Cheshire PEEL 2017
Effectiveness
How effective is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?
How effective is the force at preventing crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and keeping people safe?
This question was not inspected in 2017. The grade and findings from last year’s inspection still stand.
How effective is the force at investigating crime and reducing re-offending?
This question was not inspected in 2017. The grade and findings from last year’s inspection still stand.
How effective is the force at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims?
Cheshire Constabulary is good at protecting vulnerable people and supporting victims.
The constabulary is generally good at:
- identifying vulnerability;
- identifying and supporting people with mental health problems effectively (and has an established mental health triage service);
- investigating crimes involving vulnerable people;
- using legal powers to protect domestic abuse victims; and
- proactively using specialist software to monitor offenders accessing and sharing indecent images of children.
However, the constabulary needs to maintain strong governance of its control room procedures as it moves to a new enhanced command and control system.
It should review its policies for scheduling incidents and deployment for domestic abuse victims to ensure victims are protected.
Training scheduled for 2018 should improve officers’ understanding of risk assessments for vulnerable people and mental health. We will continue to monitor the outcomes of this training.
The constabulary also needs to improve support for officers by providing greater consistency in its crime investigation plans and supervision and guidance, particularly during complex investigations.
Areas for improvement
- The constabulary should review its approach and policies in relation to scheduling incidents and deployment for victims of domestic abuse, and take steps to ensure that changes necessary to protect victims are implemented.
- The constabulary should ensure that frontline officers are proficient in completing vulnerable person risk assessments and there is sufficient supervisory oversight and feedback to ensure opportunities to safeguard vulnerable victims are not missed.
- The constabulary needs to ensure consistent investigation plans and supervision are in place for all investigations to guide and support officers, especially those managing complex investigations.
- The force should ensure its process to obtain feedback from victims of domestic abuse includes those victims who do not support police action.
How effective is the force at tackling serious and organised crime?
Cheshire Constabulary is good at tackling serious and organised crime (SOC). Since our 2016 inspection, the constabulary has made good progress in tackling SOC. It has improved its:
- identification, prevention and support of those people at risk of being drawn into organised crime; and
- lifetime management of organised criminals.
It now has a very good understanding of threats posed by SOC. It works well to:
- disrupt and investigate SOC;
- proactively identify and map organised crime groups;
- prevent offending among established organised criminals; and
- offer interventions to deter people from crime and re-offending, including family members of organised criminals.
The constabulary uses a wide range of intelligence sources to increase its understanding of SOC. It works effectively with partner agencies, such as prisons, and its local policing teams.
The constabulary has made good progress in improving prevention, disruption and investigation of SOC since our 2016 inspection.
How effective are the force’s specialist capabilities?
National threats often require forces to work together, across force boundaries. These threats include terrorism, large-scale disorder and civil emergencies. We examined the capabilities in place to respond to these threats, in particular a firearms attack.
Most positively, the constabulary:
- works with external organisations to develop its capacity to respond to national threats;
- tests its skills and capabilities in training exercises; and
- works constructively with North Wales Police to protect communities from the criminal use of firearms.
However, the constabulary should:
- set out its understanding of the criminal use of firearms in a joint threat assessment with North Wales Police.