Sussex PEEL 2016

As a result of reducing the number of staff working in the neighbourhoods as a part of the Local Policing Programme the force’s approach to preventing crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and keeping people safe requires improvement.The force has cut back the investment it makes in neighbourhood policing: only 11 percent of its officers worked in neighbourhood policing compared with the England and Wales average of 18 percent. Taking neighbourhood staff away from their roles and assigning them to other duties is having a negative impact on the force’s preventative work, with less intelligence gathered and shared, resulting in less proactive activity to keep people safe. Currently the Local Policing Programme is restructuring how neighbourhood policing will operate and serve the public better from April 2017.

The force has strong working relationships with partner organisations, which often result in effective action being taken to address community concerns. It is good at engaging with the public, and does so in a variety of ways. However, the force has a limited understanding of how public feedback can be used to improve its services.

Sussex Police’s initial investigative response to a crime is generally good.

Call handlers usually make the correct assessment and deploy the appropriate resource or allocate the incident to the appropriate department. All staff in the force who are involved in crime investigation have been trained in the force’s new investigations framework. However, there is poor supervision of investigations into less serious crime, and this seems unlikely to improve under the new ‘earned autonomy’ system. The overall quality of investigations is inconsistent, and the quality of the paperwork handed over after the initial investigation is often poor.

The force has improved its ability to retrieve digital evidence from mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices to ensure that investigations are not delayed. It has invested in technology that enables mobile phones to be examined by trained officers at local stations.

The force works with partner organisations to identify and manage offenders and prevent them from re-offending, but offenders on the integrated offender management scheme are predominantly perpetrators of theft, burglary and robbery. More could be done to target the perpetrators of violent crime and domestic abuse. Some visits to registered sex offenders are overdue.

HMIC had several concerns regarding Sussex Police’s capacity to protect vulnerable victims. First, it has recently implemented a new system for handling domestic abuse incidents, which means that victims do not always receive a timely visit from an officer in person. A risk assessment is carried out over the phone in about 15 percent of domestic abuse cases, which means the risks are not being fully assessed and safeguarding action not taken quickly enough. However, all other risk assessments are generally completed promptly and to a good standard, and officers and staff understand the importance of taking appropriate safeguarding measures.

Another concern is that the arrest rate for domestic abuse incidents has seen a significant fall, as has the charge rate for those offences. The force needs to analyse the reasons for this and take appropriate action.

The force continues to have strong and effective relationships with partner agencies and this is reflected, for instance, in the work carried out in the local multi-agency risk assessment conferences.

Sussex Police is good at tackling serious and organised crime. The force has a clear process for handling organised crime groups (OCGs). OCGs are included in existing processes for assigning tasks across the force and intelligence officers have a good understanding of how best to gather intelligence from police and law enforcement agencies. However, the force’s serious and organised crime local profile includes limited intelligence and information from partner organisations. This limits the force’s understanding of serious and organised crime in Sussex.

The force has targeted and disrupted OCGs in several successful operations across Sussex. The public can be confident that Sussex Police takes appropriate action against the people who cause most harm in their communities. However, we found limited evidence of the force deterring young people being drawn into organised crime.

The action plan for making best use of specialist regional capabilities is still a work in progress between the four forces involved. Agreeing the plan and putting actions in place should improve the existing collaborative arrangements.

The force uses the media effectively to get preventative messages to the public about serious and organised crime, reassuring the public following an operation where an OCG has been disrupted.

The force should develop its serious and organised crime local profile in conjunction with partner organisations to enhance its understanding of the threat and how to tackle it.

The force should take steps to identify those at risk of being drawn into serious and organised crime, and ensure that preventative initiatives are put in place with partner organisations to deter those at risk of offending.

The force should improve its understanding of the impact of its activity on serious and organised crime across the 4Ps (pursue, prevent, protect, prepare), and ensure that it learns from experience to maximise the force’s disruptive effect on this activity.

Sussex Police has good plans to mobilise in response to the threats set out in the Strategic Policing Requirement (PDF document). It works well with other forces in the region when the need arises.

The force is well prepared to respond to a firearms attack. The force has recently reviewed its assessment of threat, risk and harm and this now explicitly includes the threats posed by marauding firearms terrorists. In light of this threat, Sussex Police plans to increase its firearms capacity and capability, both as part of a national programme to increase the capability and capacity of trained firearms officers but also through local initiatives. The force is progressing with its implementation of these plans.