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Nottinghamshire PEEL 2017

Effectiveness

How effective is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?

Last updated 22/03/2018
Good

Nottinghamshire Police is good at keeping people safe and reducing crime. Our findings show the force has improved compared with last year, when we judged that the force required improvement.

The force has improved the way it prevents crime and tackles anti-social behaviour. It is developing its understanding of the communities it serves, and neighbourhood officers are exploring ways of engaging with local communities, to better understand what matters to them most and respond better to their needs. The force works with local partners with a view to solving problems and dealing with the underlying causes of crime. However, it still needs to undertake more detailed analysis to help focus preventative activity to achieve maximium benefit for local communities in terms of preventing crime from happening in the first place.

Over the last 12 months, the force has improved how it protects vulnerable people from harm and the support it offers victims. It has paid considerable attention to maintaining and furthering the achievements it has made. It investigates complex crimes involving vulnerable victims well and has effective safeguarding procedures. However, problems remain in relation to the initial response provided to some victims. Because demand for service often outstrips the number of available officers, the force cannot attend some incidents involving victims of domestic abuse as promptly as it would wish to – within one hour. The force intends to undertake work to understand and predict future demand better, recruit more police officers and align its workforce to improve the level of service to its communities and protect those who are vulnerable.

Nottinghamshire Police has the necessary arrangements in place to fulfil its national responsibilities, and to respond to an attack requiring an armed response. The force is part of the East Midlands Operational Support Services collaborative unit, which has adequately assessed the threat of an attack requiring an armed response.

Questions for Effectiveness

1

How effective is the force at preventing crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and keeping people safe?

Good

Nottinghamshire Police’s approach to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour is good.

Neighbourhood policing is well understood. Examples of good practice include:

  • dedicated neighbourhood officers and staff responsible for specific beat areas and the use of community profiles for every neighbourhood;
  • neighbourhood teams working well with the local authority;
  • collaborative problem solving with partner organisations; and
  • the introduction of a shared online system for managing multi-agency responses to high-risk cases involving anti-social behaviour.

While the force can respond to emergencies involving vulnerable people, work pressures and staff shortages sometimes take neighbourhood officers away from beat areas when they are most needed. The force recognises this problem and is addressing it, but it will take time for its plans to be put into practice and have a positive effect.

The force should also:

  • improve how it listens to community concerns and provide more consistent feedback about police action taken; and
  • develop a more systematic way of bringing research and evidence-based policing tactics to problem solving, rather than relying on professional knowledge of what has worked best in the past.

Areas for improvement

  • The force should work with local people to improve its understanding of local communities, and demonstrate what action it has taken as a result of their concerns.
  • The force should evaluate and share effective practice routinely, both internally and with other organisations, to improve its approach to the prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour.

3

How effective is the force at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims?

Requires improvement

Nottinghamshire Police requires improvement at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm, and supporting victims. Its staff identify and protect vulnerable people, understanding the importance of acting promptly to protect them. Staff behave consistently positively towards vulnerable people and investigate cases involving them well. They have good links to mental health professionals, such as the local mental health trust.

The quality of the force’s response to incidents involving vulnerable people, once provided, is good. It has improved its understanding of how domestic abuse can affect children. The backlog in referrals involving children and high-risk abuse cases is now minimal. It now refers all such cases to multi-agency risk assessment conferences.

Problem areas that need resolving include:

  • delays in initial response times to some incidents, although the force is looking at various ways to deal with this; and;
  • confusion among some staff about when to conduct a risk assessment following an incident which involves domestic abuse.

Areas for improvement

  • The force should ensure that its response to incidents involving all vulnerable people, but particularly victims of domestic abuse, is not adversely affected by the availability of response officers – in order to ensure victims are kept safe.
  • The force should review its policy and guidance about when officers complete risk assessments following an incident involving domestic abuse to safeguard vulnerable victims.
  • The force should ensure its process to obtain feedback from victims of domestic abuse includes those victims who do not support police action.

5

How effective are the force’s specialist capabilities?

Ungraded

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 force:

  • works with other forces to ensure enough trained staff and officers with specialist skills are available to respond to national threats;
  • tests its skills in training exercises;
  • has developed a good understanding of the threat to the public from an armed attack; and
  • has fulfilled its commitment to a national programme to increase armed policing in England and Wales.