual exploitation and the use of neighbourhood officers of particular note.

Hampshire Constabulary has the necessary arrangements in place to test its preparedness to deal with national threats, which include oversight from a responsible senior officer. The force has included partner and external agencies in developing its understanding and response, where appropriate.

Comprehensive testing and exercising arrangements also include partner organisations. Business continuity plans are in place to help the force meet the national policing requirements in the event of a major disruption to services and it has developed plans to protect its IT infrastructure from cyber-attack.

The force has conducted a thorough assessment of threats requiring an armed response. Following the Paris attacks, it reviewed its firearms threat assessment. Using mapping techniques, it identified that an increase in its capability was required to allow it to respond to attacks involving firearms within a defined timeframe across the force area. It has put measures in place to address this gap, identified resources to be redeployed and has already started recruiting and training additional resources. Staff with a role to play in the event of a marauding terrorist firearms attack are aware of their role. The force also carries out training and takes part in exercising events.